BIOLOGY NOTES – state the obvious/ link as many concepts as possible

CHAPTER 2

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Biological molecules (carbohydrates, proteins, lipids) are made up of smaller units:

- Carbohydrates = Starch/glycogen: glucose/maltose

- Proteins: amino acids
- Lipids: fatty acids and glycerol

Food Test preparations:

- Grind with pestle and mortar

- Dissolve
- Stir
- Filter

Tests:

Glucose:

- 75 degrees water bath

- Benedict’s solution
- Food sample in test tube
- Mix then put in water bath.
- Brick red or blue

Starch (shake):

- Add drops of iodine solution to food sample, shake.

- Orange brown to blue black

Protein:

- Add biuret solution to food sample

- Blue to pink in presence of protein

Lipids:

- Add Sudan III solution to food sample

- If lipid present, mixture will separate into bright red top layer and bottom layer

BALANCED DIET:

- Carbohydrates – rice, pasta – primary source of energy

- Proteins – meat, fish – needed to grow and repair tissues + energy
- Lipids – milk – needed for insulation and energy store
- Vitamin A – liver – needed to improve vision + keep skin and hair healthy
- Vitamin C – oranges – prevent scurvy
- Vitamin D – eggs – needed for calcium absorption
- Calcium – milk, cheese – make bones and teeth
- Iron – beef – hemoglobin
- Water – bodily functions
 - Fibre – vegetables – help food through gut

BALANCED DIET = all the nutrients needed in the right proportions

ENERGY REQUIREMENTS VARY: activity level, age, pregnancy

ENERGY FROM FOOD

- Something dry
- Weight and skewer on mounted needle
- Boiling tube with water, weigh water
- Measure initial temperature
- Set food on fire then heat – until it won’t relight anymore
- Measure final temperature

Improve: insulating – eg foil

WHY DIGESTIVE ENZYMES

Break bigger molecules into smaller ones, so 1. Soluble 2. Pass through the walls of the digestive
system

- Amylase: starch => maltose => glucose

- Protease: protein => amino acids
- Lipase: lipid => fatty acid + glycerol

Alimentary canal:

- Mouth: secretes AMYLASE. Broken down by teeth

- Esophagus: thick walls to crush food
- Stomach (3): pummels food. secretes protease - pepsin. Also HCl to kill bacteria and keep
optimum temperature for enzymes
- Small intestine: secretes enzymes from pancreas to break down food. Absorbs food.
Duodenum and ileum.
- Liver: store bile produced by gallbladder
- Large intestine: absorb excess water.
- Rectum: store feces then go through anus

Bile:

- Neutralizes acidic food conditions from stomach + makes alkaline

- Emulsifies fat = tiny droplets = more SA

PERISTALSIS: circular muscle contractions.

Why? Clogged up otherwise

Villi:

Long small intestine

Many villi

Microvilli

One cell thick + good blood supply

CHAPTER 9

Definitions:

Habitat – place where organism lives

Population – number of organisms of one species in a habitat

Community – different species in a habitat

Ecosystem – different organisms in a particular area and the abiotic conditions

BIODIVERSITY

Variety of different species of organisms on Earth.

IMPORTANT because: STABILITY of ECOSYSTEMS. Dependance.

ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES ON COMMUNITIES

ABIOTIC:

- Temperature; PLANTS: soil pH, water availability, light intensity

- Toxic chemicals

BIOTIC:

- Predators
- Prey
- Competition for shelter, food, mates

QUADRATS – population size:

- Divide area into grids and generate random coordinates

- Place quadrat and count
- Repeat!
- All organisms/no of quadrats

Belt transects

- Establish belt transect across areas of changing abiotic conditions

- Put quadrats along, count organisms
- Find organisms/quadrat
- Plot graph

Food chains – trophic levels, consumer, producer

Pyramids of Number:

- Show number relationship of predator and prey.

- Intuitively takes a lot of food to keep the predator alive.

Pyramids of Biomass

Pyramids of Energy: show energy transferred to each trophic level.

ENERGY TRANSFER

- Plants photosynthesize from Sun

- Animals eat plants.
- But energy lost through trophic levels:
- Not all eaten,
- Heat,
- Respiration.

10% left for biomass

Carbon Cycle:

IN from atmosphere: photosynthesis

OUT into atmosphere: burning fossil fuels; decomposers; respiration plants and animals;

Nitrogen Cycle:

IN from atmosphere: nitrogen-fixing bacteria, lightning

OUT into atmosphere: denitrifying bacteria

CYCLE: decomposers break down protein into ammonia; nitrifying bacteria turn ammonia into
nitrates; nitrates used by plants

AIR POLLUTION

CO:

Poisonous – restricts ability of hemoglobin in red blood cells to carry oxygen

THUS: catalytic converters turn CO into CO2

Acid Rain:

- Sulfur impurities in fossil fuels react with oxygen to form sulfur dioxide
- Mixes with rain clouds to form sulfuric acid.
- Falls as acid rain

Kills:

- Trees (toxic): damage leaves, reducing photosynthesis ability. Also releases toxic substances
- Causes pH changes in rivers killing fish (acidic)

Greenhouse gases:

- Absorb heat radiation (normally to space) and reradiate in all directions.

