TINY Creatures that Absorb Water Vapor from Air

Source - Wikipedia.org

Crabs, lobsters, crayfish and shrimp all share one physical attribute - they all have external skeletons. This skeleton surrounds nearly all their body organs and protects them from predators.
One structure of their body, pleopods, exists outside their skeleton. 


Pleopods of creatures on land

Source - animalcrossing.wikia.com

Source - derelia.com

Land-living brethren of crabs and lobsters, pill bugs, have succeeded in colonizing land by adapting their pleopods to absorb water vapor from air that is not saturated with moisture.
Pill bugs can loose as much as 30% of their body-moisture and still survive by replenishing this loss by absorbing water vapor in unsaturated air.
Their major loss of body-moisture is through evaporation from the body surface. One of the reasons to roll up into a ball is to reduce the body surface susceptible to promoting evaporation.


Other creatures that absorb water vapor

Flea Larvae
Source - en.wikipedia.org

Book lice
Source - asktheexterminator.com

Silverfish
Source - silverfishbugs.net

Other creatures that absorb water vapor from air are flea larvae, book lice, silverfish, meal worms and ticks.










Why are all of nature's creations that can absorb water vapor from the air, so tiny? Is this a dependency on the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere? Is this a dependency on the size of the water vapor absorbing body structure?

We ALL Live in a Hygroscopic (Water) World

We are aware that fishes live in a world of water. We believe that everything else, including us, exists in a world of air. Recent advances in science, however, are revealing that a layer of water covers everything that exists outside bodies of water i.e. everything on land.


Water, Water, Everywhere, Nor any Drop to Drink

Ship Sinking in a Whirlpool
Source - spiralwishingwell.com

This, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, relates the life-changing experience of a person who is the sole survivor of an ocean voyage and returns to tell of the dangers and challenges faced on the voyage. And, of course, the point he makes is that even with all that water around him, there was really no water (of the kind he could drink) to quench his thirst.
How the Gecko Walks On a Ceiling

Source - wallpaperbydesign.com

As the post dated 3/5/11 explains, there is a layer of water on the underside of ceilings, that enables each foot of the gecko to strongly adhere through the unique properties of water molecules, to the surface of a ceiling, with more than enough strength for the Gecko to walk upside down on the ceiling, while defying gravity.


Is Anything Ever 100% Dry?

Laser penetrating water-film
Source-Nano Letters, 2003, 3 (1), pp 19–20

Recent scientific research shows that water films are omnipresent in nature.
These films control interactions at bio-chip surfaces, coatings that prevent and facilitate surface-to-surface interaction and how electrical charges are transmitted from thunderclouds. 
Whether knowingly, or by chance, we need to find ways to control, direct and modulate the impact of these water films in everything artificial.


Hydropholic and Hydrophobic Surfaces
There are some surfaces, called Hydrophobic surfaces) that are resistant to the existence of water films.
At low humidity levels, less than 15%, the water film is difficult to detect, but is there. At higher humidity levels, the water film is clearly visible using scanning probe microscopes.


Strange as it may sound, everything on land also exists in a watery world.

Oxygen Isotopes and The Water Cycle

Water molecules tagged with different isotopes of oxygen have different tendencies to evaporate and condense.


Isotopes

An Atom
Source - antonine-education.co.uk 

An element is defined based upon the number of protons contained in its atoms i.e. different elements contain different number of protons in each atom.
With the number of protons being the same, the atoms of an element can contain a different number of neutrons. 
Isotopes are atoms of the same element or compound that differ in the number of neutrons contained in their atoms.


Oxygen Isotopes

8N and 10N Isotopes of Oxygen
Source - mhhe.com

The Oxygen atom has 15 isotopes of which 3 are stable while 12 are unstable (radioactive) with very short half-life. These unstable isotopes have variants, defined on their mode of decay, that increase their number beyond 12.

Stable oxygen Isotopes
Source - web.sahra.arizona.edu

The 3 stable oxygen isotopes have 16, 17 and 18 neutrons in the nucleus of each atom. 
The 16-Neutron isotope is the most abundant - 99.762% of all Oxygen atoms have 16 neutrons in oxygen atoms.


