What is the form of enantiostasis in estuarine organisms?

Answer 1

With the help of Enantiostasis an estuarine organism is able to maintain metabolic functions while withstanding the extreme fluctuation in conditions. Organisms that do this are called osmoconformers and osmoregulators.

Two major types of osmoregulation are osmoconformers and osmoregulators. They apply to both plants and animals.

Osmoregulation is the active regulation of the osmotic pressure of an organism's fluids to maintain the homeostasis, or equilibrium, of the organism's water content; that is it keeps the organism's fluids from becoming too diluted or too concentrated.

These organisms are unable to tolerate a range of salt concentrations in their body fluids and so avoid changes in their internal environment by keeping the solutes at an optimum level.

Fast-swimming organisms such as fish overcome this variation by moving away during a change in the salt concentration of the water.

Most molluscs can close their shells and wait until the external environment is favourable again. Bottom-dwellers can burrow into the mud or sand. Another example is Freshwater Fish. The gills actively uptake salt from the environment by the use of mitochondria rich cells. Water will diffuse into the fish, so the fish excretes very hypotonic (dilute) urine to expel all excess water.

Osmoconformers work differently, almost opposite to osmoregulators in fact. As the name suggests they conform to the surrounding environment by altering the concentration of their internal solutes. Their metabolic processes are able to tolerate any changes in salinity in their own body fluids and cells, a contrast to osmoregulators.A marine fish for example,

forrfhas an internal osmotic concentration lower than that of the surrounding seawater, so it tends to lose water and gain salt. It actively excretes salt

out from the gills and very hypertonic (concentrated) urine.

Plants in mangroves and coastal marshes, also known as Halophyes, live in the boundary between salt and fresh water. However since plants cannot move, they overcome this variation in the ecosystem by means of salt barriers, secretion of salt and salt deposits.

Secretion is when some plants concentrate salt and get rid of it through special glands on the leaves, often very visible as you can see. Such examples include the Grey or River Mangroves.

Salt deposits are where salt is usually deposited in older tissues, branches or leaves which are then discarded in order to get rid of the salt.

Salt barriers are special tissues in the roots and lower stems that stop salt from entering the plant but still allows water uptake.

Answer 2

Enantiostasis in estuarine organisms refers to their ability to maintain physiological balance in fluctuating conditions, such as salinity changes, within estuarine environments. This adaptation allows them to regulate their internal environment despite varying external conditions, ensuring their survival in dynamic estuarine habitats.