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Sea slugs respire through a gill (or ctenidium). Aquatic respiration is the process whereby an aquatic organism exchanges respiratory gases with water, obtaining oxygen from oxygen dissolved in water and excreting carbon dioxide and some other metabolic waste products into the water.
While the shark is moving, water passes through the mouth and over the gills in a process known as "ram ventilation". While at rest, most sharks pump water over their gills to ensure a constant supply of oxygenated water. A small number of species have lost the ability to pump water through their gills and must swim without rest.
The concentration of oxygen in water is lower than air and it diffuses more slowly. In a litre of freshwater the oxygen content is 8 cm 3 per litre compared to 210 in the same volume of air. [7] Water is 777 times more dense than air and is 100 times more viscous. [7] Oxygen has a diffusion rate in air 10,000 times greater than in water. [7]
Sponges lack specialised respiratory structures, and the whole of the animal acts as a gill as water is drawn through its spongy structure. [13] Aquatic arthropods usually have gills which are in most cases modified appendages. In some crustaceans these are exposed directly to the water, while in others, they are protected inside a gill chamber ...
The swim bladder, gas bladder, fish maw, or air bladder is an internal gas-filled organ in bony fish (but not cartilaginous fish [1]) that functions to modulate buoyancy, and thus allowing the fish to stay at desired water depth without having to maintain lift via swimming, which expends more energy. [2]
The respiratory system (also respiratory apparatus, ventilatory system) is a biological system consisting of specific organs and structures used for gas exchange in animals and plants. The anatomy and physiology that make this happen varies greatly, depending on the size of the organism, the environment in which it lives and its evolutionary ...
Air enters the respiratory systems of insects through a series of external openings called spiracles. These external openings, which act as muscular valves in some insects, lead to the internal respiratory system, a densely networked array of tubes called tracheae. This network of transverse and longitudinal tracheae equalizes pressure ...
Gas exchange is the physical process by which gases move passively by diffusion across a surface. For example, this surface might be the air/water interface of a water body, the surface of a gas bubble in a liquid, a gas-permeable membrane, or a biological membrane that forms the boundary between an organism and its extracellular environment.