We have previously looked at the various properties of water which have an effect on aquatic fauna, some of them a bit out of the ordinary, such as surface tension. However, one of the most important

We have written much here in this magazine about the different properties of water. Some of them, such as surface tension, are of importance to the ability of aquatic fauna to function in their given environment. For example, surface tension permits water skaters to skate on the surface of the water where its habitat is neither the water below the surface nor the air above. However, more than a purely physical phenomenon, osmosis is of importance for life itself, for no physical phenomenon has any greater importance in biology than does osmosis. Without osmosis neither animal cells nor plant cells could function. Not only this, osmosis also appears in many different guises in our everyday existence. So, what is this strange phenomenon?

How the snapping shrimp makes itself heard. You might expect the oceans below the surface to be a quiet and still place, they are far from being so.

Aquatic animals, like their land-based relatives, can communicate in a number of ways. For example, in one form of communication, organisms can emit and detect certain organic molecules which can fun

Water is obviously important as a basic necessity for maintaining life. Quite simply, if you don’t regularly take in water you can die within a few days. Fundamentally, this all depends on the fact that water has a great ability to dissolve things. These solvent properties of water are vital in human biology, because many biochemical reactions take place only within aqueous solutions.

The Black Sea is interesting not only for tourism and diving but also from the scientific and historical point of view. Atlantis? The Flood? If you are a fan of myths and mysteries then the Black Sea has something for you, too. The Black Sea is an unusual sea. Nearly one third of the land area of continental Europe drains into this sea into which seven large rivers flow, including the major rivers of the Danube, Dnieper and Don. However, its only outlet is the narrow channel of the Bosphorus, which is only about 70 metres deep and 700 metres wide. The depth of the Black Sea itself is more than 2,000 metres in places.