Final answer:
The bicarbonate response in the human body is a buffering system that helps maintain pH balance. It takes only seconds for the chemical buffers in the blood to make adjustments to pH, while the respiratory tract can adjust blood pH upward in minutes.
Step-by-step explanation:
The bicarbonate response in the human body is a buffering system that helps maintain pH balance. It works by capturing free ions and preventing significant changes in pH. The bicarbonate buffer system is most efficient at buffering changes that would make the blood more acidic, as it has a 20:1 ratio of bicarbonate ions to carbonic acid. It takes only seconds for the chemical buffers in the blood to make adjustments to pH, while the respiratory tract can adjust the blood pH upward in minutes by exhaling CO2 from the body. The renal system can also adjust blood pH through the excretion of hydrogen ions and the conservation of bicarbonate, but this process takes hours to days to have an effect.