properties that make the molecule so essential to biology such as its polarity and composition. Hydrogen bonding is a strong intermolecular force that is formed between an atom of hydrogen of one molecule and an atom of either nitrogen, oxygen or fluorine.
For marine life water is not just the medium of transport but it is the source of oxygen for the organisms' respiratory needs. Water enters a fish through the buccal cavity and the increased pressure causes the water to pass through the gills. Countercurrent. This is a very important mechanism in most fish (not all fish utilise this mechanism) as the dissolved concentration of oxygen in water is very low. Thus, to maximise the absorption of the oxygen from water into the bloodstream of fish, the countercurrent mechanism is used.
Oxygen is transported around the body in the red blood cells. The oxygen combines with the haemoglobin to form oxyhaemoglobin, which dissociates back to its constituent parts when oxygen is needed for respiration. Carbon dioxide also needs to be transported out of the body safely. Carbonic acid. The equation for this reaction is: CO2(g) + H2O(l) ---> H2CO3(aq) Carbon dioxide (gas) + water (liquid) ---> carbonic acid (aqueous) This reaction is catalysed by the enzyme carbonic anhydrase. Eventually the carbonic acid will dissociate into hydrogen ions (H+) and hydrogencarbonate ions (HCO3-).
Water is important for all biological organisms including members of the taxonomic Kingdom, Plantae. Water is absorbed from soil by the roots of a plant and this water contains many nutrients. The water travels up the xylem vessels into the leaves. Transpiration. In both mesophytes (plants which exist in neither really wet or really dry areas) and xerophytes (plants which exist in arid conditions) the control of transpiration is important.
Photosynthesis is the process by which plants use carbon dioxide, water and photon energy (light energy) to form sugars such as glucose. One of the first photosynthetic reactions to take place is the splitting of water by light.
Photolysis. The reaction that illustrates the process of photolysis is: H2O + photons (light) ---> (2)H+ + (2)e- + (1/2)O2.
Water is an important molecule in the process of digestion as it is used to break down large polymers, such as proteins and carbohydrates, into small monomers, such as amino acids and monosaccharides. Hydrolysis. Hydrolysis begins with the dissociation of water into hydrogen ions (H+) and hydroxide ions (OH-). In protein digestion the water helps to cleave the polymer along with a specific protease enzyme.
The nephrons of the kidney are fantastic structures. The nephron is the site of many different processes and are responsible for the filtration of the blood. A part of the nephron known as the collecting duct has a wall that has a variable permeability. Antidiuretic hormone. Antidiuretic hormone (ADH) is secreted from the posterior pituitary gland and regulates the amount of water present in the urine.
Humans maintain their body temperature using a number of homeostatic mechanisms. Sweating is one example whereby a mixture of water and some dissolved substances is released from the sweat glands onto the surface of the skin. Evaporation. The cooling of the skin comes when the sweat is evaporated. The human species is one of the sweatiest that we know of.
Many theories have been put forward over the years that aim to explain how water travels up the xylem of a plant. Cohesion-tension. The cohesion-tension theory is what underlies the concept of transpirational pull. When two water molecules within a xylem vessel form a hydrogen bond between them, a column of water is formed from the leaves right down to the roots.
Environment, the complex of physical, chemical, and biotic factors that act upon an organism or an ecological community and ultimately determine its form and survival.
Ecology is relationships between organisms and their environment (ie other organisms or abiotic factors). Organism-organism, organism-resource, organism- abiotic interactions.
Environmental deals with the environment mostly-atmosphere, other abiotic factors and than looks at the effect on organisms. So Environment-Organism interaction.
People have long been curious about living thingshow many different species there are, what they are like, where they live, how they relate to each other, and how they behave. Living organisms are made of the same components as all other matter, involve the same kind of transformations of energy, and move using the same basic kinds of forces.
DIVERSITY OF LIFE There are millions of different types of individual organisms that inhabit the earth at any one timesome very similar to each other, some very different. Biologists classify organisms into a hierarchy of groups and subgroups on the basis of similarities and differences in their structure and behavior.
HEREDITY
One long-familiar observation is that offspring are very much like their parents but still show some variation:
Offspring differ somewhat from their parents and from one another.
CELLS
All self-replicating life forms are composed of cellsfrom single-celled bacteria to elephants, with their trillions of cells.
INTERDEPENDENCE OF LIFE
Every species is linked, directly or indirectly, with a multitude of others in an ecosystem.
Plants provide food, shelter, and nesting sites for other organisms.
FLOW OF MATTER AND ENERGY
However complex the workings of living organisms, they share with all other natural systems the same physical principles of the conservation and transformation of matter and energy.
EVOLUTION OF LIFE The earth's present-day life forms appear to have evolved from common ancestors reaching back to the simplest one-cell organisms almost four billion years ago.