Transportation in Animals and Plants

All the organisms need to transport water, food, minerals, oxygen to different parts of the body. They help in the growth and respiration of the cells. The waste products are transported to the excretory organs for elimination from the body. Plants and animals have different organs and processes for the transportation of substances. Let us have a look at the transportation in animals and plants in detail.

Transportation in Animals

Transportation in animals is the combined effort of the circulatory system, and the excretory system.

• Blood is the fluid that flows in the blood vessels and transports the digested food from the small intestine to various parts of the body.
• There are two types of blood vessels- arteries and veins. The arteries carry oxygen-rich blood from the heart to different parts of the body and the oxygen-deficit blood is transported through the veins from all parts of the body to the heart.
• The heart is the main organ that pumps blood throughout the body.
• The process of removal of waste out of the cells is called excretion.
• The nitrogenous waste, excess sugar in the blood, excess salts, undigested wastes, and carbon dioxide are the substances to be excreted from the body.
• The lower organisms like amoeba, hydra, paramecium excrete the nitrogenous waste by the process of diffusion through the cell membrane, as they lack special excretory organs.
• The human excretory system constitutes kidneys, ureter, urinary bladder, urethra.
• Kidneys are the main excretory organ which regulates the balance of water and minerals in the body. They absorb minerals in the blood and eliminate the nitrogenous waste from the blood in the form of urine.

Transportation in Plants

It is an important process to circulate water, essential nutrients, gases, and excretory products within the plant for various purposes. The vascular tissues are responsible for transportation in plants. The suction force helps in the transportation of water and minerals in the plant.

• Xylem is a vascular tissue involved in the conduction of water from root hairs to the rest of the plant parts.
• The transportation in the phloem is bidirectional. The food molecules are transported to the necessary regions with the help of phloem.
• The root hairs absorb water and minerals from the soil and store it in vacuoles. This water is absorbed by the plants by the suction force.
• The excess water in the plants is lost in the form of water vapour through the stomata in the leaves. This process is known as transpiration.
• The prepared food substances are translocated to different organs of the plant through the phloem. The excess food is stored in the storage organs of the plant.

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