Gas Exchange In Plants, Insects And Fish

615 Words3 Pages
Respiration takes place for all the organisms as to survive. All animal cells and plants cells take in oxygen and produce carbon dioxide during the process. But when it comes to gas exchanges, differences come up for different types of animals and plants. In this essay, I am going to go through the gas exchange in plants, insects and fish, in order to see their any similar and contrast between them. Let’s start looking at the processes and the gases involved for the exchange. For the gaseous exchange in plant, besides respiration, most of the plants carry photosynthesis as well. The carbon dioxide in the air is absorbed during photosynthesis as a raw material, it releases oxygen as a product. Meanwhile, the external oxygen is taken in for respiration and carbon dioxide is released. Therefore, the processes result the gas produced in one process can be used for the other. As no photosynthesis takes place neither on insects nor fish, here comes the comparison, the gases involved are all the same for three types of organism, but as plants carry photosynthesis in addition to respiration. The second one is on the method of gas transportation. And it is the same for all three types of organism, where the gases diffuse from a high concentration area to a low concentration area by diffusion. For example, when the oxygen is lower inside a plant cell than the external atmosphere, the oxygen diffuses out. However, the movements of the insects’ muscles particular create mass movement of air in and out of the tracheae for them, which able them to have the gas transported by ventilation as well. Here comes the major contrast between the three of them. It is the structure of the organism used for gas exchange. The leaves and stems of plants have openings in the epidermis controlled by guard cells. The pores are called stomata, which allows carbon dioxide from the
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