Biology Revision Flashcards
I will add more cards later
What does MRS GREN stand for?
Movement, Respiration, Sensitivity, Growth, Reproduction, Excretion, Nutrition
What does MRS GREN mean?
Movement: Living things moving themselves using their own energy. Respiration: The release of energy for life processes. Creates waste products. Sensitivity: Living organisms reacting to their environment. Growth: Living organisms growing throughout their lives. Reproduction: All living organisms reproduce to ensure the survival of the species. Excretion: Excretion is the removal of wastes the are produced by the organism. Nutrition: Making energy by taking in food. Plants can make their own food by photosynthesis. Animals eat other organisms to obtain energy.
What are the parts in an animal cell?
Nucleus, mitochondria, cytoplasm, cell membrane.
What are the parts in a plant cell?
Nucleus, mitochondria, cytoplasm, cell membrane, cell wall, chloroplast, large vacuole
What are the parts of the plant cell that animal cells don’t have?
Large vacuole (or just vacuole), cell wall, chloroplast.
What is the function of the nucleus?
Holds the cell’s DNA and controls the functions of the cell
What is the function of the mitochondria?
Generates the energy needed to power the cell.
What is the function of the cytoplasm?
Jelly like substance that fills the cell and where chemical reactions occur
What is the function of the cell membrane?
Controls which substances enter and exit the cell.
What is the function of the cell wall?
Provide rigid support to the cell.
What is the function of the chloroplast?
Site of photosynthesis in the cell.
What is the function of the large vacuole?
Stores food and water inside the cell and fills the inside of the cell to help keep it firm
Why are producers important to food webs?
Producers make their own food (in the form of glucose) and therefore create the baseline of a food web. Other animals survive by eating producers and gain the energy the producers made themselves. Consumers cannot make their own food.
Why are decomposers important to food webs?
Decomposers break down and return nutrients to the soil for the food chain. This ensures the biodiversity of the natural environment and reduce waste.
What is a producer?
Organisms that manufactures food by utilising energy from the sun.
What is a primary consumer?
Organisms that eat producers, herbivores.
What is a secondary consumer?
Organisms that eat primary consumers, carnivores.
What is a tertiary consumer?
Organisms that eat secondary consumers, carnivores that eat carnivores.
What is a consumer?
An organism that obtains energy by eating other organisms.
Explain what a structural adaptation is.
Physical part of an organism’s body that enables it to survive in its habitat (on the outside)
Explain what a behavioural adaptation is.
Behaviour(something an organism does) of an organism that enables it to survive in a particular habitat
Explain what a physiological adaptation is.
Adaptations such as a change in the organism’s biochemistry or internal mechanisms to deal with an environmental problem. (on the inside)
Explain why hawks have excellent eyesight
This enables hawks to see their prey better. Seeing prey better means they can catch more food and so survive better
What is a carnivore?
An animal that feeds on other animals.
What is a herbivore?
An animal that feeds on plants.
What is an omnivore?
An animal that feeds on both plants and animals.
What is the definition for an endemic species?
A species of organism that is only
found in one area of the world.
What is the definition of an extinct species?
A species of organisms that has no living members
Why does Aotearoa have so many unique species?
NZ separated from Gondwanaland 80 million years ago. New Zealand species evolved without mammalian predators.
Why does New Zealand have so many diverse species?
Isolation in time, NZ has been isolated from other land masses for 80 million years. Isolation in space, NZ is isolated from other land masses by a large physical distance. Lack of mammalian predators.
What are 3 main reasons that so many species in Aotearoa are at risk of extinction?
Deforestation/habitat loss/compition, Overhunting/fishing, Introduced pests/mammals
How can mauri (life force/essence) be restored to New Zealand’s native plants and animals?
Rahuis (prohibitions) can be put in place to stop areas being used and degraded/pests being spread. We can also show guardianship by managing our land and protecting its resources.
What are the 5 kindoms of living organisms?
Prokaryote/Monera, Protista, Fungi, Plantae and Animalia.
What are the traits of the Prokaryote/Monera kingdom?
- Unicellular
- Only seen under microscope
- Do not have a nuclei or chloroplast
- Absorbs food only
What are the traits of the Protista kingdom?
- Unicellular and multicellular
- Has mitochondria and chloroplasts and nucleus
- Live in water
- Absorbs or makes own food by photosynthesis
- Microscopic to large in size
What are the traits of the Fungi kingdom?
