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The Importance of Water for Life
Space Science Reviews ( IF 10.3 ) Pub Date : 2018-02-20 , DOI: 10.1007/s11214-018-0476-7
Frances Westall , André Brack

Liquid water is essential for life as we know it, i.e. carbon-based life. Although other compound-solvent pairs that could exist in very specific physical environments could be envisaged, the elements essential to carbon and water-based life are among the most common in the universe. Carbon molecules and liquid water have physical and chemical properties that make them optimised compound-solvent pairs. Liquid water is essential for important prebiotic reactions. But equally important for the emergence of life is the contact of carbon molecules in liquid water with hot rocks and minerals. We here review the environmental conditions of the early Earth, as soon as it had liquid water at its surface and was habitable. Basing our approach to life as a “cosmic phenomenon” (de Duve 1995), i.e. a chemical continuum, we briefly address the various hypotheses for the origin of life, noting their relevance with respect to early environmental conditions. It appears that hydrothermal environments were important in this respect. We continue with the record of early life noting that, by 3.5 Ga, when the sedimentary environment started being well-preserved, anaerobic life forms had colonised all habitable microenvironments from the sea floor to exposed beach environments and, possibly, in the photic planktonic zone of the sea. Life on Earth had also evolved to the relatively sophisticated stage of anoxygenic photosynthesis. We conclude with an evaluation of the potential for habitability and colonisation of other planets and satellites in the Solar System, noting that the most common life forms in the Solar System and probably in the Universe would be similar to terrestrial chemotrophs whose carbon source is either reduced carbon or CO2 dissolved in water and whose energy would be sourced from oxidized carbon, H2, or other transition elements.

中文翻译:

水对生命的重要性

正如我们所知,液态水对生命至关重要,即基于碳的生命。尽管可以设想可能存在于非常特定的物理环境中的其他化合物-溶剂对,但碳和水基生命必不可少的元素是宇宙中最常见的元素。碳分子和液态水具有物理和化学特性,使它们能够优化化合物-溶剂对。液态水对于重要的益生元反应至关重要。但对于生命的出现同样重要的是液态水中的碳分子与热岩石和矿物质的接触。我们在这里回顾了早期地球的环境条件,只要它的表面有液态水并且可以居住。将我们对待生命的方法视为“宇宙现象”(de Duve 1995),即化学连续体,我们简要讨论生命起源的各种假设,并指出它们与早期环境条件的相关性。似乎热液环境在这方面很重要。我们继续记录早期生命,注意到到 3.5 Ga,当沉积环境开始得到良好保护时,厌氧生命形式已经在从海底到裸露的海滩环境以及可能在光浮游带的所有宜居微环境中定居的海。地球上的生命也进化到了相对复杂的无氧光合作用阶段。最后,我们评估了太阳系中其他行星和卫星的宜居性和殖民性,
更新日期:2018-02-20
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