Desiccation

Desiccation is the loss of water from a material or organism through drying. It can cause reversible dehydration or irreversible damage, depending on the substance and conditions.

Evaporation: The change of a liquid into vapor at its surface, occurring below the boiling point. It is the main route by which exposed water escapes during drying.
Freeze-drying: A drying process that freezes a product and removes ice by sublimation under reduced pressure. It removes water while helping preserve heat-sensitive foods, medicines, and biological samples.
Anhydrobiosis: A reversible state of greatly reduced metabolism that allows some organisms to survive near-total water loss. It is an extreme biological response to desiccation.
Dehydration: A deficit of water in an organism or material relative to its normal state. It describes the resulting water deficit, while desiccation emphasizes the drying process.
Vapor-pressure deficit: The difference between the water-vapor pressure at saturation and the actual vapor pressure in air. A larger deficit increases the atmosphere’s capacity to draw water from a surface.
Food dehydration: The removal of water from food to slow spoilage and reduce mass or volume. It applies desiccation to extend shelf life and simplify storage.
Tardigrade: A microscopic animal whose species include forms capable of surviving extreme environmental stress. Some tardigrades enter a dehydrated tun state that tolerates severe drying.
Evapotranspiration: The combined transfer of water to the atmosphere by evaporation and plant transpiration. It is a landscape-scale flux, not simply the drying of one material or organism.
Osmosis: The net movement of water across a selectively permeable membrane down its water-potential gradient. It describes water shifts across cell membranes as surrounding conditions dry.
Desiccant: A material used to absorb or adsorb moisture from its surroundings. Desiccants create dry conditions in packaging, equipment, and enclosed spaces.

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