Characteristics of living organisms

MRS C GREN

Movement, Respiration, Sensitivity, Control, Growth, Reproduction, Excretion, Nutrition

Viruses

• non living particle

Nutrition

Organisms must obtain food to provide energy

Nutrition in plants

Use sunlight, carbon dioxide, water to produce oxygen and glucose with the process of photosynthesis.

Nutrition in animals

• Consume other living organisms

• Break down larger complex molecules into simpler molecules with the process of digestion

Producers

Create their own food for energy using photosynthesis

Consumers

Consume other organisms to obtain energy

Respiration

• Chemical process carried out in all living organisms

• Energy is released from glucose

• Transferred in the form of ATP

Aerobic Respiration

Presence of oxygen during respiration

Anaerobic respiration

Absence of oxygen during respiration

Aerobic respiration equation

GLUCOSE + OXYGEN → CARBON DIOXIDE + WATER

excretion

Removal of toxic materials and substances from organisms

What excretion in animals

• Carbon dioxide

• Water

• Urea (from breakdown of proteins)

What excretion in plants

• Oxygen (photosynthesis)

• Carbon dioxide (respiration)

Response to Surroundings

Ability to detect and respond to stimuli in its surroundings.

Response in animals

• Nervous system

• Receptors, neurones, effectors

• Endocrine system

• Hormones, Chemical messengers

Response in plants

• Slower

• Controlled by chemicals

• Phototropism (response to light)

• Geotropism (response to gravity)

Movement

Action by an organism causing a change of position or place

Locomotion

• Movement of an organisms from place to place

Control

• Homeostasis

Homeostasis in humans

• Thermoregulation to the control of body temperature

• Sweating, vasodilation(increased blood flow, widening vessels)

• Osmoregulation (control of water levels)

Homeostasis in plants

• Transpiration

• Maintain suitable temp

• Water evaporates from stomata for heat loss

Reproduction

Production of more of the same kind of organism

Sexual Reproduction

• Male and female gametes fuse to form a zygote

• DNA of offspring is composed of both maternal and paternal DNA

Male Gametes

• Humans - Sperm

• Plants - Pollen grains

Female gametes

• Human - egg

• Plants - ovule

Asexual reproduction

• One parent involved

• Clone produced

• identical DNA

Example of asexual reproduction

• mitosis

• Bacteria

• Protoctist amoeba

Growth

• Permanent increase in size

• Animals - changes to proportion and shape

• Plants - life long new shoots, leaves etc..