Primary and Secondary Isotopes of Oxygen
The 16-neutron oxygen isotope is known as the primary isotope as it is postulated to have been created by stellar evolution. The 17-neutron and 18-neutron isotopes are called secondary isotopes because their existence requires "seed nuclei" and they are created on earth.


Oxygen Isotopes and the Hydrological Cycle

Isotopes in air, ocean and ice
Source - wwnorton.com

Water molecules are tagged with the different atoms of oxygen. Thus, water molecules can be tagged with oxygen isotopes with either 16 or 17 or 18 neutrons.

Source - eesc.columbia.edu

Glacial ice, the oceans and the vapor in the air, all contain water molecules tagged with the most common 16-neutron isotope. However, concentrations of the 16-neutron isotope are different in ice, oceans and air. This difference is ultimately due to the slightly higher tendency to evaporate, of water molecules tagged with the 16-neutron oxygen isotope.

Oxygen Isotopes and the Water Cycle
Source - web.sahra.arizona.edu

Conversely, there is a slightly higher tendency of water molecules to precipitate (condense) that are tagged with oxygen atoms containing 18 neutrons.
In fact, the different isotopes of oxygen in water molecules seem to influence evaporation and condensation.


Harvesting of moisture (precipitation i.e. rain) contained in air and wind can, thus, be stimulated by the 18-neutron oxygen isotope that can be artificially created. 

Water has influenced languages all over the world

Water has inspired words, symbols and all kinds of communications between people all over the world


Chinese Character for "Political Order"

Source - Geographictravels.com

The concept behind 'political order' has always been about controlling the populace. 
It's interesting to note that the Chinese symbol for "Political Order" is simply a combination of two symbols:
- One to represent a "river" and 
- The other represents a way to control the flow of water in the river i.e. a "Dike."
It is estimated that the Chinese language and its component characters are at least from 1000 BC. The relationship between water and 'control' is, obviously, a very very old one.


The English word - "Rivals"

Source - overclock.net

The English word "rivals" has as its root the Latin word "Rivalis" that means "one taking from the same stream as another." 
Obviously, here the implication is that only one can (and eventually, will) possess what both want.

Water in Kanji
Source - waterstation.us

Japanese character for "Rice"
The Kanji symbols for water and rice too are nearly identical. 

Rice Symbol
Source - japanese-symbols.org

Water Needs Thinking on a Massive Scale

The fate of the world in the 21st century is tied closely to the ability to get the right quantity of quality water when and where nature and humans require it. 
The challenge, posed by the daunting variety of solutions required, can only be resolved through thinking on a massive scale.


The Challenge's Daunting Variety 

Source - asianews.it

Source - yousaytoo.com

Source - keetsa.com

Usually, we think of water only when we have a problem with either not having enough water or having unsafe water. 


Having too much water is a problem too.




The Challenge's Daunting Geographical Distribution

Source - gfdl.noaa.gov

Source - earthtrends.wri.org

Floods, droughts and unsafe water exist everywhere on Earth. 
Any effort to solve the challenge must recognize these multi-location issues and that if custom solutions are developed and implemented for every location and its specific water issue, water issues will always exist all over the world.


The Solution
Keeping the daunting variety of the challenge in mind, it is necessary and prudent to think of ways to resolve a vast variety of the challenge with the least number of solutions.


Such thinking will invariably turn towards attempts to increase supply from the water-laden air everywhere. Finding a way to extract moisture (both the liquid, but more importantly, the water vapor) from the atmosphere remains the ideal solution.

Water - Earth's Infinite Resource!

We solve the problem we see. We see what we have chosen to look for. We choose based on our background and knowledge while basking in the comfort that others with the same understanding will make the same choice!


Labeling Water as a FINITE resource is probably the biggest obstacle to solving the Worldwide Water Crisis! 


Starting with this mind-limiting perspective (that water is a Finite resource) restricts the options that can be perceived. Even though we call other resources as finite, we are keenly aware that 
(a) There is NO resource that we have actually run out of, and
(b) Non-evolutionary changes always require coming up with a unique perspective that starts with the recognition that the "Stone Age did not end because we ran out of stones!"

