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Chapter 23: Problem 9

Why do fish suffocate when taken out of the water and placed in air, whereas mammals suffocate if the air in their alveoli is replaced with water?

Short Answer

Expert verified
Fish suffocate out of water because their gills become unable to extract oxygen from the air since they dry out and do not function properly. Mammals suffocate when their alveoli are filled with water because this prevents the exchange of gases. Essentially, both fish and mammals have evolved to respire oxygen in their respective environments and therefore cannot survive when taken out of these environments.

Step by step solution

01

Explanation of Fish's Respiration

Fish absorb oxygen from water through their gills. Water, containing dissolved oxygen, passes over an intricately designed system of gill filaments, which extract the oxygen and infuse it into the fish's bloodstream. In air, gills dry out and can't function properly, leading to oxygen deprivation.
02

Explanation of Mammals' Respiration

Mammals, including humans, use lungs to absorb oxygen from the air. In the lungs, oxygen is exchanged for carbon dioxide in alveoli, tiny air sacs lined with capillary blood vessels. If water replaces the air in the alveoli, this oxygen-carbon dioxide exchange cannot occur, leading to suffocation.
03

Comparison of Respiration Environments

The difference in breathing processes in fish and mammals is a product of evolution and adaptation to their environments. Fish have adapted to life in water, so their bodies process oxygen from water. Mammals have adapted to life on land, so they process oxygen from air. The respiratory systems of each are designed for their specific environment and cannot function outside of it.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

Insects of giant size compared with today's insects are found in the fossil record. There were times in the past when the atmospheric concentration of \(\mathrm{O}_{2}\) was \(1.5\) times today's concentration. Some investigators hypothesize that insect gigantism was permitted by high \(\mathrm{O}_{2}\) levels. Explain why this hypothesis is plausible.

When researchers first discovered that airflow through a bird's paleopulmonal parabronchi is unidirectional, the question arose as to whether gas exchange is countercurrent, cocurrent, or crosscurrent. Some ingenious investigators carried out experiments in which they measured the efficiency of gas exchange between air and blood in duck lungs when parabronchial airflow was in its normal direction and when the direction of parabronchial airflow was artificially reversed. The efficiency did not change. How is this evidence against countercurrent and cocurrent gas exchange? How is this evidence for cross-current exchange?

Lungs ventilated with water occur in some animals-most notably sea cucumbers - but are rare. Why would water lungs be unlikely to be favored by natural selection? Give as many reasons as possible.

Arthropods are distinguished by having an exoskeleton and lacking external cilia. How do these traits of the phylum affect the breathing structures and ventilation modes of arthropods?

Explain mechanistically how hyperventilation alters the oxygen cascade of an animal.
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