Imagine that you are a water molecule, and describe your travels through the many places you have been and might go in the future as you make your way around the hydrologic cycle time after time. Include travels through organisms

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

I evaporate from surface water when it is heated and then I condense as I cool off. When enough other water molecules condense around me, I fall from the sky as precipitation. I reach the ground and I might infiltrate the soil or I run off into a stream, lake, or ocean. If I have soaked into the ground, I may end up as capillary water or gravitational water. If I'm gravitational water, I will percolate through the ground and collect as groundwater in an aquifer. I then may be released to the surface through a seep or a spring. If I'm capillary water, I will be picked up by a plant. I'll move up through the plant's roots through its stem and will transpire through a pore in the leaves. I might be incorporated into glucose. I could also be drunk by an animal if I am a molecule in surface water or by a human if I'm pumped from groundwater. If I am consumed by an animal I will move through the organism and become sweat, tears, or spit, or I could be excreted via urine.