ORGANISMS AND ITS ENVIROMENT

• All organisms (flora, fauna and microorganisms) have the ability to group and reproduce. To grow and
reproduce, organisms must get materials and energy from the environment.

Environment

• the circumstances and conditions that surround an organism or a group of organisms,

• the social and cultural conditions that affect an individual or a community.

ARCHAEBACTERIA

• Archaebacteria are microorganisms that are similar to bacteria in size and simplicity of structure but
radically different in molecular organization. They are now believed to constitute an ancient intermediate
group between the bacteria and eukaryotes. These were discovered in 1977 by Carl Woese and George
Fox.
• Most of the archaebacteria are anaerobic and may live in uncommon and extreme environments such as
hot springs, highly acidic and alkaline soils, and highly saline waters.
• Archaebacteria are not capable of photosynthesis and are not known to cause infectious diseases.

MONERANS

• Bacteria is a member of a large group of unicellular microorganisms which have cell walls but lack
organelles and an organized nucleus, including some which can causedisease. They are heterotrophic
organisms.
” You can never find one bacterium alone because bacteria tend to live together in clumps, chains,
or planes.”
• Bacteria are important in soil nutrient cycles, and in the breakdown of dead organic matter. They are used
in degrading pollutants such as oil and plastics.
• They are used in laboratory research and experiments to produce food, medicine, fertilizers, and
biopesticides.
• In addition, bacteria help animals and humans digest their food.
• Bacteria are also responsible for the spoilage of food. Some bacteria are pathogenic – they can cause
diseases in plants, animals, and humans.

PROTISTS

• Protists are a very diverse group of organisms. They are basically all the organisms that don't fit into the
other groups.
• Protists are commonly divided into three groups:
 o plant-like protists that can swim and photosynthesize.
o fungus-like protists that are consumers and decomposers; and
o animal-like protists that are also consumers.
▪ Plant-like Protists
➢ Phytoplanktons, a varied group of single-celled photosynthetic organisms that float near the
surface of fresh and salt waters around the world.
➢ Examples are the euglena, dinoflagellates, golden-brown algae, and diatoms. They are the primary
producers in aquatic habitats.
➢ Phytoplankton provide food for most aquatic animals. Three groups of algae which were
traditionally classified as plants and are now considered protists are green algae, red algae, and
brown algae.
▪ Fungus-like Protists
➢ Fungus-like protists are saprophytic. They derive food and energy by breaking down dead organic
matter.
➢ Fungus-like protists include true slime molds that undergo asexual reproduction, and the cellular
slime molds that undergo sexual reproduction.
➢ Examples Eumycetozoa and Trichia.

▪ Animal-like Protists
➢ Animal-like protist are called protozoans. They are all heterotrophic protists. Animal-like protists
include zooflagelates (Trypanosoma), sarcodina (Amoeba), sporozoa (Plasmodium), and ciliate
(Paramecium).

FUNGI

• Fungi are large group of eukaryotic, spore-bearing and achlorophyllous organisms which constitute an
abundant element of terrestrial biota in the Philippines.
• Though they look like plants, they are not classified as such because they are heterotrophic by nutrition.
Most of them are detrivorous in that they help in the decomposition of organic materials and cycling of
nutrients in the ecosystem.
• They obtain nutrients from dead or living organisms. Some of them are parasitic and some are saprophytic,
feeding on the roots of plants.
• They can cause diseases in plants and animals. Some representative are useful in the fermentation process
and some act as leavening agents that cause bread to rise.
 • Examples Ganoderma applanatum (Pers.) Pat. Tremella fuciformis Berk. Lepiota procera (Scop.) Gray,
Dictyophora duplicata (Bosc.) E. Fisch. Polyporus sp. Ganoderma lucidum (Leys.) Karst. Galliela rufa
(Schwein.) Nannf.& Korf.

LICHEN

• Lichens formed from a symbiotic relationship between certain fungi and algae. They are the grayish,
orange, and whitish encrustations commonly seen on rocks and trees.
• Lichens are used as a bio-indicator of air quality. They are efficient at absorbing inorganic nutrients such
as the sulphur-dioxide component of air pollution. Lichens die when toxins build up in their systems, so
their disappearance indicates a disturbance in their habitat.

PLANTS

• Plants are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms with well-developed tissues. They make food in the form
of starch through photosynthesis.
• Philippines 8,000+ Flowering Plants and Gymnosperm 4,000+ species are endemic Representing 5% of
the world’s flora.
• Plants generally divided into two groups: the vascular and non-vascular plants. The non-vascular, lack
specialized tissues for conduction of water and food., e.g. bryophytes (liverworts, hornworts, and mosses).
• The vascular plants have specialized tissues (xylem and phloem) for the transport of water and nutrients,
e.g. tracheophytes (ferns and their relatives, whisk ferns, club mosses, horsetails, ferns, cone-bearing
plants (Ginkgos, Gnetums, cycads, conifers); flowering plants (monocot and dicot).
• Angiosperm and Gymnosperm
• Fern and allies
• Moss and allies
o Xerophytes Live in places with little amount of water. Examples of these are cacti, acacia, and
makahiya.
o Mesophytes Require a moderate amount of water supply. Examples are santan, rose, and
sampaguita.
o Hydrophytes Live in habitats with abundant water supply. Examples are Pistia (quiapo),
Eichornia (water hyacinth), and Hydrilla (digman)
• Habitat
o Aquatic plants live in water. Examples are lotus, water hyacinth, and hydrilla.
o Terrestrial plants live on land. The plants we have in our garden are terrestrial.
o Aerial plants live above the ground, on other plants or are attached to other objects for or support.
Examples are the orchids, bird’s nest, and pocket ferns.
ANIMALS

