What makes the Respiratory system most efficient to provide oxygen to each and every part of the body in less time?
Answers
Explanation:
The Respiratory System and Gas Exchange | Back to Top
Cellular respiration involves the breakdown of organic molecules to produce ATP. A sufficient supply of oxygen is required for the aerobic respiratory machinery of Kreb's Cycle and the Electron Transport System to efficiently convert stored organic energy into energy trapped in ATP. Carbon dioxide is also generated by cellular metabolism and must be removed from the cell. There must be an exchange of gases: carbon dioxide leaving the cell, oxygen entering. Animals have organ systems involved in facilitating this exchange as well as the transport of gases to and from exchange areas.
Bodies and Respiration | Back to Top
Single-celled organisms exchange gases directly across their cell membrane. However, the slow diffusion rate of oxygen relative to carbon dioxide limits the size of single-celled organisms. Simple animals that lack specialized exchange surfaces have flattened, tubular, or thin shaped body plans, which are the most efficient for gas exchange. However, these simple animals are rather small in size.
Respiratory Surfaces | Back to Top
Large animals cannot maintain gas exchange by diffusion across their outer surface. They developed a variety ofrespiratory surfaces that all increase the surface area for exchange, thus allowing for larger bodies. A respiratory surface is covered with thin, moist epithelial cellsthat allow oxygen and carbon dioxide to exchange. Those gases can only cross cell membranes when they are dissolved in water or an aqueous solution, thus respiratory surfaces must be moist.
Methods of Respiration | Back to Top
Sponges and jellyfish lack specialized organs for gas exchange and take in gases directly from the surrounding water. Flatworms and annelids use their outer surfaces as gas exchange surfaces. Arthropods, annelids, and fish use gills; terrestrial vertebrates utilize internal lungs.


Gas exchange systems in several animals.Images from Purves et al., Life: The Science of Biology, 4th Edition, by Sinauer Associates (www.sinauer.com) and WH Freeman (www.whfreeman.com), used with permission.
The Body Surface
Flatworms and annelids use their outer surfaces as gas exchange surfaces. Earthworms have a series of thin-walled blood vessels known as capillaries. Gas exchange occurs at capillaries located throughout the body as well as those in the respiratory surface.
Amphibians use their skin as a respiratory surface. Frogs eliminate carbon dioxide 2.5 times as fast through their skin as they do through their lungs. Eels (a fish) obtain 60% of their oxygen through their skin. Humans exchange only 1% of their carbon dioxide through their skin. Constraints of water loss dictate that terrestrial animals must develop more efficient lungs.
Gills
Gills greatly increase the surface area for gas exchange. They occur in a variety of animal groups including arthropods (including some terrestrial crustaceans), annelids, fish, and amphibians. Gills typically are convoluted outgrowths containing blood vessels covered by a thin epithelial layer. Typically gills are organized into a series of plates and may be internal (as in crabs and fish) or external to the body (as in some amphibians).
Gills are very efficient at removing oxygen from water: there is only 1/20 the amount of oxygen present in water as in the same volume of air. Water flows over gills in one direction while blood flows in the opposite direction through gill capillaries. Thiscountercurrent flow maximizes oxygen transfer.
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