Question

What is osmoregulation?

Answer 1

Osmoregulation means the physiological process that an organism uses to maintain water balance.

Explanation:

Osmoregulation is important to compensate for water loss, avoid excess water gain and maintain the proper osmotic concentration of the body fluids. It maintains the fluid balance and the concentration of electrolytes (salts and solution) to keep the fluids from behing too diluted.

Organisms in aquatic and terrestrial environments must maintain the right concentration of solutes and amount of water in their body fluids. It also involves excretion of metabolic nitrogenous wastes and other substances such as hormones that would be toxic if allowed to accumulate in the blood. This is done through organs such as skin and kidneys.

In higher animals, besides kidneys some of the organs like skin (urea), lungs (carbon dioxide), and liver (cholesterol) also act as accessory excretory organs.