• All animals are multicellular eukaryotic organisms. All are heterotrophic, consuming preformed organic
matter rather than generating it thorough photosynthesis or chemosynthesis.
• Animals are divided into two groups: those that lack a vertebral column (backbone), the invertebrates; and
those that have a vertebral column, the vertebrates.
• Invertebrates comprise around 95% of all animals, while vertebrates only 5%.
• Invertebrates:
o Sponges
o cnidarians (hydrozoan, scypozoa, and anthozoa)
o flatworms (planaria and liver fluke)
o roundworms (ascaris and pinworm)
o segmented worms (earthworm, polychaete, and leech)
o mollusks (bivalves, octopus, squid, snail and nautilus)
o arthropods (crustaceans, insects, spiders, mites, millipedes, and centipedes)
o echinoderms (starfish, sea urchin, sea cucumber, sea lily, brittle star)
o chordates (lancelets, tunicates)
• Vertebrates:
o agnatha, chondrichthyes, osteichtyes, amphibian, reptilian, and mammalia (marsupials,placental),
deer mouse, rabbit, dolphin, jaguar, and sea lion.
• Major Animal Phyla
 • Arthropod Classes

• Vertebrate Classes

VIRUSES

• What about viruses? Are they classified as living or as non-living things?

• Viruses are not included in any groups of living organisms because they are not considered living things.
They are not considered living because they do not have a cellular structure which is the basis of life.
• They are however, considered in the study of life because they exhibit certain signs of life when inside a
living host. These are infectious agents that enter living organisms causing diseases.
• Viruses are non-living particles made up of protein and genetic material, either DNA or RNA.
• Biologists consider them as being on the borderline between living and non-living things.
• In 1884, Louis Pasteur, a French chemist, believed that something smaller than a bacterium was the cause
of rabies. He called this particle virus, which in Latin means “poison.”
• Viruses are generally smaller than 200 nanomicrons (nµ) in diameter.
• Viruses are obligate parasites, which means they must be inside a living host in order to reproduce or
make multiple copies of themselves.
• Viruses are all infectious. They can cause various diseases in plants and animals through cell lysis and
toxin production. Some human viral diseases are measles, common cold, atypical pneumonia, influenza,
hepatitis, herpes, mumps, dengue fever, and acquired immunedeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Some viruses
 are cancer-causing. They can alter normal cell behavior and cause uncontrolled cell division and other
abnormalities.
• Novel Corona VIRUSE (nCoV)
o Much is unknown about how 2019-nCoV, a new coronavirus, spreads. Coronaviruses are a large
family of viruses that are common in many different species of animals, including camels, cattle,
cats, and bats. Rarely, animal coronaviruses can infect people and then spread between people
such as 2019-nCoV. Most often, spread from person-to-person happens among close contacts
(about 6 feet). Person-to-person spread is thought to occur mainly via respiratory droplets
produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes, similar to how influenza and other
respiratory pathogens spread. These droplets can land in the mouths or noses of people who are
nearby or possibly be inhaled into the lungs. It’s currently unclear if a person can get 2019-nCoV
by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose,
or possibly their eyes.

Environment

• Everything you see and feel is a part of your environment.

• An environment includes living things such as plants, animals, people, and even the tiniest of microbes.
• Interactions among organisms and their environments can be very complex because an organism gets
everything it needs to survive from the biotic and abiotic parts of its environment.
• For example, a tree gets the energy it needs from sunlight, carbon dioxide from the air, and water and
minerals from the soil.
• All organisms rely on the abiotic factors of their environment in addition to relying on other organisms
for survival.
• Environmental temperatures are also of fundamental importance to animals including us, humans.
• The fundamental importance of temperature to organisms, including humans, is a consequence of
temperature’s influences on rates of chemical reactions, including those reactions that control life’s
essential processes, for example, photosynthesis and respiration.
• In addition, as we will see, all organisms are best adapted to a fairly narrow range of temperatures. For us
and all other species, the impact of extreme temperatures can range from discomfort, at a minimum, to
extinction.
• Adapting to one set of environmental conditions generally reduces a population’s fitness in other
environments.
• We might imagine an organism that is not only capable of living in any environment but thrives in all
environments.
• All known organisms are adapted to a limited range of environmental conditions, at least partially as a
consequence of energy limitation.
• Most species perform best in a fairly narrow range temperature. Ecologists concerned with the ecology of
individual organisms study how environmental factors, such as temperature, water, and light, affect the
physiology and behaviour of organisms: how fast they grow; how many offspring they produce; how fast
they run, fly, or swim; how well they avoid predators; and so on.
• We can group these phenomena and say that ecologists study how environment affects the “performance”
of organisms.
• Whether in response to variations in temperature, moisture, light, or nutrient availability, most species do
not perform equally well across the full range of environmental conditions to which they are exposed;
most perform best under a narrow range of conditions.