- Have nucleus
- External digestion of food
- Unicellular and multicellular also immobile
- Large organism
What are the traits of the Plantae kingdom?
- Makes own food by photosynthesis
- Have nucleus
- Multicellular
- Large organism
What are the traits of the Animalia kingdom?
- Have nucleus
- Multicellular
- Mobile
- Eats other organisms
- Large organism
What are the two parts of a binomial naming system?
Genus then species
Rules of writing scientific names?
Must be underlined if written by hand, capital letter for genus name, no capital letter for species name.
Define ecology
Ecology is the study of relationships of organisms with the environment around them (both living and non-living aspects).
Define species
Organisms of the same species if they normally interbreed and produce offspring. Members of species belong to the same gene pool are reproductively isolated from other species.
Define population
A group of individuals of the same species that live together in the same area at the same time.
Define community
All the populations in an ecosystem.
Define habitat
The place in which an organism lives. It provides the kinds of food and shelter, the temperature, and the amount of moisture the organism needs to survive
Define ecosystem
All the organisms living in an area and the nonliving features of their environment
Define adaptation
Adaptations are inherited special features or behaviours (traits) that increase a population’s chance of survival in its habitat and so increase its chance of reproducing.
What are the three types of adaptations?
Structural, behavioural, and physiological
What do the arrows show us on a food chain/web?
The direction of the flow of energy
What is a food web?
Food web is used to represent all of the feeding relationships in an ecosystem combine all of the food chains.
What is a trophic level?
The trophic level of an organism is the position it occupies in a food chain.
What is the 10% rule?
Energy is only made by producers, which flows up the food web. Only 10% of the energy is passed onto next trophic level in the food web, 90% are lost through heat from respiration, movement, in urine and faece. This is why food chains are not usually longer than 4-5 organisms, the energy is not enough to sustain life anymore.
What is a predator and a prey?
A predator is an organism that hunts and eats other animals. Prey is an organism that is hunted by a predator
What would happen if the number of prey decreased?
The food source for the predator is limited and so some will starve and die. This means the number of predators also decreases.
Define endangered
A species is endangered if the population numbers are very low and it is at risk of extinction in the near future.
Explain why biodiversity is essential for the overall health of an ecosystem
Biodiversity is a measure of the number or variety of organisms in ecological area. A more diverse ecosystem supports more organisms and a more diverse food web. Each species plays a specific role in the ecosystem, (give examples of roles) helping to maintain balance and ensure the functioning of natural processes. Natural biodiversity provide overall wellbeing for members in the community. The ecosystem as a whole is more likely to survive any changes and are more resilient to environmental changes and disturbances (give examples).
What are some ways of conservation?
Removing introduced predators, restoring predator free habitats, translocation between these populations.
What are some advantages and disadvantages of restoring predator free habitats?
Advantages: Enhances the natural environment, supporting not only for the targeted species but also other marine life.
Disadvantages: Restoration projects can be costly, take a long time to show results, and may be impacted by ongoing environmental changes.
What are some advantages and disadvantages of translocation between populations?
Advantages: Increases Population Size, restores ecosystems, maintains genetic diversity.
Disadvantages: high cost and resource intensive, risk of failure, stress on translocated individuals
What is mauri?
The interconnected life force (energy) that connects all things in an ecosystem
What is Tiakitanga?
It is a way of managing the environment, based on the Māori world view.
What is a rahui?
A prohibition against a particular area or activity, to protect a resource
Define Microorganism
A microorganism is a
microscopic organism.
What are the three types of microorganism?
Bacteria, viruses, and fungi.
Which kingdom do bacteria belong to?
Kingdom Monera
What are rod shaped, sphere shaped, and spiral shaped bacteria called?
Rod-shaped called bacilli.
Sphere-shaped are called cocci.
Spiral-shaped called spirilla.
What are the organelles of a bacteria?
Capsule, cell wall, flagellum, cytoplasm, cell membrane, chromosome.
How do bacteria reproduce, and what is required for reproduction?
Binary fission. Requirements: warm temperature, food supply (nutrients), moisture, space
What are the steps in bacterial reproduction?
- The chromosome/DNA replicates
- The cell membrane pinches the cytoplasm in half
- The bacteria divides into two
Why can’t bacteria continue to reproduce indefinitely?
No food, no space, toxic waste build up
What are fungi made of?
Filaments called hyphae that digest waste food.
How do fungi reproduce?