Source - hightonps.vic.edu.au

What's half of 11?
To someone who divides using rules of mathematics, 5.5 is half of 11.

Source - squidoo.com

To someone who divides with a vertical cut, into a left half and a right half, 1 is half of 11

To someone who divides with a horizontal cut, with a top half and a bottom half, 11 is half of 11


What's half of 8?
Depending upon how we interpret the question, half of 8 can be 4, 0 or 3.


What characteristics define water as a resource?
Water supply is characterized by the following:
A. We cannot make water.
B. We cannot destroy water.
C. We cannot transform water, like we can oil ... say, into electricity
D. Water is a circulatory resource. The circulation process is called the Water Cycle or the Hydrological Cycle.
E. The Water Cycle never ends.
F. There is evidence that the Water Cycle can speed up and slow down, under specific circumstances.
G. Water, in every stage of the circulation process, is regularly recharged or replenished.
H. Naturally occurring bodies of water (e.g. lakes and rivers) and man-made reservoirs do run dry.
I. Empty reservoirs, devoid of water, may not be replenished ever again.


The above characteristics lead to the conclusion, especially by those of us who focus on reservoirs running dry, that water is a finite resource.


However, for those among us who focus on the flow in the Water Cycle and recognize that water flows will speed up when the Water Cycle speeds up, water is an unlimited and virtually infinite resource.

A Crisis in Water Supply Exists Everywhere

Every place on Earth has experienced a water supply crisis sometime in history. And the future is not expected to be any different - every place on Earth is expected to be hit with a crisis in water supply sometime in the future.


Drought
Drought is the worst form of water crisis. It is a term applied to locations that have experienced NO RAIN for an extended period of time. 

Source - thedailygreen.com

Drought maps have been produced for the world, and no continent is immune from severe drought except the polar regions that are awash in water and ice, and where no large human presence exists and where no human activity is performed.

Source - standeyo.com

It needs to be recognized that even areas not highlighted to experience any drought will have "minor" crisis with their water supplies. For example, some may find their water temporarily polluted and unsafe to drink; others may experience a break in the aging infrastructure that will temporarily cut their supply; others may simply get no rain to replenish reservoirs and a temporary restriction may be imposed on water usage.


The water crisis exists all over the world, but with varying impact. And everywhere there exists (a) the atmosphere, that contains water in vapor and liquid form and (b) Wind that continues to deliver water-laden air everywhere.

HOW to THINK, to Quench the World's Thirst?

NO, NOT THIS FATHER'S KIND OF THINKING:

Source - The Los Angeles Times Newspaper

YES, WITH THE KIND OF THINKING IN THIS NOTE:
Please visit: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904836104576559021141320808.html?mod=ITP_opinion_1#articleTabs%3Darticle%26mg%3Dcom-wsj

WATER - Our #1 Choice to Soothe Our Soul

There are many memorials to September 11 but only one National Memorial. The competition for it was fierce and hotly debated but what eventually got everyone's nod centers on water to showcase everything we feel about the events of September 11.


The September 11 National Memorial in Manhattan, NY USA

A Pool at the Footprint of Each Tower
Source - gearthblog.com

An inside edge of the North Reflecting Pool
Source - New York Times; Pool photo by David Handschuh

Names Inscribed on the Edge of Each Pool
Source - wnyc.org

A Rose on a Name on September 11, 2011
Source - ibtimes.com

Precipitation - Our Only Continuous Water Source

Nature's Water Cycle makes water available in a number of steps that makeup the continuous cycle. We obtain most of our water from two sources: (1) Existing moving bodies of water (e.g. river), and relatively stagnant bodies of water (like lakes and water from underground aquifers) and (2) Precipitation i.e. rainfall. 

Precipitation's role

 

Rainfall
Source - sites.google.com

Precipitation from the atmosphere, in the form of snow/sleet/hail and rain, is the only source that replenishes liquid water available from all other sources. 

Any increase in river flows, any rise in the water level of lakes and seas, and any rise in the water table is the direct result of precipitation. 

