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Name: _____________________________________ Regents Biology

Unit 01: Introduction to Biology

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I. What is Biology?

Biology is the study of living things and their relationship to their environment.

A. Living things can be studied on many different levels.

B. Biotic vs. Abiotic

Living organisms interact with their environment:

• Biotic is the term that refers to living organisms

• Abiotic refers to the nonliving factors

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Let’s Practice: Examine the diagram below and list as many BIOTIC and ABIOTIC factors as you can

BIOTIC ABIOTIC Frog Water Slug Air Trees Oxygen

Mole (mouse) Soil Grass Carbon dioxide

mushrooms

II. What does it mean to be Alive?

A. There are EIGHT Characteristics of Living Organisms:

1. All Living organisms are made of one or more cells.

• Simplest cells are found in bacteria. They

do not contain membrane bound

organelles (prokaryotic)

• Animals and plants are also made up of cells that do contain organelles (eukaryotic)

Typical Animal Cell Typical Plant Cell

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• Protists are single celled organisms

• Most animal and plants are multicellular

2. All Living organisms need energy

• Plants use the energy from the sun in

photosynthesis and make organic

compounds

• Animals obtain their energy from eating plants.

• Both plants and animals chemically release

energy from food through the process of

cellular respiration

3. All living organisms grow

• Increase in the size of a cell

• Increase in the number of cells

4. All living things have a genetic code

• Found in DNA and RNA

• Passes on your heritable traits

• Controls the cell

paramecia

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5. All living things change over time

• Organisms mature from young to

adult

• Species evolve over millions of years

6. All living things reproduce

• Asexually

• Sexually

7. All living things respond to their environment All living organisms can respond by going toward or away from something

they detect in their environment

• Plants for example bend toward the light

• Animals can move toward food or away from predators

• Organisms also respond to their internal

environment.

8. All living things maintain homeostasis

• This is also called a steady state

• Unicellular organisms maintain homeostasis through their organelles

working together.

• Multicellular organisms maintain homeostasis through the use of organ

systems working together.

Reproduction is necessary for the continuation or survival of the species

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B. Life Functions

The characteristic of life are life functions which all living organisms must be

able to do in order to stay alive

1. Nutrition

The life process by which an organism obtains

and processes food

• Ingestion-process of taking in of food

• Digestion-process of breaking down

food physically or chemically

• Egestion-getting rid of food you could not digest Do you remember the difference between an autotroph and a heterotroph?

• Autotroph-makes their own food from inorganic materials (plant)

• Heterotroph-must depend on other organisms for their food

(animals)

2. Transport

The life process involved with the circulation and absorption of materials

into cells

• Circulatory system- moves materials in the blood

which travels through blood through the vessels to all

cells in the body

• Cytoplasm of a cell transports materials within the

cell.

Cyclosis: movement of cytoplasm around the cell

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3. Respiration

The process of converting energy from food into

a usable form (ATP)

• Chemical respiration occurs in the cell either with the use of oxygen (aerobic) or

without the use of oxygen (anaerobic)

• Physical respiration is the process of

breathing to obtain oxygen for aerobic

respiration

4. Synthesis

The process of producing complex substances

from simple substances

• Materials digested and now combined into the molecules and

organism needs for its own structure and survival.

Proteins are made from amino acids

Carbohydrates are made from glucose

5. Growth

Growth can result from synthesis. It can include

• Increase in cell size

• Increase in cell number

• Increase in the overall size of the organism 6. Excretion

The removal of cellular wastes that are harmful to the

organism. The wastes are the result of all the chemical

reactions occurring in your body (metabolic waste)

• Urine (urea), water and salts

• exhaling CO2 NOTE: Egestion-removal of undigested waste Excretion is the removal of chemical waste

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7. Regulation

Allows the organism to respond to its external and internal environment

Two systems are responsible for regulation

• Nervous System

8. Reproduction

The production of new individuals either sexually or asexually

• Not necessary for the survival of the individual

• Is necessary for the survival of the species

C. Metabolism and Homeostasis

• Metabolism √ sum total of all the chemical reactions

occurring in an organism √ Controlled by enzymes (organic

catalysts)

• Homeostasis √ State of balance √ Organisms maintain homeostasis by using feedback

(Similar to a thermostat in a house)

• Endocrine System

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III. Classification of Living Organisms

A. Introduction

Scientists like to group and classify everything they are studying. When things

are classified they are placed into groups with common characteristic. Large

groups can then be broken down into smaller groups with more specific

characteristics in common. When living organisms were first classified they were

divided into two groups: plants and animals. As technology improved they

needed to create a third group consisting of singled celled organisms. Now there

are multiple system of classification. We will study the FIVE KINGDOM system;

however they now have added DOMAINS as a group larger than kingdoms.

