Selected Water Harvesting Mechanisms—Lessons from Living Nature

Abstract

Water moves continuously above and below the surface of the Earth. Bodies of water, clouds, evaporation and condensation all are part of the water cycle. Fog is composed of micron-sized water droplets that form when air becomes saturated with water vapor. Fog is a thick cloud that remains suspended in the atmosphere. Dew is the deposit of water droplets that are formed on cold surfaces, with temperature lower than the dew point, by condensation of water vapor in the air. In many plants and animals, living nature uses fog and condensation as a vital source of water, particularly in arid areas that receive little rainfall (Brown and Bhushan, 2016; Bhushan, 2018, 2019, 2020). Fog and dew always exist when the temperature decreases late at night and in the early morning. There is evidence that over 5000 years ago, hunter–gatherer groups were able to populate arid areas along the southern coast of Peru by utilizing fresh water from fog and condensation, though the collection method is unknown (Beresford-Jones et al. 2015).