Water is essential for life for several key reasons:
1) It acts as a solvent that allows critical compounds to dissolve and replicate, which is necessary for life processes.
2) Water is necessary for metabolic processes like breaking down substances and allowing molecules to form new compounds.
3) Both photosynthesis and respiration, which are essential for producing and using energy in living cells, require water.
4) Water regulates the planet's temperature and circulation of air and nutrients, making life possible on Earth.
Why Water is Vital for Life: Its Role in Metabolism, Replication and Weather
1.
2. • Most people are aware that water is important for life but most have no
idea why.They know that we can't survive without drinking water but
they are not at all clear on why our bodies need it.There are of course
plenty of reasons that we need water besides for the proper function of
our bodies.Water also allows for things like weather which are also
critical to the survival of life on Earth.
3. • The main reason that water is so important for life is that all living things
that we know of require it in order to carry out many functions that are
critical to life.Water is a solvent that allows other compounds to
dissolve.This is something that has to happen in order to allow them
replicate. If organic compounds can't replicate then life cannot exist
since it relies on the continuous replication of the compounds, this is
how we reproduce after all.
4. • The other reason that water is important to life is that it is a critical
factor in metabolic processes. Out metabolisms rely on the breaking
down of substances into smaller substances for use as energy and
allowing molecules to grow in order to store fuel for future use as energy.
Both of these processes require water in order to break bonds and to
allow substances to mix so that they can form new molecules.
5. • Water is also critical to the process of both photosynthesis and
respiration. During photosynthesis the hydrogen and the oxygen are
separated.The hydrogen then combines with carbon dioxide in the air to
create glucose and release more oxygen. Living cells then use the
glucose and oxygen to reform water and carbon dioxide as part of
respiration.
6. • While water is important for the basic function of
our bodies it is also important to realize that it also
plays an important role in our lives for other reasons.
For starters it is pretty clear that life began in the water.
The best guess for the origin of life is that single celled
organisms formed
in the water. Being in the water allowed them to
easily combine into
more complex organisms.This process would then
continue until living creatures moved to the land.
7. • Water is also critical because it creates the weather that makes life
possible.The oceans are a huge store of energy that regulates the
temperature of the planet and keeps it at a level that allows us to live on
the planet.The oceans also allow for the circulation of air which allows
the suns energy to spread around the planet. It also allows for things like
rain to fall giving us a source of fresh water.Without rain all of the water
would eventually end up in the oceans and be too salty to support life.