transport animals Flashcards
What is a transport system?
The system that transports required
substances around the body of an
organism
Why are specialised transport
systems needed in
multicellular animals?
• High metabolic demands (need lots of O2 and food & produce lots of waste products) so diffusion over long distances isn’t enough to supply the quantities needed • SA:V ratio gets smaller as multicellular organisms get bigger, so the amount of surface area available to absorb or remove substances gets relatively smaller • Molecules e.g. hormones or enzymes may be made in one place but needed in another • Food will be digested in one organ system, but needs to be transported to every cell for use in respiration and other aspects of cell metabolism • Waste products of metabolism need to be removed from the cells and transported to excretory organs
What is a circulatory system?
The transport system of an animal • Liquid transport medium that circulates around the system (blood) • Vessels that carry the transport medium • Pumping mechanisms to move the fluid around the system
What is a mass transport
system?
A transport system where
substances are transported in a
mass of fluid
What is an open circulatory
system?
A circulatory system with a heart but few vessels to contain the transport medium. • Transport medium is pumped straight from the heart into the body cavity (haemocoel) , then it comes into direct contact with the tissues and the cells • This is where exchange takes place between the transport medium and the cells • Transport medium returns to the heart through an open-ended vessel • Mainly found in invertebrate animals inc. insects and molluscs
Describe the circulatory
system in insects
• Insect blood = haemolymph; it doesn’t carry O2 or CO2, it transports food and nitrogenous waste products & cells involved in defence against disease • Body cavity is split by membrane and the heart extends along the length of the thorax and abdomen • The haemolymph circulates, but steep diffusion gradient cannot be maintained for efficient diffusion • Amount of haemolymph flowing through a particular tissue can’t be varied to meet changing demands
What is a closed circulatory
system?
A circulatory system where the blood is enclosed in blood vessels and does not come into direct contact with the cells of the body beyond the blood vessels • Amount of blood flowing to a particular tissue can be adjusted by widening or narrowing of blood vessels • Contain a blood pigment that carries the respiratory gases • Found in many different animal phyla including: echinoderms, cephalopod molluscs, annelid worms and vertebrate groups (including mammals)
What is a single closed
circulatory system?
A circulatory system where the blood flows through the heart and is pumped out to travel all around the body before returning to the heart • Blood passes through 2 sets of capillaries before it returns to the heart • 1st: Exchanges O2 and CO2 • 2nd: In the different organ systems, substances are exchanged between the blood and the cells • Due to passing though these 2 sets of very narrow vessels, blood pressure in the system drops, and so the blood returns back to the heart slowly • Limits efficiency of the exchange processes, so the activity of animals tends to be relatively low
Explain how fish can be so
active with a single closed
circulatory system
• Low metabolic demands on their bodies and efficient gaseous exchange • Body weight is supported by water they live in and they don’t maintain their own body temperature • Countercurrent gaseous exchange mechanism in their gills that allows them to take lots of O2 from water
What is a double closed
circulatory system?
A circulatory system where the blood travels twice through the heart for each circulation of the body. Most efficient system for transporting substances around the body and involves 2 separate circulations • 1st: Blood is pumped from the heart to the lungs to pick up O2 and unload CO2, and then returns to the heart • 2nd: Blood flows through the heart and is pumped out to travel all around the body before returning to the heart again Each circulate only passes through one capillary network, meaning that a high pressure and fast flow of blood can be maintained
Describe the following components found in some blood vessels: 1. Elastic fibres 2. Smooth muscle 3. Collagen
1. Composed of elastin and can stretch and recoil, providing vessel walls with flexibility 2. Contracts or relaxes, which changes the size of the lumen 3. Provides structural support to maintain the shape and volume of the vessel
Describe the roles of arteries
Carry blood away from the heart to the tissues of the body • Carry oxygenated blood • EXCEPT in the pulmonary artery, which carries deoxygenated blood from the heart to the lungs, and the umbilical artery (during pregnancy) which carries deoxygenated blood form the foetus to the placenta • Blood in arteries is under higher pressure than blood in the veins
Describe the structure of
arteries
Artery walls contain elastic fibres, smooth muscle and collagen. The outer layer of an artery (endothelium) is smooth so the blood flows easily over it Wall consists of 3 layers: • Inner layer (tunica intima) consists of a thin layer of elastic tissue which allows the wall to stretch (within limits maintained by collagen) to take the larger blood volume, and then recoil to help maintain blood pressure • Middle layer (tunica media) consists of a thick layer of smooth muscle • Outer layer (tunica adventitia) is a relatively thick layer of collagen and elastic tissue. This provides strength to withstand the high pressure, and recoil to maintain the pressure
What happens to the elastic
fibres in between the
contractions of the heart?
