TRANSPORTAT

ION IN PLANTS
AND ANIMALS
Why plants and animals need a transportation system?
• We know that all living organisms like plants and animals
need food, oxygen and water so that they can survive.

• Transport means ‘to carry things from one place to another.

• Waste products, produced due to the various functions

inside the body also need to be transported and removed.
Hence, all living organisms need a transport system in their
bodies.

• The term transport may be defined as a life process in

which a material is absorbed in one part or organ of an
organism and is carried to other parts in its body.

• In animal body, these functions are carried out by an

internal transport system called as circulatory system.
 Circulatory System

• Circulatory system or blood circulatory

system is the main transport system in
human beings and animals.

• It makes food, water and oxygen

available to every parts of the body and
helps in removing waste material (urea,
CO2, etc).

• The circulatory system consists of blood,

blood vessels and heart.
Blood
What happens when you get a cut on your body? Blood flows
out.

But what is blood?

Blood is the fluid which flows in blood vessels. It transports

substances like digested food from the small intestine to the
other parts of the body.

It carries oxygen from the lungs to the cells of the body. It also
transports waste for removal from the body.

How does the blood carry various substances?

Blood is composed of four components, i.e. plasma, Red Blood

Cells (RBCs), White Blood Cells (WBCs) and platelets. Plasma is a
liquid while RBCs, WBCs and platelets that float in it.
1. Plasma

It is the sticky liquid part of the blood which is pale yellow in colour. It is 90%
water and 3.5% common salt. It contains dissolved substance such as
digested food and waste products and carry them from one part to another
part in the body.

2. Red Blood Cells (RBCs)

RBCs are red in colour due to the presence of pigment called haemoglobin.
This pigment carries oxygen by binding with it. Haemoglobin is a red protein
that binds with oxygen and transports oxygen to all the parts of the body
and ultimately to all the cells.

It is the presence of haemoglobin which makes the blood appear red. When
haemoglobin binds with oxygen, it forms oxyhaemoglobin which is
transported to various body parts. The carbon dioixde from the various body
parts is transported back by binding again with haemoglobin. It forms
carboxyhaemoglobin with C02, this C02 is expelled out from the body.
3. White Blood Cells (WBCs)

The WBCs fight against infection and

protect us from diseases. WBCs eats up the
germs (like bacteria) that cause disease.
WBC also makes antibodies that fight
against infection.

The number of WBC is quite less than RBC.

WBC can change their shape and move on
their own. They can squeeze out of the
blood vessels to reach any part of the body.

4. Platelets

Blood platelets are small, irregular, tiny

fragments of special cells formed in the
bone marrow. These are colourless and
help in the clotting of blood in a cut or
wound.
If the platelets are not present in the blood, the
If a cut or wound is made the blood starts blood flow from the cut or wound will not stop
flowing from it, after some time the causing excess loss of blood which may be fatal to
Functions of Blood
Various functions of blood are

•It transports substances like digested

food from the small intestine to the other
parts of the body.

•It carries water to all the parts of the

body.

•It carries oxygen and C02 during

circulation.

•It carries waste products like urea from

liver to kidney for excretion in urine.

•It protects the body from disease.

 Blood Vessels
These are tubes or pipes that carry blood throughout the body. It runs
between the heart and the rest of the body. There are three major
types of blood vessels in the body, i.e. arteries, veins and capillaries.

1. Arteries
These carry blood from the heart to all the parts of the body. These lie
quite deep under our skin and cannot be seen easily. Arteries have
thick elastic walls as the blood flows at high pressure due to pumping
action from the heart through arteries. No valves are present in the
arteries.

The main artery, i.e. aorta is connected to the left ventricle of the
heart. It carries oxygenated blood from the left ventricle to all the
parts of the body except the lungs. Another artery called the
pulmonary artery is connected to the right ventricle of the heart and
carries deoxygenated blood from the right ventricle to the lungs.

Note: The arteries normally carry oxygenated blood from the heart
but one artery called pulmonary artery carries deoxygenated blood
from the heart to lungs.
Blood Groups

The blood group of an individual human being always remains

unchanged throughout their life. Karl Landsteiner described that
human blood can be divided into four groups, i.e. A, B, AB and O.
These are named on the basis of substance present in the blood
(RBC). Every man has one of these four groups of blood which is
inherited from parents to offspring and is never changed.

If a person gets injured and heavy blood loss occurs, there is a

need to give blood of other people to the patient. The person
who gives the blood is called a donor while the person who
receives the blood is called the recipient.

The process of donation of blood from one person to another

is called blood transfusion. Before donation, the blood group
must be matched because transfusion of different groups can
be dangerous. The RBCs of the patient receiving blood will
stick together and may cause the death of the patient. This
matching of blood group is called blood group compatibility.
Heart
The heart is an organ which beats continuously as
a pump for the transport of blood carrying other
substances with it, through a network of tubes or
blood vessels. The heart pumps blood throughout
our life without stopping or relaxing.

