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How do gills in fish help in breathing under water ?
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Solution
The lungs of mammals would not work very well for a fish, because one breath underwater would fill them with fluid and make them useless. Nonetheless, fish need oxygen to breathe, too. In order to remove oxygen from the water, they rely on special organs called "gills."
Gills are feathery organs full of blood vessels. A fish breathes by taking water into its mouth and forcing it out through the gill passages. As water passes over the thin walls of the gills, dissolved oxygen moves into the blood and travels to the fish's cells.
how fish gills work.
These fantastic little organs allow the fish to absorb oxygen from the water and use it for energy. Functionally, gills are not that dissimilar to the lungs in humans and other mammals. The main difference is how they are able to absorb much smaller concentrations of available oxygen, while allowing the fish to maintain an appropriate level of Sodium Chloride (salt) in their bloodstream.
Gills work on the same principle as lungs. In the lungs, there are small sacs called alveoli that are approximately 70% capillaries. These capillaries carry deoxygenated blood from the body. As oxygen and carbon dioxide pass across the alveoli’s membrane, the capillaries take the newly oxygenated blood back to the body. Similarly, gills have small rows and columns of specialized cells grouped together called the epithelium. Deoxygenated blood in the fish is supplied directly from the heart to the epithelium via arteries, and even yet smaller arterioles. As seawater is forced across the epithelium membranes, dissolved oxygen in the seawater is taken up by tiny blood vessels and veins, while the carbon dioxide is exchanged.
Gills themselves have a car radiator-like appearance. Most fish have 4 gills on each side, consisting of a main bar-like structure that has numerous branches as that of a tree, and those branches consisting of even smaller branch-like structures. This arrangement of cells allows for a very large surface area when the gills are immersed in water.
Gills are feathery organs full of blood vessels. A fish breathes by taking water into its mouth and forcing it out through the gill passages. As water passes over the thin walls of the gills, dissolved oxygen moves into the blood and travels to the fish's cells.
how fish gills work.
These fantastic little organs allow the fish to absorb oxygen from the water and use it for energy. Functionally, gills are not that dissimilar to the lungs in humans and other mammals. The main difference is how they are able to absorb much smaller concentrations of available oxygen, while allowing the fish to maintain an appropriate level of Sodium Chloride (salt) in their bloodstream.
Gills work on the same principle as lungs. In the lungs, there are small sacs called alveoli that are approximately 70% capillaries. These capillaries carry deoxygenated blood from the body. As oxygen and carbon dioxide pass across the alveoli’s membrane, the capillaries take the newly oxygenated blood back to the body. Similarly, gills have small rows and columns of specialized cells grouped together called the epithelium. Deoxygenated blood in the fish is supplied directly from the heart to the epithelium via arteries, and even yet smaller arterioles. As seawater is forced across the epithelium membranes, dissolved oxygen in the seawater is taken up by tiny blood vessels and veins, while the carbon dioxide is exchanged.
Gills themselves have a car radiator-like appearance. Most fish have 4 gills on each side, consisting of a main bar-like structure that has numerous branches as that of a tree, and those branches consisting of even smaller branch-like structures. This arrangement of cells allows for a very large surface area when the gills are immersed in water.
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