Global warming:

- Due to increasing greenhouse gases

- Earth heats up.

Causing:

- Other types of climate change, eg extreme weather, polar ice caps melting, habitat loss
HUMAN ACTIVITY CREATES:

- CO2 – fossil fuels + deforestation.

- Methane – cows + rice / but also produced naturally from rotting plants in marshland
- Nitrous Oxide – created from car engines + fertilizer / naturally by bacteria
- CFCs – fridges + aerosol spray

EUTROPHICATION:

- Nitrates and phosphates leach into lake, giving nutrients to algae

- Causes algal bloom – block light
- Plants below die (no photosynthesis) and so do the fish
- Decomposers deplete oxygen in the water

Sewage:

- nitrates in feces
- phosphates in detergent

DEFORESTATION:

- Dry ground – soil washed away without roots to hold them

- Leaching – nutrients washed away leaving infertile ground

Disturbs carbon cycle when trees are burnt.

Less photosynthesis, less oxygen.

Evapotranspiration:

- Water evaporating from Earth’s surface and plant transpiration

- Falls back as rain
- Deforestation makes climate dry
Uses of Biological Resources (CROP/PRODUCT YIELD)

Crop product yield is affected by photosynthesis – which is affected by temperature CO2 and Light

IN A GREENHOUSE:

- Plants are kept free of pests

- Given ample water

Temperature:

- The Sun’s heat is trapped to create optimum temperatures

Light:

- Artificial light to allow more TIME for photosynthesis

CO2:

- Paraffin heaters are used to produce CO2 as a by-product

Fertilizers:

- Plants need certain mineral ions for growth. Sometimes these are used up by the plants
previously there. Fertilizers replace them back in soil.

Pest Control:

- Chemical: use pesticides to kill pests so they don’t eat plants. But POISONOUS to humans.
- Biological: introduce or encourage new ORGANISMS to eat the pests/parasites. Benefit =
long lasting; less damage to wildlife

Yoghurt production:

- Sterilize all equipment

- Pasteurize milk to kill microorganisms.
- Add lactobacillus to ferment lactose into lactic acid. INCUBATED IN FERMENTER.
- Causes milk to clot into yoghurt

Fermenters contain culture medium.

Conditions:

- pH optimum level = enzymes efficient = high rate of reaction

- nutrients (eg lactose) in the culture medium – growth
- paddles: microorganisms always have contact with nutrients for growth
- oxygen for respiration = growth
- unwanted microorganisms killed because of competition and contamination
- temperature at optimum

BREAD:

- make dough with flour, water and sugar

- Add yeast. Yeast breaks down carbs with enzymes and use them for aerobic respiration.
- Then anaerobic respiration once O2 runs out. KNOWN AS FERMENTATION, creates CO2 and
ethanol
- Dough rises as pockets of gas expand
 - Put in oven to kill yeast and boil ethanol due to TEMP

Investigate rate of reaction:

- Put sugar in test tube

- Add yeast
- With delivery tube count bubbles per minute.
- CHANGE: add oil to yeast/ temperature

SELECTIVE BREEDING

Desired characteristics:

High product yield. Disease resistance. Animals: temperament. Plants: attractiveness, nice smell.

Selective breeding: finding the best livestock and breeding.

Then breeding their best offspring.

E.g.

- Cows. Artificial insemination used to transport bull semen CHEAPLY to cows. Could
impregnate multiple cows.
- Sheep. Female sheep with most offspring bred with male sheep whose mother has most
offspring.
- Plants CROSS-BRED

Fish Farming

Nutrients for growth – maximize ENERGY

Intraspecific predation – cage young fish

Interspecific predation – cage all the fish

Problem: chemical pesticides pollution (fish are more vulnerable).

Genetic Engineering

- Desired gene cut out from DNA. Restriction enzymes cut hole out of vector DNA.
- Ligase, recombinant.
- Vector inserted into organism
- = TRANSGENIC

GM:

- Good for plants = insect resistant = less pesticides

- Herbicide resistance

Micropropagation:

- Explants cut out from tips of stems

- Sterilised
- Put in NUTRIENT medium in petri dish
 - MITOSIS
planted into soil

Cloning

- Enucleated egg
- Nucleus of adult cell
- Fuse with electric current and mitosis
- Planted in surrogate mother.

Transgenic animals:

- Sheep can produce human antibodies.