Below I discussed all the major differences between aerobic and anaerobic respiration. But if you don’t have a clear concept about aerobic respiration and anaerobic respiration then you can go through this content.
The food we take breaks down by the process of digestion in our digestive system. After digestion food absorption occurs and then it goes through cellular respiration for producing metabolic energy.
Now the process of respiration can occur in the presence of oxygen or in the absence of oxygen in our cells. When respiration occurs in the presence of oxygen we call it aerobic respiration and when the Respiration occurs in absence of oxygen we call it anaerobic respiration.
Major Differences Between Aerobic and Anaerobic Respiration:
As we know that the name of aerobic and anaerobic respiration suggest their differences but we will now learn more differences between them.
| Aerobic Respiration | Anaerobic Respiration |
| When oxygen is present in sufficient amounts this type of respiration occurs in cells. | In the absence of oxygen this type of cellular respiration occurs in our cells. |
| Gaseous exchange is necessary for aerobic respiration because oxygen supply is must in that case. | Gaseous exchange is not mandatory in anaerobic respiration because it occurs in the absence of oxygen. |
| Aerobic respiration occurs in cytoplasm or mitochondria in our cells. | This type of cellular respiration occurs in cytoplasm only. |
| As a result of aerobic respiration glucose breaks down into water and carbon dioxide. | In anaerobic cellular respiration glucose breaks down into carbon dioxide, ethanol and energy. When anaerobic respiration occurs in our muscle cells during vigorous exercise carbon dioxide is not produced, lactic acid is produced at that time. |
| In general higher organisms show aerobic respiration. But it doesn’t mean that higher organisms always show aerobic respiration and never show anaerobic respiration. Higher organisms also perform anaerobic respiration in some special cases. For example our muscle cells perform anaerobic cellular respiration when we do vigorous exercise. | In general not well developed organisms like yeasts, bacteria perform aerobic respiration. |
Basic Concepts about Aerobic Respiration:
The world aerobic will tell you the meaning of aerobic respiration. Aerobic refers to the air which means that air means oxygen is required for this type of cellular respiration. Most of the higher plants and animals use aerobic respiration in which oxygen is used to release the energy stored in food.
When we breathe in oxygen enters our respiratory system which reaches to all the body cells. Inside the cells oxygen breaks down the glucose molecules for releasing metabolic energy which is used for maintaining cellular activity.
During respiration the carbon dioxide produced is expelled from our body through breath out. Aerobic respiration occurs continuously to release oxygen from the food in our body.
Basic Concepts About Anaerobic Respiration:
The word anaerobic means without air means without oxygen which occurs in the absence of oxygen. Anaerobic respiration occurs in the organism when oxygen is not sufficient but they need energy. Then they meet their energy requirements by the process of anaerobic respiration in the absence of oxygen.
In general anaerobic respiration occurs in lower organisms but in higher organisms when a lot of energy is required they also perform anaerobic respiration. When we participate in heavy exercise like cycling, running, weight lifting we need a lot of energy during anaerobic respiration occurring in our body cells which produce lactic acid.
Muscle cramps during vigorous exercise is due to the production of lactic acid in anaerobic respiration due to partial breakdown of glucose. But during anaerobic respiration the amount of energy released is less than the energy released during aerobic respiration because in Anaerobic respiration glucose do not break down completely.
Resources: Differences Between Aerobic and Anaerobic Respiration
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