Water is involved in the photosynthesis. How much water are we talking about compared with the total amount on water on Earth? Is it enough to have an effect on the average age of water molecules?
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According to http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthhowmuch.html the total volume of water on the earth is $1.386\times 10^9$km$^3$, which is about $1.4 \times 10^{21}$kg (I'm rounding because I don't know the average temperature and therefore density of the water). According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomass_(ecology)#Global_rate_of_production the annual photoautotrophic production of biomass is 104.9 billion tonnes C/yr. Assuming this is all carbohydrate one carbon atom is associated with roughly one water molecule (monosaccharides are C6H12O6) so the weight of water associated with that weight of carbon is $1.6 \times 10^{14}$kg. So if you assumed all water gets cycled through the biosphere you'd conclude that the average life of a water molecule is 8.75 million years. I must admit this is shorter than I expected. |
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