44 Chapter Flashcards
Osmoregulation
The general term for the processes by which animals control solute concentration and balance water gain and loss.
Excretion
The process that rids the body of nitrogenous metabolites and other metabolic waste products
Ammonia
A toxic metabolite produced by the dismantling of nitrogenous molecules, chiefly proteins and nucleic acids
Ultimately, the driving force for the movement of both water and solutes—in animals as in all other organisms—is a concentration gradient of one or more solutes across the plasma membrane.
True
The unit of measurement for solute concentration is ____________
Osmolarity
Osmolarity
The number of moles of solute per liter of solution
The osmolarity of human blood is…
About 300 milliosmoles per liter (mOsm/L), whereas that of seawater is about 1000 mOsm/L
Isoosmotic
Two solutions with the same osmolarity
Hyperosmotic
The solution, of two, with the higher concentration of solutes and lower free H2O concentration
Hypoosmotic
The solution, of two, with lower solute concentration and higher free H2O concentration.
The more dilute solution
Water flows by osmosis from a hypoosmotic solution to a hyperosmotic one.
True
An animal can maintain water balance in two ways:
To be an osmoconformer or to be an osmoregulator
Osmoconformer
An animal that is isoosmotic with its environment.
Osmoregulator
An animal that controls its internal osmolarity independent of the external environment.
All osmoconformers are __________
Marine animals
Stenohaline
Refers to animals that cannot tolerate substantial changes in external osmolarity
Euryhaline
Refers to animals that can survive large fluctuations in external osmolarity.
The body fluids of freshwater animals must be ____________ because animal cells cannot tolerate salt concentrations as low as that of lake or river water.
Hyperosmotic
Dessication
Extreme dehydration
Anhydrobiosis
A dormant state involving loss of almost all body water
Transport epithelia
One or more layers of epithelial cells specialized for moving particular solutes in controlled amounts in specific directions.
Animals excrete nitrogenous wastes as…
Ammonia, urea, or uric acid
Ammonia excretion is most common in ________________
Aquatic species
Urea
A soluble nitrogenous waste produced in the liver by a metabolic cycle that combines ammonia with carbon dioxide.
Guano
Bird droppings, a mixture of white uric acid and brown feces
Uric acid
A product of protein and purine metabolism and the major nitrogenous waste product of insects, land snails, and many reptiles. It is relatively nontoxic and largely insoluble in water.
Four key steps of an excretory system function
Filtration
Reabsorption
Secretion
Excretion
Filtration
In excretory systems, the extraction of water and small solutes, including metabolic wastes, from the body fluid
Filtrate
Cell-free fluid extracted from the body fluid by the excretory system
Reabsorption
In excretory systems, the recovery of solutes and water from filtrate. The transport epithelium reclaims valuable substances from the filtrate and returns them to the body fluids.
Secretion
In an excretory system, the active transport of wastes and certain other solutes from the body fluid into the filtrate
Protonephridia
The excretory system of flatworms. Form a network of dead-end tubules.
Coelom
Body cavity
Metanephridia
An excretory organ found in many invertebrates that collects fluid directly from the coelom.
Malphigian tubules
A unique excretory organ of insects that empties into the digestive tract, removes nitrogenous wastes from the hemolymph, and functions in osmoregulation.