Lesson 5

LIFE’S TRANSPORT and

EXCHANGE SYSTEMS
 Learning Objectives
• Compare the structures or organs involved in gas exchange
in plants and animals
• Trace the pathway of air in a mammalian respiratory system
through the organs and their roles
• Expound the coordination of the respiratory system with the
circulatory system in the transport of gases to the body tissues
• Describe the major processes, structures and mechanisms for
gas exchange in animals
Lesson 5.1

The Need to Respire and

Exchange Essential Gases
 Your body constantly
needs oxygen and
nutrients, and gets rids
of wastes to function
properly and keep you
alive.

The respiratory and

circulatory systems
work cooperatively to
maintain this
homeostasis.
Organisms obtain life-supporting
gases from their environment
and release life-damaging gases
out of their systems to stay alive.

How do gas exchange systems

facilitate the exchange of gases
between the environment and
the cells of organisms?
 Gas Exchange in Animals
 RESPIRATION – the
process of obtaining suffi-
cient oxygen and expelling
excessive amounts of car-
bon dioxide

 In unicellular organisms,
these exchanges occur di-
rectly with the environment
(Cell membrane)
 Can easily diffuse essential
gases and does not require
complex respiratory organs
Amoeba Paramecium
 Gas Exchange in Animals
 Most multicellular organisms rely on specialized systems that
carry out exchange with the environment and transport materials
through the body (Body surfaces, Gills, Tracheae, Lungs)
 Gas Exchange in Animals
 Invertebrates - can easily exchange O2 and CO2 by diffusion
because their skin is only a few layers thick.

Hydra Jellyfish
 Gas Exchange in Animals
 INTEGUMENTARY EXCHANGE OR CUTANEOUS RESPIRA-
TION – using organism’s entire skin to exchange gases

Earthworm
 Gas Exchange in Animals
 Amphibians – aside
from their lungs, they
can breathe through
their skin, so they have
to be moist all the time.
 They cannot breathe
air when they are un-
derwater.
 Oxygen diffuses into a
dense net of thin-
walled capillaries be-
neath their skin, which
allows them to spend
prolonged time under-
water.
Gas Exchange in Animals
Arthropods (insects)
 Skin surface is not adequate to allow gas
exchange
 Have highly branched large respiratory sur-
faces i.e., body’s specialized structures
 TRACHEAL SYSTEM – branched internal
tubes
 SPIRACLES – tiny openings in the insects’
bodies
 TRACHEAE – sturdy tubes arising from
spiracles
 TRACHEOLES – smaller tubes filled with
small amounts of an aqueous substance
where O2 is dissolved from air and CO2 dif-
fuses in opposite direction
 Gas Exchange in Animals
Marine invertebrates and ver-
tebrates
 GILLS – thin sheets of tissue
that wave through water
 Mollusks and echinoderms
has external gills with exten-
sive projections
 Gills are highly-folded, thin-
walled, vascularized epider-
mis
 Sessile invertebrates rely on
water currents for ventilation
 Limitations: susceptible to
damage; supply of energy;
susceptible to predators
 Gas Exchange in Animals
Fishes
 Feather-like INTERNAL GILLS on each side of head
 OPERCULUM – bony plate that covers the gills
 LAMELLAE – plate-like structures of gill arches
 COUNTERCURRENT EXCHANGE – breathing mechanism
 Gas Exchange in Animals
Higher forms of terrestrial vertebrates
 Evolved lungs internally lined with moist epithelium
 Lungs are located inside the chest or thoracic cavity, in a rib cage
 Reptiles’ lungs are similar in structure with amphibians but with
wider surface area and many small air chambers, thus increasing
the surface for more oxygen diffusion.
 Gas Exchange in Animals
Birds

 Have a respiratory demand far

greater than the capacity of the
lungs of an active mammal due to
their flight activities

 Avian lung’s 3 components:

POSTERIOR and ANTERIOR air sacs
outside the lungs
PARABRONCHI – air passages
through the lungs
 CROSSCURRENT FLOW - 90-degree
angle blood flow; fully-oxygenated air
passing across the bird’s lungs
 Have the most efficient atmospheric gas
exchange mechanism
 Gas Exchange in Mammals
 Use lungs to obtain O2 and expel CO2 by receiving deoxygenated
blood from the heart and returning blood to the heart.
 Though less efficient than birds, mammals are well-adapted to ter-
restrial environments
Factors affecting
Gas Exchange
• Moisture
• Surface Area
• Pressure
• Temperature
 Moisture and Surface Area
• In order for gas exchange to happen, respiratory surfaces must be moist, with a large
surface area, and protected from drying up.
Capacity of the Lungs : Surface Area of the Body
The capacity of the lungs is proportional to the
surface area of the body and that proportions differ
in males and females.
MALE FEMALE
Surface Value 2.5 sq.m. 1.7 sq.m.

Lung Capacity 5000 mL 3400 mL

Why do males have greater lung capacity than females?
Males have relatively more muscle tissue than females, and
muscle tissue requires a relatively huge amount of oxygen.
 Air Pressure
• Gases in the air exert pressure on
the body surfaces of animals when
they breathe.
• Air pressure is measured in
millimeters of mercury (mmHg)
• Atmospheric pressure – sum total of
the exerted pressures by each gas
mixed in the air, corresponding to
the exact proportion of their amount
• Individual gas pressure is called
PARTIAL PRESSURE.
• The lower the atmospheric pressure
is, the lower the partial pressure of
oxygen in the air.
 Air Pressure
• Gases diffuse from a region of higher pressure to a region of lower pressure.
• FICK’S LAW OF DIFFUSION states that the diffusion rate is affected by the
concentration difference and surface of the membrane area.
 Temperature
• Temperature and the presence
of other solutes influence the
solubility of gases.
• At higher temperatures, there is
more thermal energy present in
gases in solution that can likely
drive them to escape from the
liquid.
• The presence of ions and other
solutes also decreases the
amount of gas dissolved
in water.
Oxygen dissolves less in warm,
salty water than in cold water.
Increasing the Amount of Oxygen in Cells

INVERTEBRATES (HEMOLYMPH) VERTEBRATES (RED BLOOD CELLS)

Hemocyanin is the copper-containing Hemoglobin is the major iron-containing
pigment that gives their blood a bluish tint. pigment that gives blood it red color when
oxygenated.
What is in hemoglobin that brings oxygen to
the different parts of the body?
UNLOADING OXYGEN…

CO2 Carbonic Hydrogen Hydrogen

and bicar- binds to he-
acid bonate ions moglobin

• Oxygen-poor blood is carried back to the heart and pumped into the lungs.
• In the lungs, CO2 diffuses outward from the blood into the alveoli.
• The diffusion of CO2 out of the RBC causes the hemoglobin within the cells to
release the CO2 and take up O2 instead.
INHALATION vs EXHALATION

INHALATION is the
intake of air from out-
side the body into the EXHALATION is the ex-
lungs for acquisition pulsion of excess air and
of oxygen. waste carbon dioxide
from the lungs to the ex-
ternal environment.
BREATHING vs RESPIRATION

• The overall exchange of gases between the

Respiration atmosphere, the blood, and the cells.

• Refers to the act of taking air in and out of

the lungs.
Breathing • It is the physical action of taking O2 into
and releasing the waste CO2 out of the
lungs.
 Mammalian Respiratory System
 Your cells are able to perform all the various tasks that keep
you alive.
 Each body cell burns up the food it gets from the blood and
releases energy locked within the food only if it gets enough
O 2.
 CELLULAR RESPIRATION – energy-releasing process that
is fueled by O2.
 Phases of GAS EXCHANGE:
 Breathing
 Transport of gases by the circulatory system
 Exchange of gases in cells
Phases of Gas Exchange
1 BREATHING
Nostrils (filtered and moistened air) Epiglottis
Pharynx (upper throat) Trachea or Windpipe
Larynx (voice box) Lungs

2 TRANSPORT
•
OF GASES
O2 in blood attaches itself in hemoglobin
• Blood vessels transport the O2-rich blood from the lungs to the capillaries of
body tissues and vice versa
• The circulatory system carries both the O2 and glucose to your cells

3 EXCHANGE OF GASES IN CELLS (Internal Respiration)

• Involves the body cells that take up O2 from the blood and release CO2 to
the blood.
• Gas exchange at the level of body cells
Lesson 5.2

The Need to Transport Es-

sential Materials
The transport systems ensure
that essential materials needed
by the body are properly circu-
lated and waste products are
disposed of.