Location of Heart
The heart is located in the chest cavity slightly towards
the left side. It lies between the two lungs and above the
diaphragm. The heart is made up of special muscles
called cardiac muscles that do not fatigue and are not the
solid muscle. The size of our heart is roughly equal to our
left closed and is enclosed in a protective cover called
pericardium fist. The heart is hollow inside.

Structure of Heart
The heart has four compartments called as chambers.
The upper two chambers of heart are called atria (sing,
atrium) and the lower two chambers of heart are called
ventricles. On the left side of heart are left atrium and left
ventricle and on the right side of the heart are right
The atria and ventricles are separated by valves.
These are the muscular flaps that allow the blood to
flow in only one direction. The right side of the heart
carries deoxygenated blood while the left side of the
heart carries oxygenated blood. The heart is
separated by a partition called septum (from right
side of the heart to the left side). This prevents
mixing of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood inside
the heart.

Left and Right Side of the Heart

The left and right side of the heart act as two
separate pumps.
The left side of heart pumps the oxygenated blood
into the whole body, while the right side of heart
pumps the deoxygenated blood to the lungs. The
oxygenated blood must be kept separated from
deoxygenated blood to supply good amount of
oxygen to the body cells for respiration and release of
energy.
If the oxygenated and deoxygenated blood will mix
Heartbeat

The rhythmic contraction and relaxation

of heart muscles that produce a specific
sound of lubb-dubb is called heartbeat.

The average heartbeat of an adult person

is 72-80 beats per minute at resting but
the number increases during and after a
physical exercise or when a person is
excited.

During fast beating of heart, the blood is

pumped more rapidly to the organs to
supply more oxygen to the body cells. It
helps in rapid respiration and to produce
more energy. The heartbeat is equal to
the number of pulse in a minute.
Stethoscope

The heartbeat can be heard by an

instrument called as stethoscope. It is
used by doctor to amplify the sound
of heart. It consists of
•a chest piece that carries a sensitive
diaphragm
•two earpieces
•a tube joining both the parts

Doctors get to know about the

condition of heart by listening to the
sound through a stethoscope. Listen
the thumping sound carefully. These
sounds are the heartbeat. Count the
number of beats in a minute.
Mechanism of Circulation
The contraction of two atria is immediately followed by
the contraction of two ventricles which leads to the
continuous flow of blood in the human body. The
mechanism of circulation can be summarized as follows:

•The blood passes through the capillaries of the lungs and

is mix with oxygen. This oxygenated blood is then carried
from the lungs to the left auricle by four pulmonary veins.

•The left atrium contracts and the oxygenated blood is

pushed into left ventricles.

•The left ventricle pumps the blood into the biggest blood
vessels of the body called aorta. It distributes oxygen-rich
blood to the different parts of the body.

•The oxygenated blood is distributed to all the organs of

the body through capillaries.

•The deoxygenated blood from various organs of the body

enters from the capillaries to veins and then to the right
atrium.
•The right atrium contracts and pushes the
deoxygenated blood into right ventricles
through the opened valve.

•Right ventricles pump the impure blood into

pulmonary arteries that carry it to the right
and left lungs for purification.

•The CO2 is released as a waste product from

the lungs and again the blood absorbs oxygen
and becomes oxygenated. The valves present
on both sides of heart regulate the blood flow
from one chamber to another.
•
This cycle keeps on circulating continuously
day and night, even when we sleep.
Circulation in
Sponges and Hydra
Sponges and Hydra are
simple animals that do not
possess any circulatory
system. They live in water
and therefore, the food
and oxygen enter into
their body along with
water. The water also
carries the C02 and other
waste material away from
the body as it moves out
of their bodies.
Excretion

The process of removal of waste materials produced in the cells

of the living organism is called excretion. When our body uses
food, water and air, it produces some by-products or unwanted
substances.

These are called waste materials. These waste material are toxic
or poisonous and causes harm to the body. These poisonous
substances if get mixed with blood may become fatal and may
cause the death of an organism. Therefore, the waste material
must be removed from the body so that a person may stay
healthy.

These waste material produced after the various functions of

body cells include CO2, urea, sweat, etc. These waste materials
are removed from the body different organs of the body like
lungs (CO2), kidney (urea) and sweat glands (sweat). These parts
or organs of the body that are involved in the process of
excretion are called excretory system
Excretory System in Humans
Urea is the major waste product released in
our body. It is produced as a waste product of
the decomposition of unused food proteins in
the liver.

It is a poisonous substance which must be

removed from the body. Urea from blood is
removed by the kidney. Therefore, the kidney
is the main excretory organ in our body. The
urea and other unwanted salts when
dissolving in water form a yellowish liquid
waste called urine.

It consists of 2.5% urea, 2.5% other waste

salts and 95% water. An adult human being
normally passes out 1-1.8 L of urine per day.
The excretory system collects the urine and
remove it. The excretory system of human
Kidneys
These are called the magic filters. Kidney are bean-shaped
organs present at the back of our body, just above the waist.
It is brick red colored about 4 inches long.

