Final answer:
Protists eliminate waste by expelling excess water through contractile vacuoles and removing undigested remains via exocytosis. They maintain osmoregulation to balance internal water and solutes.
Step-by-step explanation:
How Protists Eliminate Waste:
- Protists have various methods to eliminate waste resulting from their metabolism. Like other organisms, protists must engage in osmoregulation to maintain the proper balance of water and solutes within their cells.
- For freshwater protists, such as Paramecia, contractile vacuoles play a crucial role in getting rid of excess water. These vacuoles collect water from the cytosol and then contract to expel it out of the cell, maintaining the right osmotic pressure.
- When it comes to metabolic waste from digestion, protists like amoebas use phagocytosis to ingest their food, which is then digested in food vacuoles with the help of lysosomes. After digestion, small molecules are absorbed into the cytoplasm, and undigested remains are expelled via exocytosis.
- In terms of solid waste elimination, some protists also use pseudopodia or filter-feeder mechanisms, where flagella create currents to bring food inside, and waste products are then excreted.