Final answer:
Salt and slugs are related to osmosis because when salt is applied to slugs, it creates a high concentration of solute outside the slug's body, causing water to leave the slug's cells through osmosis, often resulting in the slug's death due to dehydration.
Step-by-step explanation:
Osmosis is the movement of water across a semipermeable membrane from an area of lower solute concentration to an area of higher solute concentration. When it comes to slugs and salt, osmosis plays a pivotal role. The body of a slug is made up of cells that contain vital fluids within a membrane. If salt is sprinkled on a slug, the high concentration of salt outside the slug's body causes water to move out of the slug's cells to the area of higher salt concentration outside, through the process of osmosis. This results in dehydration and can ultimately lead to the death of the slug.
This process demonstrates a real-world application of osmosis where living organisms need to maintain proper water balance for survival. In environments with high osmotic pressure, water leaves the cells, potentially leading to cell death through a process known as plasmolysis. Organisms that thrive in such environments, like halophiles, have adapted to tolerate or even require high concentrations of salt. Conversely, cells placed in hypotonic solutions (lower solute concentration) than their internal environment can swell and burst, a process called hemolysis in red blood cells. To prevent these harmful effects, cells and organisms must regulate their internal osmotic pressure, a process known as osmoregulation, balancing the water and salts within their bodies.