Exchange Flashcards
heat can take place in two ways
- passively by diffusion and osmosis
- actively by active transport
Behavioural and physiological adaptions to aid exchange
- Animals with a high surface area: volume ratio tend to lose more water as it evaporates from their surface
- To support their metabolic rates, small mammals living in cold regions need to eat large amounts of high energy foods such as seeds and nuts
- Smaller mammals may have thick layers of fur or hibernate when the weather gets really cold
- Larger organisms living in hot regions such as elephants and hippos find it hard to keep cool as their heat loss is relatively slow.
An organism’s surface area to volume ratio affects how quickly substances are exchanges
- Smaller organisms have a higher surface area to volume ratio than larger organisms
Calculating volume of cylinder: pie x pie radius x height
Body shape
Any animal with a compact shape have a small surface area relative to their volume this reduces heat loss from their surface. Whereas animals with a less compact shape have a larger surface area relative to their volume, this increases heat loss from their surface.
Exchange organs
- Single-celled organisms: in single celled organisms, substances can diffuse directly into the cell across the cell-surface membrane
- In Multi-cellular organisms, diffusion across the outer membrane is too slow because
- Some cells are deep within the body - long diffusion distance
- Larger animals have a low surface area to volume ratio which means its difficult to exchange enough substances to supply a large volume of animal
Mass transport
- MASS TRANSPORT: efficient system to carry substances to and from individual cells
- Mass transport (circulatory system) which uses blood to carry glucose and oxygen around the body. It also carries hormones, antibodies and co2
- Mass transport in plants involve the transport of water and solutes in the xylem and phloem
Heat exchange
Body size: the rate of heat loss from an organism depends of its surface area. If an organism has a large volume it has a small surface area. – this makes it harder to lose heat from its body whereas if an organism has a small volume it has a large surface area which means its easier for heat to be lost and in order to generate enough hear they have a high metabolic rate
Gas exchange surfaces
- Gas exchange occurs over a gas exchange surface
- Organisms need oxygen and carbon dioxide to diffuse across gas exchange surfaces as quickly as possible
Most gas exchange surfaces have two things in common that increase the rate of diffusion: - They have a large surface area
- They’re thin – this provides a short diffusion pathway
Gas exchange in single-celled organisms
- Single-celled organisms absorb and release gases by diffusion through the cell surface membranes.
- They have relatively large surface area, a thin surface and a short diffusion pathway so there’s no need for a specialised gas exchange system.
Gas exchange in fish
GAS EXCHANGE IN FISH
- There’s a lower concentration of oxygen in water than in air so fish have special adaptations to get enough oxygen. Fish have gas exchange surface which is the gills
Structure of the gills:
Water that contains oxygen enters the fish through its mouth and passes out through the gills. Each gill is made of lots of thin plates called gill filaments. Gill filaments give a large surface area for exchange of gases and this increases the rate of diffusion. Gill filaments are covered in lamellae which increase the surface area even more. Lamellae have lots of blood capillaries and a thin surface later of cells to speed up diffusion between water and blood
Countercurrent exchange principle
Blood and water that flow over the gill lamellae:
- Blood that is already well loaded with oxygen meets water which has it’s maximum concentration of oxygen from the water. Therefore diffusion of oxygen from the water to the blood takes place
- Blood with little oxygen in it meets water which has had most of oxygen removed. Diffusion of oxygen from the water to blood takes place
> diffusion gradient for oxygen uptake is maintained across the entire gill lamellae. 80% of the oxygen available in the water is absorbed into the blood. if it was flowing the same way, only 50% of the available oxygen would be absorbed by blood
Gas exchange in insects
- Insects have tracheae and they’re supported by strengthened rings to prevent them from collapsing. The tracheae divide into smaller dead-end tubes called tracheoles. The tracheoles extend throughout body cells
Spiracles
Gases enter and leave tracheae through tiny pores called spiracles on the body surface. When the spiracles are open, water evaporate from the insect
- most of the time insects keep their spiracles closed to prevent this water loss
- spiracles open to allow gas exchange
Respiratory gases move in and out of the tracheal system in 3 ways:
- Along a diffusion gradient: Oxygen is used up and its concentration towards the ends of the tracheoles . This creates a diffusion gradient that causes gaseous oxygen to diffuse from the atmosphere along the tracheae and tracheoles
- Mass transport: The contraction of muscles in the insects can squeeze the trachea enabling mass movements of air in and out
- This further speeds up the exchange of respiratory gases
- The ends of the tracheoles are filled with water: When the insect is less active the ends of the tracheoles contain fluid. It is where the fluid and gas meet (= the fluid/gas interface), that exchange of gases occurs (oxygen is taken up, carbon dioxide is given off).
How are gas exchange in plants similar to insects
- no living cell is far from external air and therefore a source of oxygen and carbon dioxide
- Diffusion takes place in the air which makes it more rapid than if it was in water