Taxonomy is the science of naming and classifying organisms.

What type of characteristics can be used to classify living organisms?

• The number of cells (single or multicellular)

• The type of cell (prokaryotic or eukaryotic)

• The type of nutrition (autotroph or heterotroph)

• The type of structure (does it have a backbone)

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B. Classification System:

FIVE KINGDOM SYSTEM

• Monera (bacteria)

• Protista (amoeba)

• Fungi (mushroom)

• Plantae (tree)

• Animalia (human)

Kingdoms in Detail

1. Monera Kingdom

• Most primitive

• Prokaryotic cell-organelles are not

bounded by a membrane

• Few/no organelles inside the cell

• Examples

Bacteria

Heterotrophic- Eats others for food)

Blue green algae

Autotrophic – Makes own food)

• Ecological Importance

Decomposers Used in food processing

Pathogens (can cause disease)

2. Protista Kingdom

• More advanced

• Eukaryotic cell-organelles are surrounded by a membrane

• Posses many organelles inside the cell

• Single celled or multicellular

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• Examples

Algae (plant-like)

Amoeba (animal-like)

Paramecia (animal-like)

Slime molds (fungi-like)

• Ecological Importance

Source of food

Main producers of oxygen through photosynthesis

Pathogens

3. Fungi

• Eukaryotic cell-organelles are surrounded by a membrane

• Single celled or multicellular

• External digestion-food is digested outside of the body

• Saprophytes-feed on dead material

• Examples

Mushrooms

Molds

Yeast

• Ecological Importance

Source of food

Decomposers Pathogens

Source of antibiotics

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4. Plantae

• Eukaryotic

• Multicellular

• Autotrophic-make their own food

• Photosynthetic-use light to make their own food

• Examples

Moss (no true root, stem or leaf)

Trees

Flowers

• Ecological Importance

Food Oxygen production

Medicine 5. Animalia

• Eukaryotic

• Multicellular

• Heterotrophic-must eat food

• Locomotion-move from place to place

• Examples

Annelids (earthworm)

Arthropods (insects)

Coelenterates (jellyfish)

Chordates (fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals)

Home for animals

Recycling of materials

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SUBDIVISION of a KINGDOM

Kingdom is the broadest (most general) category. Under each kingdom are

more subsections to help divide all the organisms and they are more detailed as

they progress to the most specific which is species.

• Kingdom

• Phylum

• Class

• Order

• Family

• Genus

• Species

What is the human classification?

C. Naming of Organisms

Many organisms have many different common names. For

example you may have different names for the organism

pictured at the right.

Carolus Linnaeus devised a scientific way to name all living

organisms

Binomial Nomenclature System

• Scientific name of organisms is composed two names

• Genus name s written first with a capital letter and is underlined

• Species name is written second with a lower case letter and is underlined

• Names are bases on the Latin language

• No two organisms will have the same scientific name

Classification Group

Human

Kingdom Animalia Phylum Chordata Class Mammalia Order Primates Family Hominidae Genus Homo

Species sapien

King Phillip Came Over From Germany Surfing

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Let’s Practice:

1. What are the eight life functions?

1) Nutrition

2) Transport

3) Respiration

4) Excretion

5) Synthesis

6) Growth

7) Regulation

8) Reproduction

2. What is the scientific name of humans? Homo sapien

3. List the classification groups from the largest to the smallest.

Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, species 4. The table below gives both the common and scientific names of seven N.Y.

S. vertebrates. Use it to answer the following questions:

Vertebrate Common name Scientific name

A White perch Morone americana

B Grass pickerel Esox americanus

C Rock fish Morone saxatilius

D Varying hare Lepus americanus

E American toad Bufo americanus

F Muskellunge Esox masquinony

G Striped bass Morone saxatilius

a) Which two organisms are the same?

C & G (Rock fish and Striped bass) b) Which species are closely related to each other?

A, C and G also B &F

c) Are B, D and E related to each other? Defend your answer.

No. unless the more general group, genus, is the same it won’t matter if the species is the same or not.

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NOTES: