Life Processes: Excretion and Plant Transport

Vocabulary-style flashcards covering plant transport mechanisms, the human excretory system, nephron function, dialysis, and plant excretion strategies based on the lecture notes.

Phloem transport mechanism

The movement of materials like sucrose using energy from ATP to increase osmotic pressure, letting material move to tissues with less pressure according to the plant's needs.

Excretion

The biological process involved in the removal of harmful nitrogenous metabolic wastes from the body.

Unicellular organism excretion

The removal of wastes by simple diffusion from the body surface into the surrounding water.

Human Excretory System components

A system including a pair of kidneys, a pair of ureters, a urinary bladder, and a urethra.

Kidneys

Organs located in the abdomen, one on either side of the backbone, that filter waste products like urea or uric acid from the blood.

Ureters

A pair of long tubes that connect each kidney to the urinary bladder for the passage of urine.

Urinary bladder

A muscular organ under nervous control that stores urine until pressure leads to the urge to pass it out through the urethra.

Nephrons

Large numbers of basic filtration units packed close together in the kidney, consisting of a capillary cluster and a coiled tube.

Bowman's capsule

The cup-shaped end of a coiled tube that collects the filtrate from the associated capillary cluster in the kidney.

Selective re-absorption

The process where substances in the initial filtrate, such as glucose, amino acids, salts, and a major amount of water, are taken back as urine flows along the tube.

Artificial kidney (Hemodialysis)

A device used in case of kidney failure to remove nitrogenous waste products from the blood through a selectively permeable membrane.

Dialysing fluid

Fluid used in an artificial kidney that has the same osmotic pressure as blood but is devoid of nitrogenous wastes.

Initial filtrate volume

In a healthy adult, this volume is about $180\,L$ daily, though only a litre or two is actually excreted.

Organ donation

A generous act of surgically removing an organ from a donor and transplanting it to a recipient who suffers from organ non-function.

Plant excretory products

Includes oxygen from photosynthesis, excess water via transpiration, and other wastes stored in cellular vacuoles, leaves, or as resins and gums.

Resins and gums

Waste products in plants that are specifically stored in old xylem.