Human and Social Biology - SECTION A

Characteristics of living organisms:

1. Nutrition is the intake of food material from the environment in order to produce energy
needed and provide.
Autotrophic Nutrition: organisms that make their own food such as plants.
Heterotrophic Nutrition: Organisms that need readymade food including herbivores, carnivores
and omnivores.

2. Growth is the increase in weight and size.

3. Excretion is the removal of harmful products of metabolism. Egestion is the removal of
undigested products which havent entered the cell.

4. Respiration is the release of energy from food: oxygen +food+ chemical process in the body
= energy. It is the breakdown of food inside a living organism it is vital for survival.
There are two types of respiration:
- Aerobic Respiration which involves O
2
& glucose breaking down to form CO
2
water & energy.
- Anaerobic Respiration which is the incomplete breakdown of food. This happens when there is
not enough oxygen.
Equation: Glucose & O
2
(not enough or none at all) to form CO
2
Lactic Acid or Alcohol
(depending on the organism) & a little ENERGY.

5. Movement is the locomotion of the body. Most organisms are able to move their whole body
even plants can shift their stem towards the sunlight and their roots move towards healthy soil.

6. Irritability is the ability to react to outer and inner changes of the body or the ability to detect
and respond to a stimulus.

7. Reproduction is the ability to produce new individuals like one self.









Human and Social Biology - SECTION A
Structure of a typical unspecialised plant cell


Structure of a typical unspecialised animal cell




Human and Social Biology - SECTION A
Function of Cell Structures
CELL WALL
This provides structure, support and rigidity to the plant to give it its shape.

CELL MEMBRANE
The cell membrane controls what enters and leaves the cell, it also provides firmness to the cell.

NUCLEUS
This is the control center of the plant,it houses DNA which controls cellular functioning.

Nucleus
This creates ribosomes.

Ribosomes
Ribosomes create proteins that your body needs by rearranging strands of amino acids in the
system.

Cytoplasm
This helps the cell keep some shape so that it doesnt get deflated.

Mitochondria
The mitochondria provides energy for the cell.

Vacuoles
Stores food, water, waste products, and other materials. Also keeps cell membrane strong and
keeps the adult plant upright.

Chloroplasts
They contain the green pigment chlorophyll, which traps light energy for photosynthesis.

Smooth Endoplasmic reticulum
Responsible for breaking down toxic substances, in the body and also creates some of the lipids
in the body.

Rough endoplasmic reticulum
This transports proteins around the cell to do what needs to be done.
Specie is a group of organisms that share the many similar appearances and can bread with each
other. Species are scientifically named by two names in Latin to avoid differences in languages.
The first name is the name of the genus while the second name is the species name e.g. WOLF
(Cannis Lupus)


Human and Social Biology - SECTION A
Microbes
Microbes include:
- Virus
- Bacteria
- Fungi


Structure of a typical virus

Viruses can replicate only inside the living cell of organisms, they can infect all types of
organisms. It has a protein coat around the DNA or RNA.

How a virus replicates (multiplies)
1. Virus ejects its DNA or RNA into the cell
2. The genetic material multiplies
3. New viruses are formed inside the cell and then burst out of the cell.







Human and Social Biology - SECTION A
Structure of a typical bacteria

They are unicellular organisms that do not have a membrane-enclosed nucleus nor others
membrane enclosed organelles like mitochondria and chloroplast. They reproduce asexually by
binary fission every 20 minutes (if the conditions are favourable).

Structure of a typical mould fungus

Human and Social Biology - SECTION A
Structure of a typical fungi cell

Fungi reproduce asexually by spore formation or by budding (in yeast) but in bad
conditions it reproduces sexually for survival.

Type of Cells which make up the human body
1. Epithelial cell:

2. Sperm cell:

Human and Social Biology - SECTION A
3. Egg cell:


4. Nerve Cell:


5. Muscle Cell:


Human and Social Biology - SECTION A
Cell specialization is when a group of cells work together by performing individual tasks for
large organs and tissues. Such as when blood cells carry nutrients, skin cells protect the interior
of the body, etc.
An organism may either be unicellular (a single cell) or, as in the case of humans, comprise
many trillions of cells grouped into specialized tissues and organs. The term multicellular (many
cells) describes any organism made up of more than one cell.
Osmosis
It is the movement of water from a region of high concentration (a dilute solution) to a region of
low concentration (a concentrated solution) down the concentration gradient through a semi
permeable membrane. A hypertonic solution has higher concentration of salt; a hypotonic
solution has a higher concentration of water and an isotonic solution as an equal concentration of
water and salt.
Example: Plant absorbs water from the earth through the process of osmosis. Exchange of water in body
fluids and body cells in animals (including humans) takes place through osmosis.

Diffusion
It is the movement of a molecule from a region of high concentration to a region of low
concentration down the concentration gradient which is the difference in concentration of the
substance, the greater the difference the higher the rate of diffusion.

The rate of diffusion depends on:
Concentration gradient
Temperature
Size of molecule
Surface area
Permeability of membrane

Example: Oxygen is passed from lungs to cells by a process of diffusion.
Active Transport
It is the movement of ions from a region of low concentration to a region of high concentration,
against the concentration gradient requiring protein carriers.
Example: The uptake of glucose in the intestines in humans and the uptake of mineral ions into
root hair cells of plants.
Human and Social Biology - SECTION A
Chlorophyll
Comparison



Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis is the process in which plants convert sunlight into energy and store it as sugar.
Word Equation:
Carbon dioxide + water glucose + oxygen

The plant uses special green pigments called chlorophyll to absorb the energy from the sun
Plants absorb red and blue light into the thylakoid membrane found in the chloroplast of the plant
cell, converting it to chemical energy. The chemical energy also is known as adenosine
triphosphate, or ATP. Within the chloroplast, carbon dioxide is combined with components from
the ATP process to form sugar.
Plants produce sugars (glucose) from water and carbon dioxide through a process called
photosynthesis. The energy for that process comes from light, which is absorbed by a molecule
called chlorophyll and transformed into energy the plant can use for its biochemical processes.
Once the sugars are produced, they are transformed into insoluble macromolecules, called starch,
Living organisms depend on plants directly or indirectly for food
Plants take energy from the sun, and convert it into usable energy for itself. Animals can take
advantage of this energy by eating the plant, thus gaining the energy. Also animals can then eat
other animals that depend on plants as their food source.
A food chain is a series of organisms, each of which is the food supply of a higher feeding level.
e.g. cabbage snail bird snake
The trophic level of an organism is the position it occupies in a food chain.

Light energy
Human and Social Biology - SECTION A


Ecosystems

Ecology is the study of living organisms and their environment. Its aim it to explain why
organisms live where they do: to do this ecologists study ecosystems, areas that can vary in size
from a pond to the whole planet.

Ecosystem: A reasonably self-contained area together with all its living organisms.

Habitat: The physical or abiotic part of an ecosystem, i.e. a defined area with specific
characteristics where the organisms live, e.g. oak forest, deep sea, sand dune,
rocky shore, moorland, hedgerow, garden pond, etc.

Community: The living or biotic part of an ecosystem, i.e. all the organisms of all the different
species living in one habitat.

Biotic Factor: Any living or biological factor.

Abiotic Factor: Any non-living or physical factor.

Population: The members of the same species living in one habitat.

Species: A group of organisms that can successfully interbreed

Producer: An organism that produces food from carbon dioxide and water using
photosynthesis. Can be plant, algae, plankton or bacteria.
Consumer: An animal that eats other organisms.

Herbivore: A consumer that eats plants (= primary consumer).

Human and Social Biology - SECTION A
Carnivore: A consumer that eats other animals (= secondary consumer).

Omnivore: A consumer that eats plants or animals.

Vegetarian: A human that chooses not to eat animals (humans are omnivores)

Autotroph: An organism that manufactures its own food (= producer)

Heterotroph: An organism that obtains its energy and mass from other organisms
(=consumers + decomposers)

The Energy in a food chain
Three things can happen to the energy taken in by the organisms in a trophic level:

It can be passed on to the biomass of the next trophic level in the food chain when the
organism is eaten.

It can become stored in detritus. This energy is passed on to decomposers when the detritus
Decays.

It can be converted to heat energy by inefficient chemical reactions, radiated by warm bodies,
or in friction due to movement. The heat energy is lost to the surroundings, and cannot be
regained by living organisms.


Carbon Cycle










Nitrogen Cycle
Human and Social Biology - SECTION A
Microbes are involved at most stages of the nitrogen cycle:

Nitrogen Fixation. 78% of the atmosphere is nitrogen gas (N2), but this is inert and cant be
used by plants or animals. Nitrogen fixing bacteria reduce nitrogen gas to ammonia, which
dissolves to form ammonium ions (NH
+
4
). This process uses the enzyme nitrogenase and
ATP as a source of energy. The nitrogen-fixing bacteria may be free-living in soil or water, or
they may live in colonies inside the cells of root nodules of leguminous plants such as clover or
peas. This is an example of mutualism as the plants gain a source of useful nitrogen from the
bacteria, while the bacteria gain carbohydrates and protection from the plants. Nitrogen gas can
also be fixed to ammonia by humans using the Haber process, and a small amount of nitrogen is
fixed to nitrate by lightning.

Nitrification. Nitrifying bacteria can oxidise ammonia to nitrate in two stages: first forming
nitrite ions then forming nitrate ions. These are chemosynthetic bacteria, which means they use
the energy released by nitrification to live, instead of using respiration.
Plants can only take up nitrogen in the form of nitrate.

Denitrification. The anaerobic denitrifying bacteria convert nitrate to N2 and NOx, which is then
lost to the air. This represents a constant loss of useful nitrogen from soil, and explains why
nitrogen fixation by the nitrifying bacteria and fertilisers are so important.

Ammonification. Microbial saprophytes break down proteins in detritus to form ammonia in
two stages: first they digest proteins to amino acids using extracellular protease enzymes, then
they remove the amino groups from amino acids using deaminase enzymes.