dead space

Examples of dead space in the following topics:

• Dead Space: V/Q Mismatch

  • There are two types of V/Q mismatch that produce dead space.
  • Dead space is characterized by regions of broken down or blocked lung tissue.
  • Dead space is created when no ventilation and/or perfusion takes place.
  • Anatomical dead space, or anatomical shunt, arises from an anatomical failure, while physiological dead space, or physiological shunt, arises from a functional impairment of the lung or arteries.
  • Compare and contrast anatomical and physiological dead space and their role in V/Q mismatch

• The Chemical Basis for Life

  • In a nonliving environment, carbon can exist as carbon dioxide (CO2), carbonate rocks, coal, petroleum, natural gas, and dead organic matter.
  • Methane has a tetrahedral geometry, with each of the four hydrogen atoms spaced 109.5° apart.

• The Phosphorus Cycle

  • This process is responsible for dead zones in lakes and at the mouths of many major rivers .
  • A dead zone is an area within a freshwater or marine ecosystem where large areas are depleted of their normal flora and fauna.
  • The number of dead zones has been increasing for several years; more than 400 of these zones were present as of 2008.
  • One of the worst dead zones is off the coast of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico, where fertilizer runoff from the Mississippi River basin has created a dead zone of over 8,463 square miles.
  • Worldwide, large dead zones are found in coastal areas of high population density.

• Protists as Plant Pathogens

  • Many protists act as parasites that prey on plants or as decomposers that feed on dead organisms.
  • The fungus-like protist saprobes are specialized to absorb nutrients from non-living organic matter, such as dead organisms or their wastes.
  • For instance, many types of oomycetes grow on dead animals or algae.
  • Indeed, without saprobe species, such as protists, fungi, and bacteria, life would cease to exist as all organic carbon became "tied up" in dead organisms.

• Connective Tissues: Bone, Adipose, and Blood

  • Small spaces between these circles are called lacunae.
  • Another leukocyte that is found in the peripheral blood is the monocyte, which give rise to phagocytic macrophages that clean up dead and damaged cells in the body, whether they are foreign or from the host animal.

• Extremophiles and Biofilms

  • One example of a very harsh environment is the Dead Sea, a hypersaline basin that is located between Jordan and Israel.
  • In the Dead Sea, the sodium concentration is 10 times higher than that of seawater.
  • Taken together, the high concentration of divalent cations, the acidic pH (6.0), and the intense solar radiation flux make the Dead Sea a unique, and uniquely hostile, ecosystem .
  • (a) The Dead Sea is hypersaline.

• Nutrients from Other Sources

  • This may occur with plants that are parasitic or saprophytic: ingesting and utilizing dead matter as a food source.
  • A saprophyte is a plant that does not have chlorophyll, obtaining its food from dead matter, similar to bacteria and fungi.
  • Most saprophytes do not directly digest dead matter.
  • Instead, they parasitize mycorrhizae or other fungi that digest dead matter, ultimately obtaining photosynthate from a fungus that derived photosynthate from its host.
  • Saprophytes, like this Dutchmen's pipe (Monotropa hypopitys), obtain their food from dead matter and do not have chlorophyll.

• Soil Composition

  • The organic material of soil, called humus, is made up of microorganisms (dead and alive), and dead animals and plants in varying stages of decay.

• Glia

  • Microglia scavenge and degrade dead cells, protecting the brain from invading microorganisms.
  • Microglia scavenge pathogens and dead cells.

• Marine Biomes

  • The majority of organisms in the aphotic zone include sea cucumbers and other organisms that survive on the nutrients contained in the dead bodies of organisms in the photic zone.
  • The bottom of the benthic realm comprises sand, silt, and dead organisms.
  • Due to the dead organisms that fall from the upper layers of the ocean, this nutrient-rich portion of the ocean allows a diversity of life to exist, including fungi, sponges, sea anemones, marine worms, sea stars, fishes, and bacteria.