ORGANISMS EXCHANGE SUBSTANCES WITH THEIR ENVIRONMENT TOPIC 3 (Exchange- Chapter 6) Flashcards
What is the surface area of a sphere :
4 x pi x r^2
What is the volume of a sphere ?
4/3 x pi x r^3
In microscopic organisms (like amoeba), the organism can exchange all the substances it needs directly through the cell membrane. What are the 2 reasons?
1) Microscopic organisms have a relatively low rate of respiration , not very active organisms
2) The surface area of the cell membrane of an amoeba is relatively large, compared to volume of the cell. SA:V ratio
How do you calculate the surface area to volume ratio ?
SA:V = surface area / volume
How do you calculate volume ?
Length x width x height
How to calculate surface area?
Area of a face x number of faces
What type of SA:V ratio do small animals have, and what does this mean?
Small animals have a large SA:Vol ratio. This means very small animals can exchange gases with environment using their external surface
What is the happens to diffusion in large surface area: volume ratios ?
Organisms like the tapeworm, which have a large surface area to volume ratio, can use the process of diffusion efficiently (to sustain life). It is able to take all of the oxygen that it needs across the body surface by diffusion. Diffusion is sufficient to supply their cells with enough oxygen to allow them to continue to carry out aerobic respiration and to generate ATP.
What type of SA:V ratio do large organisms have, and what does this mean?
Larger organisms, like humans, have a smaller surface area to volume ratio, so cannot use diffusion alone to survive.
This is because diffusion over this greater distance will not occur fast enough to meet the demands of the cells of the body
Larger organisms have evolved 2 specialised systems to compensate :
1) Specialised gas exchange with a very large SA. e.g. gills in fish, lungs in mammals
2) They have a specialised transport system to carry molecules around their body. E.g. blood
What three things to gas exchange surfaces have ?
1) Large SA
2) short diffusion pathway (Thin)
3) Steep concentration gradient
How do you calculate the rate of diffusion ?
Rate of diffusion = surface area x concentration gradient / diffusion pathway distance
Gas exchange in single-celled organisms + insects
Info about terrestrial insects (land-born animal /insect) :
- insects have an exoskeleton made of hard, fibrous material for protection and a lipid layer to prevent water loss
- insects do not have lungs, and instead have a tracheal system
What does limiting water loss insects mean ?
Organisms that live on land have to balance being able to exchange gases with reducing the amount of water loss
What does water have to do with insects (in limiting water loss) ?
Water evaporates off the surface of terrestrial insects, and the adaptations of gas exchange surfaces provide ideal conditions for evaporation
What are the insect adaptations to reduce water loss?
1) Insects have a small surface area to volume ratio where water can evaporate from
2) Insects have a waterproof exoskeleton
3) Spiracles, where gases enter + water can evaporate from, can open and close to reduce water loss
Gas exchange in insects involves a tracheal system.
What are spiracles and what do they do?
Spiracles are round, valve like opening, running along the length of the abdomen (on the surface of the exoskeleton).
Spiracles allow gases: oxygen + carbon dioxide to diffuse into the body of the insect (gases also diffuse out via spiracles).
The trachea attach to these openings
What is the trachea, and what do they have?
The trachea is a network of internal tubes, are wider tubes, they extend down and alone the insect’s body.
The walls of trachea are reinforced with spirals of chitin. This chitin prevents the trachea from collapsing (e.g. when insects move).
The trachea tubes have rings within them to strengthen the tubes and to keep them open.
What are the tracheoles, and what do they do?
The trachea branch into smaller tubes, deeper into the abdomen of the insect called tracheoles.
These extend throughout all of the body tissues, so the diffusion pathway is very short, so oxygen from the air is brought directly to respiring tissues, Oxygen is needed for aerobic respiration, producing CO2.
The huge number of tracheoles provides a very large surface area for gas exchange. This allows insects to maintain a very rapid rate of aerobic respiration. E.g. during flight.
How do insects achieve efficient gas exchange ?
- Diffusion gradient
- Mass transport
- The ends of the tracheoles are full of water
How does an insect’s diffusion gradient achieve gas exchange ?
The concentration of oxygen decreases (CO2 increases), at the ends of the tracheoles because it is used up in respiration.
This creates a diffusion gradient so oxygen diffuses from the air into the tracheole, a diffusion gradient for CO2 works in the opposite direction.
How does an insect’s mass transport achieve efficient gas exchange ?
Muscles contract (when insects contract + relax their abdominal muscles) to squeeze the trachea.
Allows mass movements of air in + out so gas exchange is faster.
The ends of the tracheoles are full of water in an insect, how does this achieve efficient gas exchange ?
- When the insect is in flight (if the activity is strenuous (a lot), the muscle cells around the tracheoles will start to respire anaerobically, producing lactate.
- [This is soluble], so lowers the water potential of the cells, therefore water moves from the tracheoles into the muscle cells by osmosis [from an area of high water potential to an area of low water potential down the water potential gradient]
- This decreases the volume of water in the ends of the tracheoles and as a result, more air from the atmosphere draws in, this leads to greater water evaporation