Osmoconformers and osmoregulators Osmoconformers and osmoregulators Water comes into the body in many different ways, mainly through food and drinks. They way water can leave the body is through urination, defecating, sweating, and breathing. Aquatic animals do not have to worry about water evaporation, but they experience the uptake and loss of water across the body surface through osmosis. If an animal is protected by their covering that impedes water loss and or gain, specialized epithelia that must be exposed to the environment in order to exchange gases cannot be waterproof.
Osmosis is a special movement of water across a selective permeable membrane.
It normally occurs whenever two solutions separate by the membrane differ in the total solute concentration, or osmolarity. Osmolarity is defined as the total solute concentration expressed as morality, or moles of solute per liter of solution. There is no problem when it comes to the water balance of mammals because there are two complex solutions. One answer to the problem is the natural adaptation that marine animals due, being isotonic with their salt-water environment. Animals that are not actively adjusting their internal osmolarity are called osmoconformers.