Why do you continually need

to bring in essential substances
into the body and get rid of
wastes?
In circulation…
• What needs to be transported
– nutrients & fuels
• from digestive system
– respiratory gases
• O2 & CO2 from & to gas exchange systems: lungs, gills
– intracellular waste
• waste products from cells
– water, salts, nitrogenous wastes (urea)
– protective agents
• immune defenses
– white blood cells & antibodies
• blood clotting agents
– regulatory molecules
• hormones
 Animal Transport System
 Animals must take in nutrients, exchange essential gases
and remove unwanted products from every cell of its body.

 In unicellular organisms (like protists and bacteria), oxy-

gen and other substances can easily pass through the cell
by simple diffusion or active transport.
 Amoeba does not need a more organized transport sys-
tem.

 Most multicellular organisms have many cells situated at

the center of the body far away from the outside environ-
ment.
 The transport method in animals require a more complex
set of organs and structures, the CIRCULATORY SYS-
Overcoming limitations of diffusion
• Diffusion is not adequate for moving material across
more than 1-cell barrier
CO2 CO2
NH3 O2
aa aa NH3 CO2
NH3
CH O2 CO2 CO2
CO2 CHO NH3
aa NH3 O2 NH3
CO2 CO2
CO2
CHO NH3
CH
aa NH3 NH3
CHO
CO2 CO2
O2
aa CH aa
Animal Transport System
Hydra

Direct contact with either the outside of the environment and its
gastrovascular cavity, which serves as digestion and distribution
if the substances within the body.

Planaria

Movement helps to stream fluid to its central cavity.

They have no blood.

The fluid can freely enter their body cavity through their
movement.
 Animal Transport System
Complex animals cannot rely on diffusion and active
transport.

Two types of circulatory systems emerged:

Open Circulatory System: Transport fluid flows

freely through body cavities (mollusks and arthropods)

Closed Circulatory System: Transport tissue flows

within vessels (complex invertebrates and vertebrates)
Animal Transport System
• Mollusks and arthropods

• Fluid is pumped through open-ended

vessels and transported among the
cells

• no distinction between blood and

interstitial fluid (hemolymph)

• TUBULAR HEART – grasshopper

Hemolymph -> Central cavity
Animal Transport System
• Higher forms of organisms

• With confine blood vessels; distinction

between blood and interstitial fluid

• Blood circulates in one direction and

passes through the respiratory system

• Differ in terms of efficiency

• Earthworm – simplest closed circulatory

(two main blood vessels connected to a
series of heart-like structures, aortic
arches.
 Vertebrate circulatory system
• Adaptations in closed system
– number of heart chambers differs
2 3 4

low O2 high pressure

low pressure
& high O2 to body
to body to body

What’s the adaptive value of a 4 chamber heart?

4 chamber heart is double pump = separates oxygen-rich &
oxygen-poor blood; maintains high pressure
Single Circuit of Circulation
• The heart of a fish has two main chambers
organized into rows.
capillary beds
of gills • Blood travels through these chambers and
is pumped out through a ventral cavity into
smaller capillaries in its gills where
respiratory gas exchange occurs.
heart
• This kind of circulation in which blood
travels through the fish’s heart only once in
rest of body each complete circuit through the body is
called SINGLE CIRCULATION.
 • Amphibians such as frogs, salamanders,
Pulmocutaneous Circuit /
and toads have a three-chambered heart –
Incomplete Double Circulation one ventricle and two atria.

• PULMOCUTANEOUS CIRCUIT – gas

exchange that occurs both in the lungs
lungs and the skin.

