Homeostasis Essay
Submitted By zabeczka2013
Words: 1043
Pages: 5
Homeostasis: Homeostasis is a balance of internal conditions within living organisms. Although the environment could change on the outside of these living organisms, homeostasis keeps internal conditions stable. An example of homeostasis is body temperature regulation in humans. Regardless of the external temperature, the core temperature of a healthy individual typically remains the same, at 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. (Unless under extreme conditions. For example, being below freezing weather and under dressed, could cause the core temperature to decrease, so the heart would pump the blood to the most vital parts of the body, thus making the limbs vulnerable to frostbite because of the lack of blood flow.) Another good example of the human body maintaining homeostasis is the body maintaining blood pressure. The heart can sense any kind of changes happening in blood pressure, and it sends this information to the brain. In turn, the brain tells the heart how to respond to the change. If it senses a decrease in blood pressure, it’ll speed up, and if it senses an increase, it’ll slow down.
Homeostasis Importance: Homeostasis is important because if the body is internally not in balance, things could go terribly wrong, and would make living organism unable to function. In my explanation of homeostasis, I had provided one example of what would happen to the human body if the internal temperature were to decrease. Frostbite would affect a living organisms ability to function because it would be missing limbs. CO2 in the blood is filtered out through the lungs through gas exchange. We breathe in oxygen; it travels through the throat, through the bronchial tubes, to the alveoli. Blood that needs oxygen enters the lung capillary beds, where the oxygen is supplied to the cells and carbon dioxide diffuses into the lungs and is removed by exhaling. The kidneys are another important part of homeostasis. They regulate pH by filtering the blood and removing the waste from it. They do this with the many nephrons that they contain. Waste and excess water is filtered through these nephrons, which in turn creates urine.
Stress Factors:
Energy- When it is hungry, it waits for something edible to walk by and it lunges at it with incredible speed. It uses its webbed feed (which have a high surface area) to push itself out water or ground for extra speed. They do not need much food to survive because they are ectothermic.
Danger/Young/Mates- It uses its webbed feed (which have a high surface area) to push itself out water or ground for extra speed. It is equipped with skin sensors that are sensitive to vibrations. They allow the Florigator to detect anything moving in the water nearby.
Chemicals- The Florigator contains buffers in its blood that regulate its pH, just like humans. The normal pH of a Florigator is 8.1. If there is too much acid in the Florigator’s body, they sweat (kind of) to get rid of the extra carbon dioxide. If there is too much base in their bodies, they will die
Water- How the Florigator regulates its water is with its scales, which contain a protein called keratin. This protein locks in all of the water within the Florigator’s body, which in turn allows it to move away from water and not dehydrate.
Temperature- How the Florigator regulates its body temperature is by changing the environment that it is in. Say that it needs to warm up, the Florigator will move into a warm part of the swamp or it will move into direct sun. If the Florigator needs to cool off, it will move into water or into shade.
Regulation of pH:
The Florigator contains buffers in its blood that regulate its pH, just like humans. The normal pH of a Florigator is 8.1. If there is too much acid in the Florigator’s body, they sweat (kind of) to get rid of the extra carbon dioxide.
If there is too much base in their bodies, they will die.
Regulation of Water: How the Florigator regulates its water is with its scales,
