purify water
81. Ear flaps keep water out: otters
"Among aquatic mammals such as the otter, the ear-flap can be pressed down to close the ear to water." (Foy and Oxford Scientific Films 1982:167)
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82. Trees comb water from clouds: cloud forests
"Cloud forests, which are dense tracts of evergreens rising thousands of meters above sea level, contribute to yield, but in a novel manner: they literally comb water from the clouds. In the Cascade Mountains of Oregon and other coastal slopes or ...
83. Nasal surfaces remove water vapor.
"We have found that camels can reduce the water loss due to evaporation from the respiratory tract in two ways: (1) by decreasing the temperature of the exhaled air and (2) by removal of water vapour from this air, resulting in the exhalation of a...
84. Water strider legs stay dry.
“Water striders (Gerris remigis) have remarkable non-wetting legs that enable them to stand effortlessly and move quickly on water, a feature believed to be due to a surface-tension effect caused by secreted wax.(1–3) We show here, however, th...
85. Mounds shed water: West African termites
"In West Africa and other areas where there is heavy rain, the colonies build nests like mushrooms with flat roofs which shed the water." (Attenborough 1979:100)
86. Hydrophobic microscopic bumps made from waxes cause water droplets to bead off.
Similar to surface structures of feathers, hairs, and trichomes, microscopic bumps, or peaks and valleys, on the surface of an organism reduce particle adhesion to the substrate and water surface tension, thus encouraging the shedding of both dirt...
87. Corky tuber stores water: Hottentot bread plant
"Swollen roots are used by a great number of plants as storage tanks. Beneath the sand, they are out of sight and not easily found by thirsty animals living on the surface. Hottentot bread is the name given to a yam that develops an immense underg...
88. Surface cells store water: ice plant
"Southern Africa is the headquarters of a vast and varied family, the mesembryanthemums…One species retains liquid in tiny bladders on the surface of each bloated leaf that glisten in the sunshine and so give it the name, apt though improba...
89. Xylem conduits transport water: plants
"The transport system that drives sap ascent from soil to leaves is extraordinary and controversial. More than a century ago, H. H. Dixon (1896) proposed that a pulling force was generated at the evaporative surface of leaves and that this force w...
90. Millipede absorbs water vapor.
“This paper demonstrates clearly that Polyxenus lagurus is capable of active water vapour absorption with an uptake threshold of 0.85 at 25°C. This confirms the suggested utilization of WVA in this species (Eisenbeis and Wichard, 1987) and make...
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