Chapter 5 // Pt1: Into to Metabolism
Chapter 5
Intro to Metabolism
Metabolism: chemical reactions in body’s cells that change food into energy
- Anabolism: builds; building proteins using amino acids. Uses energy
- Catabolism: destroys; breaking down glucose from food to form ATP. Uses and Produces energy
Energy: ability to do work; ability to cause some kind of change
- Ex: light, heat, electricity
Autotroph
- Make own food using sun’s energy
- Producers
- Ex: plants
Heterotroph
- Don’t make own food, eats others for energy
- Consumers
- Ex: animals
Trophic Levels: an organism’s place in the food chain
Higher levels - less energy from food
Lower levels - more energy from food
- Producers
- Make their own food
- Ex: plants, algae
- Primary Consumers
- Herbivores
- ‘Plant eaters’
- Secondary Consumers
- carnivores/omnivores that eat herbivores (primary consumers)
- Tertiary Consumers
- Carnivores that eat other carnivores/omnivores
- Quaternary Consumers
- Apex predators
- Ex: lions, polar bears
- Decomposers
- Decompose dead things
- Ex: plants, bacteria, fungi, insects
Trophic levels aren’t set in stone. Organisms can eat certain things that change which trophic level they’re in.
Kinetic Energy: the energy of motion
Potential Energy: stored energy related to its position
Chemical Energy: energy stored in chemical bonds
Energy Conversions: light bulbs change electrical energy into heat and light energy
Law of Thermodynamics
Thermodynamics: the study of heat and other energy forms
Characteristics we see with energy
Energy can’t be created or destroyed
- Universe will always have the same amount of energy
Energy tends to disperse
- Hot things will always cool down aka lose energy
Energy in Biology
Biochemical reactions: molecules changing into other molecules
Exergonic
Energy releasing
Spontaneous (doesn’t need energy)
Ex: cellular respiration
Endergonic
Energy consuming
Need energy (ex. sunlight)
Ex: photosynthesis
Reactants: molecules entering a reaction to be changed
Products: molecules produced by reaction
Activation energy: minimum amount of energy needed to start a chemical reaction