Explain why small, unicellular organisms such as Amoeba live in water?

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Mandy C

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Explain why small, unicellular organisms such as Amoeba live in water?

This is a sub-question which stems from other questions about the diffusion of oxygen into organisms.
 
Amoeba take up water constantly through the process of osmosis because via porous cell membrane. The amoeba "breathes" using this membrane - oxygen gas from the water passes in to the amoeba through the cell membrane and carbon dioxide gas leaves through it.

Since unicellular organism has large surface area to volume ratio, (without specialized organ for breathing) if they lived on land, they would dry up rather quickly. For this reason they must perform gas exchange in water.
 
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