Fish have gills which enables them to live in water. What does aquatic plants have as compared to trees?
In: Biology
Plants don’t need to actively breathe like animals do. Instead, CO2 and oxygen can just trickle through their skin.
However, there is an important difference between how that works with land and underwater plants: The cell membranes that let through those gases can also let out water vapor and dry the plant out unless it’s submerged. For that reason, land plants have evolved a thicker type of membrane that blocks off gases and instead use small holes called “[stoma](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/Tomato_leaf_stomate_1.jpg)”. Plants can open and close these holes in order to regulate gas exchange: If it’s wet and humid, they open so the plants can breathe as much as possible. If it’s dry, they can close to minimize the loss of water.
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