State of Worldwide Water

The majority of water (70%+) is used in agriculture. Starting with the Green Revolution in the late 1950s, humans have tapped existing water bodies to the extent that many are over depleted and increasingly scarce. 

Under normal circumstances, rainfall would have any depletion. However, as our extraction rate continues to be much greater than that which can be madeup by rain, many of the historical water bodies are no longer available as dependable sources of water.

The obvious solution is to increase precipitation and/or reduce water withdrawals i.e figure out how to get more rain and/or make agriculture more water efficient!

Who Owns the Water in the Atmosphere?

I would have guessed that we all "own" the water in the air, just like we "own" the air we breathe. Closer scrutiny of this ownership, however, reveals that we are in, pardon the pun, uncharted waters.


Water Rights

Owning a cloud
Source-nicholsoncartoons.com.au

Water laws enable individuals and companies and others to buy water from a particular source like, a stream or river, a well or a pond or groundwater below a certain location.
Under these laws any activity that tampers and reduces water amounts or flows is tantamount to having violated some one's water rights.
As human populations and the land for agriculture have grown over time, so have the cost of water rights. 

Source - seekingalpha.com

Today, much of the water on land is spoken for. 


















Rain Water Harvesting

Catching rainwater and storing it for later use, can be interpreted as not allowing the rainwater to enter into the ground or a nearby stream and, thus, interfering with someone downstream who owns the flow from that stream.
Diverting rainwater into a barrel was illegal in Colorado till mid-2009, when the State Legislature approved the capture of rainwater by individuals whose homes are in rural areas not supplied through a water municipality.
Other states are also currently looking into ways to support water rights in an era of water supply shortages. US states in the arid southwest have already loosened up laws to allow rainwater collection and reuse.

Water Demand in 2025

Demand for water is growing most everywhere on Earth. But demand growth is largest in the developing world.


Population Growth

Source-Sustainablescale.org

The population of the developed world is projected to grow at a fraction of the growth in population in the developing world.
Of the 10 billion people projected to reside on Earth by 2050, only about 15% are seen to reside in the developed world.
Both the high growth in developing countries' population and the fact that water consumption increases as living standard increase, fuel growth in water demand in the developing world.

As a percentage, developing country water demand is expected to grow approximately 300% over the growth of demand in the industrialized countries.

Body Water Cycle Linked to Global Water Cycle?

How come the residence time that nature has established for water molecules on Earth and through the human body are so close and supportive of life? Are they interdependent in ways that we do not understand?


Water Residence Time in Human Body

Source - archive.stsci.edu.

Soon after the discovery of deuterium in 1931 , a Hungarian scientist, Gyorgy Hevesy and his colleagues used dilute volumes of heavy water to study the uptake of water by fish, other animals and humans.  

Gyorgy Hevesy
Source - nndb.com

Employing non-radioactive isotopes, like deuterium, Hevesy determined that "heavy" water, taken through the mouth, appeared in human urine (his own) after about 26 minutes. Also by monitoring urine levels, they were able to ascertain the average lifetime of a water molecule in the human body as 11-13 days.
Hevesy and his colleagues also used the same process to estimate the total water content of the average human body as 10 to the power of 27 molecules or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 molecules. I have found no description of what an "average human" was commonly meant in Hevesy's time.
Water Residence Time in the Atmosphere
As described in the post dated June 25, 2011, water residence time is the lowest for water vapor in the atmosphere and equal to 9 days, as reported in Wikipedia. Other sources put this residence time at 11 days.
The residence time of water molecules is larger in all other stages of the global water cycle by orders of magnitude.


It is interesting to note that the residence times of a water molecule (on average) in the human body of 11-13 days, is just slightly larger than the residence time in the atmosphere of 9-11 days. Is nature taking care of living beings' water replacement need by making sure that rain and other forms of precipitation continuously provide new water in time to nourish life on Earth?

Faster & Slower Water Cycles on Earth

The fastest water cycle exists at the Equator. As we move to higher latitudes, the water cycle is slower, in comparison to that at the Equator.


