Respiration

21.1 Why do Living Things

Respire?
• All living organisms need energy to carry out
activities like movement, growth and
reproduction.
• This energy is obtained from the food the
organisms take in.
• Plants convert light energy from the sun to
chemical energy stored in food substances.
• Animals get this energy by feeding on plants or
on other animals that feed on plants.
 Transfer of energy through living
organisms
Plants convert light energy
to chemical energy stored
in food substances.

Other animals such as

Some animals get energy humans get energy by
by feeding on plants. feeding on plants as well as
animals that feed on plants.
 21.1 Why do Living Things
Respire?
• The energy stored in food substances is made
available to living organisms when they are
broken down in the cells in a process known as
respiration.
• The process by which food molecules are
broken down to release energy is called
respiration.
• Living organisms use this energy in many ways
such as muscle movement, producing new
materials and maintaining a constant body
temperature in animals.
 21.2 Aerobic Respiration
• Respiration occurs in every living plant
and animal cell.
glucose water

carbon
dioxide
oxygen energy
 21.2 Aerobic Respiration
• Most living organisms need oxygen for
respiration to take place.
• Since oxygen is needed, we call it aerobic
respiration. It can be summarised in the
equation below:
Glucose + Oxygen Carbon dioxide + Water + Energy
 21.2 Aerobic Respiration
• Food substances such as glucose are
broken down in living cells.
• A large amount of energy is released for
the cells to perform different activities.
• In respiration, glucose combines with
oxygen to release energy.
• Carbon dioxide and water are produced as
waste products.
• Enzymes play a role in respiration.
 21.2 Aerobic Respiration
• Breathing refers to the movements that
bring about an exchange of gases
between the body and its surroundings.
• The air that we breathe in is called
inspired (or inhaled) air.
• The air that we breathe out is called
expired (or exhaled) air.
 21.2 Aerobic Respiration
air drawn in air forced out

rib cage
diaphragm

Breathing in Breathing out

 21.2 Aerobic Respiration
• Most animals take in
oxygen (O2) and external nostril

release carbon
dioxide (CO2) using lungs carbon dioxide

special organs. oxygen

• Humans use their

main respiratory
organs – lungs – for
the exchange of
gases.
 21.2 Aerobic Respiration
thin film of 1. In the lungs, air sacs
moisture are surrounded by tiny
heart
air movement blood vessels called
blood capillaries.

2. Oxygen entering the

air sacs diffuses into
air sac
the blood that flows
into the blood
capillaries.
red blood cells
lungs blood capillary

3. Carbon dioxide produced by other parts of the

body enters the bloodstream. It is brought to
these blood capillaries so that it can diffuse
from the blood into the air sacs. Carbon dioxide
is then released when we breathe out air.
tissue cells
oxygen diffuses into tissue cell
21.3 How do Plants ‘Breathe’?
• Plants do not breathe
in the same way as
animals do.
• In flowering plants, the
exchange of gases
takes place mainly
through openings in
the leaves called
oxygen diffuses
stomata. out through stoma
carbon dioxide
diffuses in through
stoma
Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis
21.3 How do Plants ‘Breathe’?
• At night, photosynthesis does not take
place.
o Oxygen enters the air spaces in the leaves
by diffusion.
o The carbon dioxide produced during
respiration enters the air spaces in the leaf.
o It then leaves the leaf through stomata by
diffusion.
21.3 How do Plants ‘Breathe’?
• In the day, when photosynthesis occurs,
the carbon dioxide in the leaf is rapidly
used up.
• As a result, the carbon dioxide
concentration in the air spaces in the
leaves becomes lower than that of the
surrounding air.
• Thus, carbon dioxide diffuses through the
stomata into the air spaces in the leaf.
21.3 How do Plants ‘Breathe
oxygen carbon dioxide oxygen carbon dioxide

carbon dioxide oxygen

Night Day
Key:
Gaseous exchange during photosynthesis
Gaseous exchange during respiration
 Miscellaneous
• http://www.purchon.com/biology/respire.htm
• http://www.kidshealth.org/kid/body/lungs_noSW.
html
• http://www.breathing.com/articles/nose-breathin
g.htm
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks3bitesize/scienc
e/biology/green_plants_5.shtml
• http://www.accessexcellence.org/RC/VL/GG/ecb
/photosynthesis_respiration.html