It is richly supplied with blood vessels. Kidney can filter the

unwanted substances from the blood. Each kidney consists
of thousands of tiny filters called nephrons.

When the blood containing urea and other waste salts pass
through these nephrons, it filters the blood and removes
urea and salts and urine are left in the kidney.

The urine thus formed by each of the kidney is then passed

through the ureter (a tube-like structure which connects the
kidney to the bladder) to urinary bladder. The urine is stored
in the urinary bladder for some times and at regular intervals
it, is removed through the opening at the end of the tube
called urethra. The process of ejection of urine is called
micturition.

The opening of urinary bladder is controlled by the ring of

muscle called as bladder sphincter. When the bladder
becomes full with urine this bladder sphincter opens and
Carbon Dioxide

It is produced as a waste product in

our body cells during the process of
respiration. The food is broken down
during respiration to release energy
and releases CO2 as a by-product.

This CO2 is removed from our body by

the lungs during exhalation.
Therefore, lungs also act as the
excretory organs for removing the
waste product, CO2from the body.
Sweat

It is the liquid waste of the body that is

produced by the sweat glands present
in our skin. Sweat contains water,
some unwanted salts and urea in a
very small amount. During hot
summer, we sweat a lot. This gets
evaporated from our body. This helps
to provide the cooling effect to the
body. The two major functions of sweat
are as follows :

•It helps to remove excess water, salt

and urea from the body.
•It helps to keep our body cool during
hot summer days.
Dialysis
The normal functioning of the kidney is necessary for good
health of a person. But sometime s the kidney may stop
working due to infection or injury.

This condition of kidney is called kidney failure which may

lead to the accumulation of urea in the blood of a person.

Since, urea is a toxic substance which must be removed

from the blood. Such person having kidney failure cannot
survive unless his blood is filtered periodically through the
artificial kidney machine to remove urea.

The process used for cleaning the blood of a person by

separating the waste product urea from it is called dialysis.
This machine removes urea and other waste the product
periodically.

The long term solution for the patient suffering from kidney
failure is kidney transplantation. In this method, the
diseased or damaged kidney is removed and the matching
kidney is donated by a healthy person. The donated kidney
is transplanted in its place by performing surgery.
Excretion in Animals
Like humans, animals also excrete waste products
from their body. The way in which waste materials
are removed from the body of the animal depends
upon the availability of water.

Fishes are the aquatic animals that excrete

ammonia as their waste product. This ammonia is
excreted in the gaseous form which directly gets
dissolved in water.

The land animals like lizards, birds, snakes, etc,

have less water availability. These animals excrete
this waste material in the form of uric acid pellets.

These are white colored semi-solid excretory

products of several land animals. Urea is the
excretory product of animals like human, cow, goat,
etc. and is eliminated as urine.

Amoeba, Paramecium, etc., are the unicellular

organisms and their excretory products are
removed by diffusion from the body of the organism
Transport of Substances in Plants

Plants take up water and dissolved

minerals from the soil through their
roots and transport it to their leaves.

The leaves use this water and mineral

for synthesizing their food by the
process called photosynthesis. The
food produced by green plants in
transported back to all the parts of
plant body.

Therefore, it is clear that plants also

need a transport system for carrying
water, minerals and food through
various parts of their body.
Transport of Water and Minerals

Plant root absorbs the water and mineral from

the soil. The roots possess root hair which
increase the surface area of the root for
absorption of water and minerals nutrient that
is dissolved in the water. It is moved from roots
up to the stem and leaves through the tube-like
tissue called as xylem.

Absorption and flow of water is a continuous

process through the xylem tissue. Xylem tissues
are the continuous network of channels which
connect roots to the leaves through the stem
and branches. It thus transports water and
minerals to the leaves of the entire plant.
Transport of Food Material

The food manufactured in the leaf is

transported to different parts of
plants. This transportation of food
material from leaves to the other
parts of plants is carried out by the
tissue called phloem and the process
of transport of food material is called
translocation.

The phloem consists of vessels that

are known as sieve tubes.

The xylem and phloem tissues

together form the vascular bundles or
conducting tissues.
Transpiration
The process of evaporation of water through
the stomata present on the surface of leaves
is called transpiration. The continuous
evaporation of water from the leaves
produces an upward pull, called a suction
force. This force pulls the water from roots
upward through the stem, branches and
finally to the leaves.

Though transpiration causes loss of water

from the plants, still it is a necessary process
for plants due to the following reasons:

•Suction pull caused due to the evaporation of

water helps to draw water to a great height in
tall trees.
•It produces a cooling effect on the plant and
therefore, prevents the plants from the
damage caused by heat of sunlight.
The rate of transpiration increases in
a hot sunny day or in moving air. This
happens because the heat from sun
or moving air causes evaporation of
water at a faster rate from the
stomata.

Increases in the rate of transpiration

cause an increased rate of absorption
of water through the roots. Therefore,
when a potted plant is kept under the
moving fan, the absorption of water
through root will be increased along
with the increased rate of
evaporation.