help with T3.8 - enantiostasis (1 Viewer)

yasminee96

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Okay, this dotpoint is going to make me lose it -_-

the dotpoint asks me to "discuss its importance to estuarine organisms blah blah"

how exactly do i discuss this? in every resource on BOS, people seemed to just give examples of osmoconformers and osmoregulators and how they use enantiostasis...

someone PLEASE clarify what im supposed to do for this dotpoint
 

epz

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Hey Yasminee96,
I was pretty ticked off by this question too!
But usually when I am unsure about what is the right way of answering a question, I usually look at HSC Online as they have great summaries to dot points and are often used by teachers themselves. Since its university endorsed, I usually assume that it's the right way of answering it too. It may be a bit brief, but I am sure once you get the jist of it, you can expand on it with a little bit of research.
Anyways, take a look at : this.

I know this doesn't completely answer your question, but no where could I find anything related to DISCUSS. They all talked about osmoconformers and osmoregulators as you said. However, I hope it still helps you as I am stuck on this as much as you are.
 

yasminee96

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Hey Yasminee96,
I was pretty ticked off by this question too!
But usually when I am unsure about what is the right way of answering a question, I usually look at HSC Online as they have great summaries to dot points and are often used by teachers themselves. Since its university endorsed, I usually assume that it's the right way of answering it too. It may be a bit brief, but I am sure once you get the jist of it, you can expand on it with a little bit of research.
Anyways, take a look at : this.

I know this doesn't completely answer your question, but no where could I find anything related to DISCUSS. They all talked about osmoconformers and osmoregulators as you said. However, I hope it still helps you as I am stuck on this as much as you are.

Okay, if that's what everyone else is doing, it can't be wrong, right? :)

woah, is that your notes? if not, how do i access them. They seem pretty good and detailed!

It's a silly dotpoint i guess. Thank you heaps, though ! :)
 
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The ability to maintain metabolic and physiological functions in response to variations in the environment is called enantiostasis. It is applicable to any organisms living in estuarine ecosystems, especially mangroves.
All organisms living in an estuary experience large changes in salt concentration in their environment over a relatively short time span, with the tidal movement and mixing of fresh and salt water. Organisms that must tolerate wide fluctuations of salinity are said to be euryhaline.
One strategy to withstand such changes in salt concentration is to allow the body's osmotic pressure to vary with that of the environment. Organisms that do this, and therefore do not maintain homeostasis, are said to be osmoconformers. Most marine invertebrates are osmoconformers. In contrast, marine mammals and most fish are osmoregulators, maintaining homeostasis regardless of the osmotic pressure of the environment.
However, as the salt concentration of body fluids in an osmoconformer changes, various body functions are affected, such as the activity of enzymes. For normal functioning to be maintained, another body function must be changed in a way that compensates for the change in enzyme activity.
One example of enantiostasis is when a change in salt concentration in the body fluid, which reduces the efficiency of an enzyme, is compensated for by a change in pH, which increases the efficiency of the same enzyme
.
 
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I'm also interested in where you got the powerpoint from.
But basically i would talk about how vital enantiostasis is for organisms which live in estuarine environments.
 
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Personally, i'd talk about what an estuarine environment is and the implications it has on organisms in the area if they can't regulate their own water levels. Then I would give an example of an adaptation that allows enantiostasis (mangroves actively exclude salt when absorbing water, concentrate salt to dead levels which then drop off etc).
 

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Discuss basically means why they need enantiostasis, which is because they need to maintain metabolic functions constantly even in wildly fluctuating salinity levels. Think what happens if a plant or animal takes in too much salt, how does this disrupt the organism's function? (Conc of solutes etc.) Avicennia marina (Grey Mangroves) are a great example, they perform enantiostasis by doing thing as excreting salt crystals from the underside of the leaves and excluding salt in their water uptake from their roots.
 

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