Textbook Chapter 1 Flashcards
What is a biosphere?
Consists of all life on Earth and all the places where life exists (regions of land and bodies of water)
What is an ecosystem
Consists of all the living things in a particular area, along with all the non-living components of the environment (soil, water, atmospheric gases, and light)
What is a community
Organisms inhibiting a particular ecosystem such as plants, various animals, mushrooms, and fungi.
What is a community
Organisms inhibiting a particular ecosystem such as plants, various animals, mushrooms, and fungi.
What is population
A population consists of all the individuals of a species living within the bounds of a specified area. For exam-ple, our meadow includes a population of lupines (some of which are shown here) and a population of mule deer. A community itherefore the set of populations that inhabit a particular area.
What is an organism
Individual living things are called organisms. Each plant in the meadow is an organism, and so is each animal, fungus, and bacterium.
What is an organ
The structural hierarchyo life continues to unfold as we explore the architecture of a complex organism. A leaf is an example of an organ, a body part that is made up of multiple tissues and has specific functions in the body. Leaves, stems, and roots are the major organs of plants. Within an organ, each tissue has a distinct arrangement and contributes particular properties to organ function.
What are tissues
Viewing the tissues of a leaf requires a microscope. Each tissue is a group of cells that work together, performing a specialized function. The leaf shown here has been cut on an angle. The honeycombed tissue in the interior of the leaf (left side of photo) is the main location of photosynthesis, the process that converts light energy to the chemical energy of sugar. The jigsaw puzzle-like “skin” on the surface of the leaf (right side of photo) is a tissue called epidermis. The pores through the epidermis allow entry of the gas COz, a raw material for sugar production.
What are cells
The cell is life’s fundamental unit of structure and function. Some organisms consist of a single cell, which performs all the functions of life. Other organisms are multicellular and feature a division of labor among specialized cells. Here we see a magnified view of a cell in a leaf tissue. This cell is about 40 micrometers (um) across- about 500 of them would reach across a small coin. Within these tiny cells are even smaller green structures called chloroplasts, which are responsible for photosynthesis.
What are organelles
Chloroplasts are examples of organelles, the various functional components present in cells. The image, taken by a powerful nicroscope, shows a single chloroplast.
What are Molecules
Our last scale change drops us into a chloroplast for a view of life at the molecular level. A molecule is a chemical structure consisting of two or more units called atoms, represented as balls in this computer graphic of a chlorophyll molecule. Chlorophyll is the pigment that makes a leaf green, and it absorbs sunlight during photosynthesis. Within each chloroplast, millions of chlorophyll molecules are organized into systems that convert light energy to the chemical energy of food.