The elastic fibres recoil ad return to their original length, helping to even out the surges of blood pumped from the heart to give a continuous flow
Describe the structure of
arterioles
• Arterioles link the arteries and the capillaries • Have more smooth muscle and less elastin in their walls than arteries, as they have little pulse surge • Can constrict or dilate to control the flow of blood into individual organs • Vasoconstriction: when the smooth muscle in the arteriole contracts, it constricts the vessel and prevent blood flowing into a capillary bed • Vasodilation: when the smooth muscle in the wall of an arteriole relaxes, blood flows into the capillary bed
What are capillaries?
Microscopic blood vessels that link the arterioles with the venues, forming and extensive network through all the tissues of the body. They have very thin walls and allow the exchange of materials between the bloc and tissue fluid
How are capillaries adapted for
their role?
• Provide a very large surface area for the dissuasion of substances into and out of the blood • Walls are 1 endothelial cell thick, giving a very thin layer for diffusion • Total cross sectional area of the capillaries is always greater than the arteriole supplying them so the rate of blood flow falls • Slow movement of blood through capillaries gives more time for exchange of materials by diffusion between the blood and the cells • Lumen is very narrow so red blood cells squeeze against the walls as they pass through, helping the transfer of O2 as it reduces diffusion path to the tissues. Also increases resistances and reduces rate fo flow • Walls are leaky allowing blood plasma and dissolved substances to leave the blood
Describe the roles of veins
• Carry blood away from the cells of the body towards the heart • They carry deoxygenated blood • EXCEPT pulmonary vein (carries oxygenated blood from the Lins to the heart), and umbilical vein (carries oxygenated blood from the placenta to the foetus)
Describe the structure of veins
• Walls have lots of collagen, relatively little elastic fibre and the vessels have a wide lumen smooth endothelium to ease blood flow • Thinner layers of collagen, smooth muscle and elastic tissue than in artery walls (because they don’t need to stretch and recoil and are not actively constricted in order to reduce blood flow) • Contain valves to help the blood flow back to the heart and prevent it flowing in the opposite directions
How is blood kept flowing in
the right direction in veins?
• As walls are thin, veins can be flattened by the action of surrounding skeletal muscle • Contraction of the surrounding skeletal muscle applies pressure to the blood, forcing the blood to move along in a direction determined by the valves
Do veins have a pulse?
No. The surges from the heart
pumping are lost as the blood
passes through the narrow
capillaries.
Describe venules
• They link the capillaries with the veins • They have very thin layers of muscle and elastic tissue outside the endothelium, and a thin outer layer of collagen • Several venules join to form a vein
What are the adaptations of
veins to overcome the problem
of transporting blood under
low pressure?
• Most veins have one way valves at intervals (flaps or inholdings of the inner lining of the vein) that only open when blood flows in the direction of the heart • Many of the bigger veins run between the big active muscles in the body; when the muscles contract, they squeeze the veins, forcing blood towards the heart • Breathing movements of the chest act as a pump. The pressure changes and squeezing actions move blood in veins of the chest and abdomen towards the heart
What does blood consist of?
• Plasma (55%) - main component; yellow fluid containing many dissolved substances and carrying blood cells • Red blood cells (erythrocytes) • White blood cells (leucocytes) • Platelets - fragments of large cells called megakaryocytes, and they are involved in the clotting mechanism of the blood • Dissolved glucose, amino acids, mineral ions, hormones • Large plasma proteins
Describe 3 plasma proteins
• Albumin - important for maintain the osmotic potential in the blood • Fibrinogen - important in blood clotting • Globulins - involved in transport and the immune system
What are the functions of the
blood?
Maintenance of a steady body temperature • Acts as a buffer, minimising pH changes Transport of: • O2 to, and CO2 from, the respiring cells • Digested food from the small intestine • Nitrogenous waste products from the cells to the excretory organs • Hormones • Food molecules from storage compounds to the cells that need them • Platelets to damaged areas • Cells and antibodies involved in the immune response