CCEA AS Biology Unit 2 (Syllabus Point 2.1.21) Composition and Functions of Mammalian Body Fluids

These notes have been added specifically to meet the criteria set by CCEA, in their A Level Biology specification. This specification can be found on their site. The reason for CCEA specific notes is due to the fact that from my experience of studying for my exams with this board, there have never been very much resources available, as all resources have usually been for the OCR, WJEC and AQA examination boards.

 There has been an incredible student unit guide released by Philip Allan Updates, written by John Campton (a senior examiner). This guide is very valuable, and I would suggest for anyone studying CCEA AS/A2 Biology to buy these student unit guides, as they will provide you with the exact information that you need to know for the examinations.

Anyways, after this lengthly introduction. I will not present you with the notes.

Adaptations of Erythrocytes for Oxygen transport

Erythrocytes is another name for Red Blood Cells.

The Role of Erythrocytes is for Oxygen transport around the body.

Erythrocytes contain the pigment haemoglobin. This collects oxygen easily at the lungs, and releases it at the respiring tissues (reasons for this can be seen from oxygen dissociation curves, which will be added later).

Erythrocytes have a flexible cell membrane.

This allows the cell to be squeezed through narrow capillaries.

They are extremely small, and have a…