1. Elephant seals from Antarctica dive into the ocean more than 1,500 meters deep at a time—nearly a mile. A seal can stay underwater for an hour or longer. To do that, the seal stores oxygen in its blood cells that is slowly released as it dives. The seal does not expend any extra energy releasing the oxygen stored in its blood cells. Do you think passive or active transport is at work in the blood cells of the elephant seal? Explain your answer.

Active transport is a mediated process that requires an energy input and the use of specialized membrane proteins to move against the concentration gradient. These proteins require energy in the form of adenosine triphosphate or ATP in order to facilitate necessary conformational changes to the large protein molecules to alter the spatial location of the molecule. For instance, with Na+, K+ pumps in cell membranes.

However, via passive transport or diffusion, small molecules can move from regions of high concentration to regions of low concentration until an equilibrium is reached. This occurs along the concentration gradient, and usually involves small non polar molecules in cells such as oxygen and carbon dioxide.

The passive process is more efficient, as ATP production for active transport requires oxygen; the O2 stores in the blood cells would be depleted quickly. This limits the depth at which the seals can dive, due to their need to resurface to replenish O2 stores.

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