Why do we need a transport system?

Glucose and oxygen needed for respiration, amino acids and other essential food
molecules for cell-building and growth, and the removal of poisonous waste
products are all the basic things cells need. These must be transported from
outside the organism into the cells. For a unicellular organism such as amoeba,
nutrients and oxygen can diffuse directly into the cell from its external
environment, and waste substances can diffuse directly out. This is because the
surface area of the amoeba is very large in relative to the volume of the inside of
its cell. So, its surface area to volume ratio is large. Another example of a species
with a large surface area to volume ratio is flatworm. Their body is typically
flattened, it is much wider than it is tall, thus increases the surface area to
volume ratio. In contrast to unicellular organisms such as an amoeba, larger
organisms such as humans, are made up of billions of cells, often organise into
specialised organs and tissues. Their surface area to volume ratio is small;
therefore substances need to travel a long distance from the outside to reach all
body cells. Simple diffusion is not efficient enough as it is not fast enough for
nutrients and oxygen to reach the inner cells of the body to sustain the
processes of life. This is why complex multicellular organisms have evolved
specialised systems to get food and oxygen into their bodies and to remove
waste. They also have an internal transport system which carries substances to
every cell in the body, delivering oxygen and nutrients and taking away waste
quickly to prevent them from damaging the cells. In humans, this transport
system is the heart and circulatory system and the blood flows through it.
Substances are transported in the flow of the fluid with a mechanism for moving
it around the body to reach all body cells and are delivered over short distances
from the transport system to individual cells by processes such as diffusion,
osmosis and active transport.
In addition to the circulatory system, the human body has the lymphatic system.
To cope with the portion of blood plasma, also called extracellular fluid, leaking
out of capillaries and surround tissue cells, fluid is able to drain into the system
of tubes that increase with size from the tiny lymph capillaries to lymph vessels
to lymph ducts. The extracellular fluid contains oxygen, glucose, amino acids and
other nutrients needed by tissue cells. The fluid eventually collects together into
two large collecting ducts, the thoracic duct and the right lymphatic duct, and is
drained back into the blood at the right and left subclavian veins prior to the
blood returning to the heart at the right atrium. The lymphatic vessels are
punctuated at intervals by lymph nodes that remove foreign materials such as
infectious microorganisms. The movement of the fluid is aided by the force of the
muscles attached to the skeleton. There are also semilunar valves that restrict
the back flow of fluid.

http://sciencelearn.org.nz/Contexts/You-Me-and-UV/Science-Ideas-andConcepts/Lymphatic-system
http://www.lymphnotes.com/article.php/id/151/
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/352770/lymphatic-system
http://www.abpischools.org.uk/page/modules/heartandcirculation/heart2.cfm?
coSiteNavigation_allTopic=1
Edexcel AS Biology textbook by Ann Fullick