Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
● Uptake of molecular O2 from the environment and the discharge of CO2 to the environment
● Works with Partial pressure gradients
○ The pressure exerted by a particular gas in a mixture of gases
○ Net movement of gas at an exchange surface:
■ A gas always undergoes net diffusion from a region of high partial pressure to a
region of lower partial pressure
● Conditions for gas exchange vary depending on respiratory medium (source of O2) - air or water
● Water has lower O2 content, greater density, and greater viscosity so aquatic animals must expend more
energy for gas exchange
● Respiratory surfaces - part of animal’s body where gas exchange occurs (for diffusion to be effective):
○ Moist (b/c PM of cells must be in contact w/ aqueous solution)
○ Thin (path for diffusion is short)
○ Large surface area (area for diffusion is large)
Respiratory Organs
1.) Cutaneous respiration (direct diffusion)
● Relatively simple animals - sponges, cnidarians, flatworms
● Every cell in the body is close enough to external env. That gases can diffuse quickly between any
cell and the env.
● Thin, moist epithelium (or their PM integument) constitutes a respiratory organ
● Earthworms and some amphibians
○ Skin serves as a respiratory organ
○ Dense network of capillaries just below the skin facilitates the exchange of gases between
the circulatory system and env.
2.) Birds
● Air is passed over gas exchange surface in on
direction only
○ Incoming fresh air does not mix with air that
has already carried out gas exchange
● Air sacs on either side of lungs act as bellows that
direct air flow through lungs
● Parabronchi (tiny channels within lungs)
○ Serve as sites of gas exchange
● Passage of air through entire system of bird requires
two cycles of inhalation and exhalation
3.) Mammals
● Breathing is like a syringe’s plunger being pulled
back
● Negative pressure breathing - pulling air into lungs
● Breathing:
○ Uses muscle contraction to actively expand
thoracic cavity
○ This lowers pressure in lungs vs. air outside body
○ Air flows/rushes through nostrils/mouth to the alveoli (b/c air goes from high to low pressure
region)
● Diaphragm
○ Sheet of skeletal muscle that forms the bottom wall of the cavity
○ Contracting rib muscles pull ribs upwards and sternum outward, but diaphragm contracts
(moves downward) and expands thoracic cavity
■ This descending movement of diaphragm is like a plunger drawn out of a syringe
● Inhalation is always
active and requires
work; exhalation is
usually passive
○ Muscles
controlling
thoracic cavity
relax
○ Volume of cavity
is reduced
○ Increased
pressure in
alveoli forces air
up the breathing
tubes and out of
the body
● Thoracic Cavity
○ Surrounds the lungs
○ Double-membrane in between the lungs and thoracic cavity
○ Inner layer adheres to outside of lungs; outer layer adheres to inside wall of thoracic cavity
■ Thin space filled with fluid separates the two layers
■ Surface tension within fluid causes two layers to stick together
● Tidal volume
○ Volume of air inhaled and exhaled with each breath
○ Averages about 500 mL in resting humans
● Vital capacity
○ Tidal volume during maximal inhalation and exhalation
○ 3.4 L (college women) and 4.8 L (college men)
● Residual volume
○ Air that remains after a forced exhalation
○ Increases as people age, but vital capacity decreases
● NOTE:
○ Inhalation occurs through the same airway as exhalation
○ Inhalation mixes fresh air with oxygen-depleted residual air
○ Thus, max partial pressure of O2 is always less in the alveoli than in the atmosphere
○ Also less in mammals than for birds b/c birds have a unidirectional flow of air
■ Reason why mammals function less well than birds in high altitude
Respiratory Pigments
● Low solubility of O2 in water (and thus in blood) poses a problem for animals that rely on circulatory
system to deliver O2
● Animals transport most of their O2 bound to proteins - respiratory pigments
○ Circulate w/ blood or hemolymph
○ Often contained within specialized cells
○ Pigments greatly increase the amt of O2 that can be carried in circulatory fluid
○ Presence of respiratory pigment reduces cardiac output necessary for O2 to transport to a
manageable 12.5 L of blood per minute (instead of 555 L)
○ Pigment has a distinctive color and consists of a metal bound to a protein
○ Two types:
1.) Hemocyanin
● Found in arthropods and molluscs
● Copper as oxygen-binding component
2.) Hemoglobin
● In invertebrates and all vertebrates
● Contained in erthrocytes
● Iron atom bound to heme group
● Each iron atom binds one molecule of O2, and hemoglobin can carry 4 O2
molecules
● Hemoglobin binds O2
in lungs or gills and
unload it elsewhere in
the body
● O2 diffuses into
pulmonary capillaries
● Most O2 combines w/
hemoglobin in RBC to form
oxyhemoglobin
● CO2 diffuses out of
pulmonary capillaries
● Most CO2 transported in
form of bicarbonate ion
● Some CO2 combine with
hemoglobin to form
carbaminohemoglobin
Bohr Shift
● Hemoglobin is efficient at delivering O2 to tissues actively consuming O2
● Increased efficiency results from CO2
production, not O2 consumption
● Bohr shift
○ Effect when low pH decreases the
affinity of hemoglobin for O2
○ As tissues consume O2 in cell
respiration, they also produce CO2
which forms carbonic acid when reacts
with water
○ Where CO2 production is greater,
hemoglobin releases more O2 which
can be used to support more cellular
respiration
● Hemoglobin also assists in buffering the blood
(preventing harmful changes in pH)