Water Cycle Speed

Source - cotf.edu

The speed of nature's water cycle is defined by the rates of precipitation and evaporation everywhere on Earth.

Source - kentsimmons.uwinnipeg.ca

At the equator, the energy of falling sunlight heats water and increases evaporation. As sunlight is strongest at the equator, water bodies located here experience the highest rate of evaporation.
This water vapor moves to higher latitude (in both the upper and the lower hemispheres) and precipitates back to Earth till there is very very little moisture left to precipitate at 30 degrees of latitude (in both the upper and lower hemispheres).

Deserts in white
Source - desertmuseum.org

The precipitation amount and rate is lowest at the 30 degree latitudes. Most of Earth's desert areas lie at the 30 degree latitude mark.
Not all the deserts lie within the 30 degree latitudes as local weather and climatic conditions influence water vapor concentrations in the atmosphere, proximity of land and oceans and other factors influence precipitation with the 30 degree latitudes.

The Tropics - The Engine of the Global Water Cycle

Precipitation is highest around the equator and drops as latitude increases.

The Tropical Band
Source - Earthobservatory. nasa.gov

Rain Forests
Rain forests is our name for places that have the highest rainfall. 
As the atmosphere over the Tropics have some of the highest water vapor concentrations, the most rainfall occurs in the latitude band created by the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.


Latitude and Precipitation

Precipitation & Latitude
Source - roperld.com

As expected, the precipitation (rainfall) is highest between the bands created by the two Tropics.
The amount of water vapor available in the tropical atmosphere is orders of magnitude greater than that available elsewhere. In other words, the water cycle in the tropics circulates greater volumes of water than the water cycle does in other parts of the Earth, recognizing the existence of Temperate Rain forests that are the result of local variations in atmospheric moisture content, local temperature and other factors.
The tropics are the engine of the global water cycle (aka, the Global Hydraulic Cycle).

Sun+Atmosphere = A Moisture Pump

An energy imbalance in the atmosphere moves air, and the moisture it contains, from the tropics to higher latitudes.

Energy for Atmospheric Circulation

Sunlight
Source - digitalart.org

The most energy from the sun, falls on the Earth's equator. The least energy from the sun falls on the polar regions. 
This difference in energy creates an energy potential that moves air (mass) from the equatorial region to the polar regions through a series of complex steps and air movement patterns.

Source - geology.wmich.edu

The Tropics - A Moisture Source

As temperatures rise, more water evaporates and is contained in the atmosphere. The most water, thus, exists in the atmosphere over the tropics and equatorial region, while less moisture exists in the air over the poles. 

As the air moves from the warmer to the cooler areas, this air acts like a moisture pump. While a number of global and local influences impact this pump's operation, the tropics are a dominant source of moisture to higher latitudes.

100 gallons of Water Added into Air Daily by 1 Big Tree

Trees, and all plants do to some extent, recycle some of the rainwater that falls on them rather than let it all flow away


The "Smoke" in Great Smokey Mountains National Park

Smokey Mountains National Park
Source - art.com

The Great Smokey Mountains contain over 187,000 acres of old growth forest - the largest such forest east of the Mississippi. It got its name because, from a distance, this forest-covered range appears to be exhaling plumes of smoke into the sky above it.
But this is not smoke. This forest is usually covered in a mist that is the result of water vapor transpired by the trees and the natural fog created by water-laden air from the Gulf of Mexico that cools rapidly as it moves onto the higher elevations of the Appalachian mountain range.
Scientists estimate that a quarter of the rain that falls on these trees is transpired back into the atmosphere by the forest.


The Amazon Rain Forest

The Amazon Rain Forest
Source - travelblog.com

Trees in the 55 million year-old Amazon Rain Forest cover over 1.4 billion acres.
The forest gets about 9 feet of rain every year.
Scientists estimate that fully half the rainfall is transpired back into the atmosphere by trees of the rain forest. 
Estimates vary widely, but every canopy tree in the rain forest is estimated to transpires more than 00 gallons of water every day, during the growing season - this translates into adding over 10,000 gallons of water transpired into the atmosphere over the course of a summer from ONE tree.