Question

PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!

1) If you were lost at sea and you drank salty seawater, what would you expect to happen to the cells in your body?(shrink,swell,or stay same size )why do you think that?

2) A large-mouth bass is taken from a fresh water lake and transplanted into the river. If the conditions for survival are optimal, would you expect the cells in the fish to shrink,swell,or stay same size why do you think that?

3) If a sea star egg is taken from the ocean and put into Elk Lake would you expect the egg to shrink ,swell,or stay same size why do you think that?

Answer 1

1) Our body cells would shrink because the excessive assumption of salt (from the salty seawater), would lead us to use and expel the clean/fresh water we already have out of our body (we'd urinate more as our kidneys would try hard to expel the salt, and we'd use more water than usual as our cells would try to dilute the salt);

2) I would expect the cells in the fish to stay the same size as both waters have a similar environment and saline level;

3) I'd expect it to swell because the ocean is saltier than lakes; it would swell because it would absorb more water than it did its usual environment.

Answer 2

1. The correct answer is; are body cells is going to shrink. Salty seawater is a hyperosmotic solution, meaning that it has more solutes than the cell inside. The water will move (from the cell) via osmosis in order for the solutions to reach equilibrium. Also, salty solution exerts more pressure on the of the cell, so the cell will shrink.

2. The correct answer cells in the fish will stay the same size. This will occur because both solutions, freshwater lake and river have similar (or equal) solute concentrations. Those solutions are called isosmotic. There is no movement of water or the solutes, so the cell stays the same.

3. The correct answer is to swell. This will happen because sea star egg has the same solute concentration as its first environment-ocean meaning that this solution is hyperosmotic comparing to the lake (ocean is saltier than the lake, it has more solutes). When you put the sea star egg in the lake, the water from the lake will move (via osmosis) into the egg, to reach equilibrium. Water will cause the cell to swell.