The physiology of anhydrobiosis - Essay Example

The following critical discussion will detail the process of anhydrobiosis and the means by which organisms affects it within a chemical sense. Further, distinct differentials of this process will be discussed as well as the stages of growth, dormancy, and re-animation that it involves. The process of anhydrobiosis can be briefly defined as a process whereby organisms purge themselves of liquid water and slow respiration to the point of near stasis; as a means of surviving environmentally challenging situations for a very long period of time.

As a function of seeking to understand and define this process to a greater degree, the following discussion will represent the ways in which this process takes place within various organisms and describe the chemical changes that facilitate the anhydrobiotic process to begin and to end. One of the most interesting aspects of the evolutionary process has to do with the fact that it is oftentimes currently represented within existing metabolic processes. One of these processes is what is known as “anhydrobiosis”; or life without water.

Whereas the definition that has been given is somewhat flawed, due to the fact that even within organisms that do experience certain degrees of anhydrobiosis – a very small percentage of water is still evident, the process itself allows for a variety of different organisms to adapt and continue to survive environmentally challenging periods of time; periods that are invariably categorized by very low levels of available water (Womersley, 1981). This process in turn allows for the nut, seed, pollen, spore, or nematode to go into a state of dormancy until liquid water returns to its native environment and it can once again begin the process of cell respiration as it had prior to going into anhydrobiosis.

As a function of critically analyzing this particular process and discussing some of the compote and molecular