• Blood from the two atria can mix into a

single ventricle, the presence of ridge
ensures that the oxygen-poor blood is
right atrium left atrium
diverted to the pulmocutaneous circuit and
the oxygen-rich blood to the systemic
ventricle circuit.
rest of body
• Only some of the blood is pumped twice,
the amphibian circulation is referred to as
incomplete double circulation.
Two Fully Separate Circuits of Circulation
• Active, warm-blooded vertebrates
have high energy and O2
requirements; wastes must be
removed rapidly
lungs
• In birds and mammals, the heart has
four chambers: two atria and two
right left ventricles.
atrium atrium
• The right side of the heart takes care
right ventricle left ventricle of the oxygen-poor blood, whereas
the left side receives oxygen-rich
rest of body blood.

• CLOSED DOUBLE CIRCULATORY

SYSTEM
 Mammalian
Circulatory System
 Kardia – heart ; Vasculum – vessels
Three principal functions:

1 TRANSPORTATION
transports three types of essential
substances:
• respiratory (O2 and CO2)
• nutritive (food molecules)
• excretory (metabolic wastes)

2 REGULATION
transports hormones and participates in heat regulation

3 PROTECTION
protects the body from injury during blood clot-
ting and plays a role in the immune defense
against toxins and pathogenic organisms.
The heart is located between the
lungs in the thoracic cavity.
• Two pumps – left and right
• Right side of the heart – pumps blood to
the lungs to receive O2
• Left side of the heart – pumps blood to
the other parts of the body
• Septum – tissue wall that divides the
heart in half; prevents blood from flowing
between two atria or two ventricles

• superior vena cava – drains blood from

the upper part of the body (brain and arms)
• Inferior vena cava – lower part (lower
organs and legs)
• Right atrium also receives blood from the corona sinus that drains
oxygen-poor blood from the heart itself

• This flows to the right ventricle via atrioventricular (AV) valve

(tricuspid valve). This valve prevents the backflow of flood.

• After it is filled, the right ventricle contracts, pumping blood to the

lungs for reoxygenation. Then, CO2 is released; O2 is inhaled.

• Blood is pumped into the heart via left atrium, which receives O2-
rich blood from the lungs through mitral valve (bicuspid valve);
then to left ventricle where blood is pumped to aorta (the biggest
artery of the body)

• Aortic semilunar valve / Aortic valve closes, preventing

backflow of blood into the left ventricle

• This process works in a perfect rhythm to circulate blood

throughout the body is referred to as DOUBLE CIRCULATION.
Blood is a
collection of cells
by which
oxygen and
nutrients reach
the body’s cells
and waste
materials are
taken away.

Exchange
happens through
diffusion.

Microscopic view:
*55% is plasma
(92% water, 8%
dissolved
substances)
*RBCs, WBCs Characteristics of • Red Blood Cells (Erythrocytes)
• White Blood Cells (Leukocytes)
and platelets.
BLOOD • Platelets (Thrombocytes)
 Blood vessels
arteries  ARTERIES – blood vessels that move blood AWAY
from the heart.
arterioles
 VEINS – blood vessels that
capillaries move blood-carrying
products toward the heart.
venules
veins
 Blood from the arterioles leads to thin-
walled tubes called CAPILLARIES.
AP Biology Diffusion of gases happen here.
 Pulmonary Circulation vs Systemic Circulation

PULMONARY CIRCULA-
TION occurs when deoxy-
genated blood is transported
from the heart to the lungs to
receive O2 in exchange of
CO2, and is transported back
to the heart.
SYSTEMIC CIRCULATION is the
transport of oxygenated blood to
the different parts of the body to
distribute O2 and collect waste
CO2, and back to the heart to be
followed by pulmonary circulation.

AP Biology
The Pulmonary Circuit
Does?
Ox
y
len s to t to hea gena
rep lung ough d
t
thr rt to d ed bl
e
the od b enat

oug istr ood

hou ib u s
t bo te O ent to
blo oxyg

2
O
r

dy Circuit
is h

The Systemic 2
De

Does?

Blue = deoxygenated
Red = oxygenated

AP Biology
PULMONARY
CIRCULATION
1. Right ventricle
2. Two pulmonary arteries
and into the lungs
3. Alveoli and capillaries of
the lungs
4. Pulmonary veins
5. Left atrium
6. Left ventricle
SYSTEMIC
CIRCULATION
7. Aorta
8. Body’s organs and tissues
9. Superior vena cava /
Inferior vena cava
10. Right atrium