Countercurrent heat exchange transfers heat between fluids that are flowing in opposite directions.
Terrestrial and Aquatic animals use countercurrent exchange to trap heat in the body’s core in cold environments.
Terrestrial and Aquatic animals use countercurrent exchange to trap heat in the body’s core in cold environments.
- Arteries with warm blood are in close contact with veins with cold blood that run in the opposite direction, back toward the trunk of the body. Heat transfers from the arteries to the veins in the entire length of the blood vessel.
- Near the end of the leg or flipper, the arterial blood is cooler than the animal’s core temperature, but it still transfers heat to the even colder blood in the veins, then the blood in the veins gets colder as it travels and picks up more heat from the artery.
- As the veins approach the center of the body, the blood is almost as warm as the body’s core.