3.1.2: Transport in animals Flashcards
Why do multicellular organisms require a transport system?
- Most have high metabolic demands
- Substance absorbed in one part of the organism need to be transported to another –> distance is too great for diffusion/diffusion alone would be too slow
Types of transport system
• Open
• Closed
⟶ Single closed
⟶ Double closed
Open circulatory system found in:
Invertebrates
Features of an open circulatory system
- Few vessels
- Haemolymph pumped straight from heart into body cavity (haemocoel)
- Haemolymph comes into direct contact with tissues and cells
- Very low pressure
What is haemolymph?
The transport medium found in the open circulatory systems of invertebrates. Carries food, nitrogenous waste products and cells to defend against disease. DOES NOT CARRY GAS EXCHANGE PRODUCTS.
What are the limitations of an open circulatory system?
✘ Steep diffusion gradients cannot be maintained.
Closed circulatory system found in:
• Cephalopod molluscs, annelid worms, echinoderms, vertebrates.
Features of a closed circulatory system:
- Transport medium (blood) enclosed within vessels –> does not directly contact body cells
- Blood pigment (haemoglobin) carries respiratory gases
- Substances enter and leave blood by diffusion through walls of the blood vessels
Benefits of a closed circulatory system:
✔︎ High pressure enables steep concentration gradient to be maintained
Single closed circulatory system found in:
- Fish
* Annelid worms
Double circulatory system found in:
- Birds
* Mammals
Benefits of a double circulatory system:
✔︎ Each circuit only passes through 1 set of capillaries
∴ High pressure and steep concentration gradient can be maintained
Limitations of a single circulatory system:
✘ Lower pressure than double circulatory system
∴ Cannot maintain as steep a concentration gradient
How are the limitations of a single circulatory system overcome in fish?
- Lower metabolic demands
* Gills very good at removing oxygen from water so blood carries comparatively more oxygen
Single circulatory system (closed)
- Blood pumped straight from heart, to gas exchange surface, to body cells
- Blood travels through 2 sets of capillaries before returning to heart
Double circulatory system (description)
- Blood pumped from heart, to gas exchange surface, to heart, then to body cells
- Blood travels through 1 set of capillaries before returning to the heart
Bicuspid valve
- Left atrioventricular valve
* Consists of two flaps
Tricuspid valve
- Right atrioventricular valve
* Consists of three flaps
Atrial systole
- Walls of atria contract
- Push remaining blood from atria into ventricles
- Through atrioventricular valves
- Semilunar valves are closed
- Ventricles fill with blood
Ventricular systole
- Walls of ventricles contract
- Blood pressure inside ventricles increases
- Atrioventricular valves are forced shut
- Blood is pumped out into the aorta and pulmonary artery
- Through the semilunar valves
- Atria start to refill as they collect blood from the veins
Diastole
• Heart relaxes
• Pressure inside heart decreases
• Semilunar valves close
⟶ preventing backflow of blood into ventricles from the aorta and pulmonary artery
• When pressure of blood in ventricles falls below pressure of blood in atria, atrioventricular valves open
• Blood from atria flows into ventricles
Myogenic
Contraction is initiated from within the muscle itself rather than from external nerve impulses.
Why would a hole in the septum be a problem?
- Mixing of deoxygenated and oxygenated blood would occur.
- Deoxygenated blood may never reach lungs
- Lack of oxygenated blood to body cells (which need it in order to carry out aerobic respiration)
Why does the left ventricle have such a thick wall?
- To pump blood at v. high pressure into the aorta
* Needs to exert high pressure –> needs to circulate to body cells a great distance away from the heart
How does cardiac muscle differ to other muscles in the body?
- Myogenic
* Does not get fatigued and require rest
Why must contractions of 4 chambers of the heart be synchronised?
To avoid fibrillation.