Osmoregulation is an example of an organism maintaining homeostasis. More specifically, osmoregulation involves an animal regulating its osmotic pressure or its fluid content. Brine shrimp, Artemia, use osmoregulation to regulate the salt levels of fluids within their bodies. Because brine shrimp live in seawater, an environment with a high salt concentration, they must actively excrete excess salt. Brine shrimp use metepipodites as the site of the ion pump that secretes sodium. This is an active transport of ions because it moves against the gradient a higher salt content out of the body. The following two studies describe the ideal environmental conditions for brine shrimp and the possible genetic explanation for the osmoregulation of brine shrimp, respectively. In the first study reviewed, “Effect of Different Salinities on the Survival and Growth of Artemina Spp,” researchers Soundaraparian and Saravanakumar designed an experiment to ascertain the ideal conditions for the growth of brine shrimp, or Artemina. In the introduction, scientists highlight the growing importance of artemin, as it is now used as a live food for more than 85% of farmed species worldwide. Therefore, the demand to grow huge quantities of Artemia has emerged, making this study incredibly relevant. The experiment measured the survival rate, growth rate and size of then-harvested brine shrimp in various environments. To obtain these measurements, three environments were created: seawater, brackish water and freshwater. For this experiment the scientists used 5-liter plastic buckets. Every two days, half of the water in each bucket was discarded and new water, of each respective salinity, was added into each bucket... in the center of the card... incredibly relevant to today's world. Brine shrimp are also used as guinea pigs due to their incredible resistance and are also sold as novelties, "sea monkeys". Unfortunately, in some cases these unique creatures have been threatened as water is diverted (for human use) from high salinity environments inhabited by brine shrimp. As a result, the water becomes more saline and usually causes an increase in pH which can endanger the shrimp. The information provided in these two studies shows the necessity, function, means and genetic explanation of osmoregulation. As humans continue to impact the environment, changing salinity will result in a changing need for osmoregulation, and as a result, future scientists will need to explore how organisms may react to the need to osmoregulate more or less, and how this will affect the survival of populations of organisms. as a whole.
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