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Although physiologic respiration is necessary to sustain cellular respiration and thus life in animals, the processes are distinct: cellular respiration takes place in individual cells of the organism, while physiologic respiration concerns the diffusion and transport of metabolites between the organism and the external environment.
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.
The oxygen tension (or partial pressure) remains close to 13–14 kPa (about 100 mm Hg), and that of carbon dioxide very close to 5.3 kPa (or 40 mm Hg). This contrasts with composition of the dry outside air at sea level, where the partial pressure of oxygen is 21 kPa (or 160 mm Hg) and that of carbon dioxide 0.04 kPa (or 0.3 mmHg). [6]
Aerobic respiration requires oxygen (O 2) in order to create ATP.Although carbohydrates, fats and proteins are consumed as reactants, aerobic respiration is the preferred method of pyruvate production in glycolysis, and requires pyruvate be transported the mitochondria in order to be oxidized by the citric acid cycle.
The concentration of carbon dioxide (CO 2) rises in the blood when the metabolic use of oxygen (O 2), and the production of CO 2 is increased during, for example, exercise. The CO 2 in the blood is transported largely as bicarbonate (HCO 3 − ) ions, by conversion first to carbonic acid (H 2 CO 3 ), by the enzyme carbonic anhydrase , and then ...
This constant cycle of carbon through the system is not the only element being transferred. In animal and plant respiration these living beings take in glucose and oxygen while emitting energy, carbon dioxide, and water as waste. These constant cycles provide for a influx of oxygen into the system and carbon out of the system.
While there are many abiotic sources and sinks for O 2, the presence of the profuse concentration of free oxygen in modern Earth's atmosphere and ocean is attributed to O 2 production from the biological process of oxygenic photosynthesis in conjunction with a biological sink known as the biological pump and a geologic process of carbon burial involving plate tectonics.
Exhalation takes longer than inhalation and it is believed to facilitate better exchange of gases. Parts of the nervous system help to regulate respiration in humans. The exhaled air is not just carbon dioxide; it contains a mixture of other gases. Human breath contains volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These compounds consist of methanol ...