We talk about water, drink water, flush water, spray water
and use water every imaginable way. But what is this stuff?

Pure water clear, with no color, taste or odor. It tends to
bind closely to itself or bead up. Its properties make it both
unusual chemically and critical biologically.

Every school child can recite water’s chemical formula, H2O,
which means a single water molecule is composed of three atoms
bound together.

Two of the three are small hydrogens, each with a single
negatively
charged electron shell surrounding a positively charged proton
center.

The third atom is a massive oxygen, which can partially
capture
and hold the two negatively charged electrons away from the two
hydrogens. Oxygen grabs and hordes electrons while still sharing
them a little.

Here’s the neat part. The loss of a negative electron shell
leaves the positive proton partially exposed on each hydrogen.
And the almost continual holding of the two negatively charged
electrons adds a greater negative charge to the oxygen atom.

Water: It’s
Magnetic

That’s important. The oxygen molecule’s ability to steal
electrons
from its hydrogen partners generates a partial charge separation
within the molecule. So the water molecule has a positive end
and a negative end, like a magnet.

Since positive charges stick to negative charges, water
molecules
link together. This unique linkage process, found in few other
elements, allows water to have many valuable special attributes
essential for life.

Because of this linkage between water molecules, water is
slowed
from evaporation, it’s able to dissolve many things and it floats
when frozen.

And because each water molecule tends to stick closely to its
neighbor, if one is pulled, others will follow. That special bond
allows water to be pulled from the soil to the top of trees 300
feet tall.

Neat, huh?

When it comes to managing trees, water is both the problem
and the solution. It’s critical to understand it if we’re to
effectively
manage our trees and their water resources.

(For more information on water, what it is and how it works
in trees, visit the University of Georgia School of Forest
Resources
Web site at www.forestry.uga.edu/warnell/service
/library.
Click on “Service & Outreach,” then
“Information
Library,” then “Drought Information.”)