Overview: ‘Water is life!’ Most cells consist mostly of water, which plays several key roles. Water is essential for life, which is why the search for extra-terrestrial life is usually restricted to those planets having water (liquid, solid or gas) or indications of a history of having water. Insufficient water is a pervasive form of stress for cells and organisms, as we realise when we get thirsty in hot weather or during vigorous sport. Plants wilt when there is not enough water, and we consecrate an enormous amount of water to irrigate farmland to enable good growth of crops. But water comes in different forms – seawater, ice, rain, snow – and because many compounds dissolve in it, it is rarely pure. Microbes respond in different ways to different forms of water, and indeed their activities influence the content of water, for example they purify it so that we can drink it. Let’s discover how microbes influence water and how water influences microbes!
Creation of the TFs is a work in progress: those already available are indicated by titles that are live links. Titles of those still in the pipeline are shown for context.
(For vignettes of some of the key functions of water in life processes, see the Cellular Roles of Water Portrait Gallery)
Marine systems
- The amazing biomass and diversity of microbial marine life
- Marine viruses
- Marine bacteria
- Interconnected marine microbes
- Nutrients and the food chain
- Marine snow
- Red and green tides
- Deep sea vents and seeps
- DMS: the smell of the sea
- Whale fall
Freshwater systems and drinking water
- Natural Lakes
- Quarry lakes
- Dark subglacial lakes
- Microbial life in rivers
- Aquifers
- Drinking water
- Industrial pollutants
- The problem of arsenic in groundwater
Frozen water
- Life in sea ice
- Glacier ice: a museum of ancient microbes
- Ice nucleation and climate
- Permafrost
Water interfaces
- Neuston: microbial life where the sea meets the sky
- Microbial mats
- The aquatic continuum: watershed connections to estuaries
- Wetlands, bogs and swamps
- Groundwater