The job of the respiratory system is to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide with the blood as well as adjust blood pH levels. These events will be examined in this series of mini-tutorials.
The overall design shows the respiratory system as a flask in the upper left section and body cells as a circle in the lower right. Connecting the two is a 'raceway' representing the circulatory system with pulmonary capillaries encircling the respiratory system and systemic capillaries encircling the body cell. Arteries and venuoles are labeled and block arrows in the 'raceway' indicate the direction of blood flow.
The oval in the center of the map represents a red blood cell as it passes through the capillaries. The red arrows indicate the direction of chemical reactions that occur in the pulmonary capillaries while the blue arrows indicate the direction of chemical reactions that occur in the systemic capillaries.
Neural controls are scattered along the left border of the map. Solid lines in this area represent stimulatory nerves while dashed lines represent inhibitory nerves.
Last Updated: 7/18/2005