Question

1. How is a protist different than a plant/animal or fungus?
2. Diagram the hierarchy of structural levels in biological organization from largest to smallest.
3. Define and provide examples for each level of biological hierarchy.
4. Define emergent properties and describe its role in biology.
5. What is the structural and functional unit of life?

Answer 1

Answer : 1 :

Protists are a large group of unicellular organisms. ... Protist cells can be distinguished from plant, animal and fungal cells by their ability to move on their own. They may move using one or more tails (flagella), tiny hairs on the cell membrane (cilia) or long, arm-like extensions of the cell membrane (pseudopodia).

Animal-like protists, which are heterotrophs and have the ability to move. Plant-like protists, which are autotrophs that photosynthesize. Fungi-like protists, which are heterotrophs, and they have cells with cell walls and reproduce by forming spores

The main way animal-like protists differ from plant-like protists is in the way they get energy. Animal-like protists are heterotrophs. ... Plant-like protists, on the other hand, are autotrophs. They can make their own energy from the sun or other sources just as plants can.

Answer : 2:

Answer : 3 : Biology is the study of life. Since life is such a broad topic, scientists break it down into several different levels of organization to make it easier to study. These levels start from the smallest unit of life and work up to the largest and most broad category.

The levels, from smallest to largest, are: molecule, cell, tissue, organ, organ system, organism, population, community, ecosystem, biosphere.

Molecule

Molecules are made of atoms, the smallest unit of chemical elements. They can be found in all matter, living and non-living. Molecules make up the most basic structures of living beings. Two biological disciplines that focus on this level are biochemistry and molecular biology.

Cell

A cell is the basic unit of life. There are two kinds of cells: plant cells, which have a rigid cell wall made of cellulose molecules, and animal cells, which have flexible cell membranes. Cell biologists consider questions such as metabolism and other questions about structure and function within and between cells.

Tissue

Tissue is made of cells that work together to perform a certain task. Muscle tissue, connective tissue, and neural tissue are some types of tissue. Histologists are an example of biologists who work at this level.

Organ

An organ is a system of tissues that work together on a larger scale to do certain jobs within an animal's body. Examples of organs are the brain, heart and lungs. Anatomy is an example of a biology specialty concerned with this level.

Organ System

An organ system is a group of organs that work together to perform specific bodily functions. The respiratory system, for example, uses the lungs, airways and respiratory muscles to inhale oxygen and release carbon dioxide in animals. Physiologists study the function of parts of the body as they work together. Though physiologists can work at any level of biological organization, they often answer questions related to organ systems.

Organism

An organism is a recognizable, self-contained individual. Organisms can be unicellular organisms such as bacteria or amoebae, or multi-cellular organisms comprised of organs and organ systems. A human being is an example of a multi-cellular organism.

Population

A population is a group of multiple organisms of the same species within a specific area. For example, a pride of lions in Kenya, Africa, is a population.

Community

A community consists of all the different species within a certain area. The population of lions in Kenya, plus the populations of gazelles, giraffes, elephants, dung beetles, and all other species in that area, add up to a community.

Ecosystem

An ecosystem is made up of all the communities in a certain area, as well as all the non-living, physical components of the environment. Rocks, water and dirt are a part of an ecosystem. Ecologists may study populations, communities, or whole ecosystems.

Biosphere

The biosphere is all of the ecosystems on Earth added together. Every animal, plant, bacteria, rock, and molecule is a part of the Earth's biosphere. Non-biologists, such as meteorologists and geologists, may join biologists to answer questions at this level of biology organization.

Answer : 4 :

At its most basic level, the concept of emergent properties states that with rising levels of complexity in living things, new patterns will emerge. This is the case whether you move up the chain from simple single-celled organisms to much more complex multi-celled organisms, or whether you move from a single organism to an entire population of that organism

Complex Systems

Emergent properties are not limited to biology. The concept of “emergence” has a place in other branches of the sciences, and in topics as diverse as art and philosophy. Essentially, an emergent property is an entirely new trait that develops from smaller component traits. While the smaller traits may be necessary to make up the larger trait, the larger trait, or emergent property, is something new and novel in and of itself, and cannot be broken down into, or analyzed solely in terms of, its component parts.

Biological Organization Levels

In the natural world, emergent properties appear at every level of biological organization. When organic chemicals combine to form small cells, for instance, the interactions that give rise to life are difficult, if not impossible, to explain in terms of their component parts. When larger groups of animals live together to form a population, the patterns that population takes on and the evolutionary course it follows are not always predictable based on the actions of its members.

Population Properties

One of the most widely studied areas of biology is population. Populations of species change according to many facets, including how organisms interact with their environment and with other organisms. The combination of many individuals creates new properties, such as size, density, dispersion patterns, spatial structure -- whether a population is distributed evenly or in clusters over its territorial range -- age structure, sexual distribution, and the genetic variations among members of the population. Emergent population properties are traits that no single individual could exhibit on its own.

Affects on Living Things

A common emergent property is population interdependence. Humans and ants, for example, are both independent organisms. They function autonomously, each individual controlling its own bodily systems and actions, but both are essentially unable to survive without other members of their own species. Many species require other members of their species to reproduce, and most species evolve not as single individuals but as whole populations, slowly inheriting new traits that benefit the larger group.

Answer : 5:

The cells are called as structural and functional units of a living body. Cells are structural unit as they form the structure of the organism. Cells combine to form tissues, which further combine to form organs, organs combine to form organic systems, which further combine to form organism. So, cell is the basic structural unit for all unicellular and multicellular organisms. Some of the basic life processes or functions takes place in every cell to keep the organisms alive such as digestion, respiration, excretion, etc., whether it is a single-celled organism or multicellular organism. So, the cells are also called the functional unit of life owing to these processes.