water

• water is a reactant in loads of important chemical reactions including hydrolysis
• water is a solvent so substances can dissolve in it. most chemical reactions take place in a solution so waters essential
• water transports substances. because its a liquid and a solvent means it can easily transport lots of materials like glucose and oxygen around plants and animals
• water helps with temp control because it had a high specific heat capacity and a high latent heat of evaporation
• water is a habitat and many organisms can survive and reproduce in it because its solvent, less dense when it freezes and has good temperature control
• water is a polar molecule

  
• water is hydrogen bonded
• hydrogen bonds gives water a high specific heat capacity
• specific heat capacity is the energy needed to raise 1g of a substance by 1 degree
• the hydrogen bonds between water molecules absorb a lot of energy so water has a high specific heat capacity so takes a lot of energy to heat up
• Water doesn't experience rapid temp changes to its a good habitat
• hydrogen bonds give water a high specific heat capacity
• takes a lot of heat energy to break the hydrogen bonds between the water molecules
• water has a high latent heat of evaporation and a lot of energy is used up when water evaporates
• useful for living organisms as it means waters great for cooling things. why some mammals sweat as when it evaporated it cools skin surface
• waters polarity makes it very cohesive
• cohesion is the attraction between molecules of the same type there very cohesive because there polar
• waters cohesion helps water to flow making it great for transporting substances and it transport up plant stems in transpiration streams
• waters polarity also makes it a good solvent
• because of the slightly + end of a water molecule will be attracted to - ion and slightly - end attracted to a + ion this means ions will get totally surrounded by water molecules so will dissolve
• at low temps water freezes
• water molecules are held further apart in ice than they are in liquid as each water molecules forms 4 hydrogen bonds making a lattice so ice is less dense than water
• waters being less dense as ice is useful for living organisms in cold temperatures ice forms an insulating layer on top of water so water below doesn't freeze so organisms can live