Size and Surface Area Flashcards
What is amoeba?
Single-celled organism
What does amoeba need to exchange substances with the environment?
- Water
- Oxygen: Respire using glucose
- Removal of carbon dioxide and waste product (urea)
Features that need to be exchanged in the enivnroment
- Urea - waste product
- Glucose
- Water
- Oxygen
- Amino acids : Nutrients
- Heat
Factors that affecting diffusion
- Thickness of exchange surface
- Temperature
- pH
- Fick’s law
- Surface area of exchange surface
Factors affecting specialised exchange surface
- Thickness (thin)
- Partially permeable - selectively permeable allowing selected materials across
- Large surface area
- Maintaining concentration gradient
- Transport system to ensure movement of internal medium e.g blood maintaining diffusion gradient
Is no transport system involved in the gas exchange of insects? (blood)?
No
How are tracheoles adapted for function?
- Embedded into tissues - short diffusion distance
- Ends of tracheoles are permeable
- Tracheoles containing gas - faster rate of diffusion by delivering more oxygen : gas has more energy
What materials does organism need to exchange with their environment?
- Cells need to take in oxygen (aerobic respiration) and nutrients
- Need to excrete waste products like carbon dioxide and urea
- Stay at roughly the same temperature so heat is exchanged
Small organisms such as amoeba can obtain sufficient oxygen for respiration without a specialised gas exchange
Explain why?
Amoeba is a single-celled organism as it has a small distance for substances to travel
has a large surface area to volume raito
Many large animals have blood systems.
Explain why these animals need blood systems to supply their cells with oxygen
It is faster
Diffusion is slow
It is a long distance from some respiring tissue
What is their relationship between the size of mammals and their
surface area : volume raito?
The bigger the size of the mammal , the smaller their surface area to volume raito
How is a seal adapted to survive in cold conditions?
- Having large volume, causing its surface area to be small. It makes it harder to lose heat from its body
- Has huge layers of fat helping to insulate (blubbler)
Apart from the number of blood vessels , explain one way in which an earthworm’s skin is adapted for efficient gas exchange
It is thin heaving a thin exchange surface
increase the rate of diffusion with oxygen
Some aquatic worms have ‘feathery’ external gills , richly supplied with blood vessels
Explain how these gills increase the theoretical maximum size attainable by an aquatic worm
Help to increase their surface area
increase rate of diffusion of oxygen
Many mammals found in this part of Finland have a larger size and body mass than related species found in warmer regions
Explain the importance of this to survival.
- Large mammals have small surface area to volume raito
- Lose less heat to the environment by radiation
Populations of consumers living in this part of Finland fluctuate considerably in number from year to year
Populations of consumers living in warmer areas as much more stable
Explain this difference.
Producing unstable ecosystems
Few species will withstand
Diagram of Fick’s law
What do smaller animals have?
Higher surface area to volume raito
What does organism need to supply every one of its cells with?
Glucose and oxygen (respiration)
Does it remove waste products without cells damaged?
Yes