- Hyphae grow upwards - produce sporangia
- Spores form in the sporangia
- The sporangia burst releasing the spores
- Spores that land on a food source with moisture will germinate and grow hyphae which spread throughout the food
- Cycle repeats
Why are viruses not alive?
Viruses are not living organisms because they are unable to carry out all of the life functions of living organisms without invading a living cell and ‘hijacking’ it’s processes. Viruses do not possess cells or cell components of their own. They do not move of their own accord (cannot move themselves) They do not carry out respiration to release energy - they use the host cells energy to replicate. They do not sense their environment They do not grow in size (or cell number as they are not made of cells). They do not reproduce themselves - they use living host cells to replicate more virus particles. They do not produce wastes so they do not excrete. They do not feed/produce their own food - they use the host cells energy.
What is the structure of a virus?
A virus has an inner core of DNA, and an outer protein coat (capsid). Some have landing gear.
Explain the steps of viral replication.
The virus attaches to the host cell and injects its DNA into the host cell. The viral DNA instructs the cell to make viral DNA and protein coats. Then they are assembled until the cell is packed with viruses. The cell bursts, releasing viruses to attack other host cells.
What are the rules of culturing bacteria and fungi?
sealed with tape because they contain millions of bacteria and fungi after they have been cultured so they must never be opened. Incubated upside down because condensation will form when incubated. The water droplets carrying microbes could leak out which may be dangerous. Incubated at 25 degrees C or below because we do not want to culture human bacteria whose optimal temperature is 35 - 37 degrees C.
What do colonies of bacteria and fungi look like?
Colonies of bacteria - greasy, shiny, smooth spots.
Colonies of fungi - furry, fluffy, thread-like growths.
How is yeast a useful fungi
Bread: Yeast convert sugar into ethanol and carbon dioxide by fermentation in the absence of oxygen.
The carbon dioxide released during the fermentation process help bread dough to rise.
Fermented drinks: Yeast convert sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide by fermentation in the absence of oxygen.
How is yoghurt bacteria a useful bacteria?
Yoghurt: Yoghurt bacteria change milk sugar called lactose into lactic acid which causes the milk to solidify and give it sour taste!
What are pathogens?
Pathogens are agents that cause diseases.
Give examples of bacterial infections
Staphylococci: skin lesions (wounds), acute heart infection
Salmonella – food poisoning
Bacterial pneumonia
Bacterial meningitis
Give examples of viral infections
Measles
Covid-19
Influenza
Chicken pox
Herpes
HIV
Give an example of a fungal infection
Athlete’s foot
What are the four steps of food safety?
Clean, separate, cook, chill.
Explain why the four steps of food safety are effective.
Clean: Maintain clean conditions hands before eating or when preparing food. Wash thoroughly with soap and water to remove microbes and prevent contamination.
Separate: Keep cooked food away from raw foods. Raw food stored in sealed containers so its juice cannot cross contaminate other foods. Different chopping boards and knives for raw meats and other foods
Cook: Cook raw food thoroughly to kill harmful bacteria to cause food poisoning.
Chill; Chill foods promptly after buying to prevent microbes multiplying and toxins building up. To safely thaw food, place it in the refrigerator (overnight) where it will thaw slowly (not in the air).
What are disinfectants?
Disinfectants stop bacteria reproducing. VERY harmful to skin (living) cells. E.g. household bleach, Mr Muscle
What are antiseptics?
Antiseptics stop bacteria reproduction. They are NOT harmful to skin cells. Betadine for wound treatment
What is soap?
Soap will ONLY remove most microbes from the surface of the skin (WILL NOT stop bacterial reproduction). Not harmful to skin cells.
What are antibiotics?
Chemicals produced by fungi that inhibit the reproduction and growth of bacteria. Taken orally or via injection to control bacterial infections only.
What is one antibiotic?
Penicillin
What are the causes of antibiotic resistance?
- Unnecessary use antibiotics for viral infections.
- Not finishing the full course.
How does antibiotic resistance occur in bacteria?
Antibiotics kill majority of the bacteria that are not resistant at the beginning. This puts selection pressure on the bacteria, and the only bacteria that are left are the resistant bacteria. These bacteria now have less competition and are resistant to the antibiotics. They live longer and reproduce more bacteria, passing on the resistant gene to the next generations, making a population of resistant bacteria.
How do we prevent antibiotic resistance?
Finish all courses of antibiotics to ensure that all the bacteria are killed thoroughly!
Only take antibiotics when there is an obvious bacterial infection.
