The Scope of Biology

An Introduction

Pope John XXIII High School

Chapter 1

November 24, 2008

Mr. Rimmer
 Ecology

Ecology is the study of interactions between organisms and their environment.

Ecology is not environmental

activism or “tree-hugging.”

Ecology entails consideration of

biotic factors (other organisms
that include prey, predators,
parasites, etc.)

and

…. abiotic factors (such as temperature, light, and water).

 Biology-Exploring Life
• Biosphere- on Earth that support life.
• Ecosystem-all living (non-living) in an area
• Community-all living organisms in that
area
• Population – individuals from one species
• Organism –one living thing
• Organ System-digestive, cardiovascular…
• Organs,->tissues, ->cell,->organelle,->
molecule,-> atom
 Ecology

Organization levels of biology.

Ecosystem
Levels of
Ecological
Investigation
 Ecosystem (ECS)
• Complex web of relationships (Fig 1.2).
• Producers, Consumers, Decomposers.
– Producers provide food for ECS
• Plants-photosynthesis (light, O2/CO2, H2O, sugar,
minerals).
– Consumers consume plants, animals, O2. Return
waste like CO2, minerals, phosphate

– Decomposers bacteria, animals (worms) and fungi

breakdown dead organisms to minerals for plants
 Ecosystems Ecology
An ecosystem is a self-sustaining community of organisms and the non-living
environment with which they interact.

An ecosystem is the fundamental unit of ecology.

 Ecosystem Dynamics
The Operation Involves Two Processes:
1. Recycling Nutrients
2. Energy Flow

• Nutrients: Phosphorous, CO2, O2, H2O,

minerals from air and soil to plants,
animals and decomposers then Recycle
back to air and soil!
 Ecosystem Summary
• Energy Conversions…

– Flow of pure energy (light and heat) through

ECS (enters as light, exits as heat).
• This all happens between and within organisms

» Understand Figure 1.2

 Community Ecology

Community ecology examines the question of how populations interact.

Questions include:

What are the types of

species and their numbers
within a community (i.e.
community structure)?

Are there especially critical species for maintenance of the community?

What is the relationship (predator, prey, parasite) between species within

the community?
 Biogeochemical Cycles

Moving, growing, reproducing requires energy. The

exchange of energy between an organism and it’s
environment involves transformation of one form of
energy to another.

This is accomplished by biogeochemical cycles. This is

the movement of a substance (for example, water, carbon,
nitrogen, or phosphate) through the biotic (living) and
abiotic (non-living) environments.

Biogeochemical cycles are a key component of ecosystems

ecology.
 The Carbon
Cycle

Understanding of
the carbon cycle is
critical for global
climate change, yet
it remains
incomplete.
 The Nitrogen Cycle

Note the key role of

mutualism between
nitrogen-fixing
bacteria and their
plant hosts.

Not shown is the

huge contribution of
anthropogenic (man-
made) ammonia and
nitrates.
 The Water Cycle

Only about 40% of precipitation on land comes from water evaporated over
oceans; roughly 60% comes from transpiration of water through plants.
 Cells-Structure/Function
Prokaryotic & Eukaryotic Cells (Figure 1.3)
• Characteristics
1. Lowest level that sustains life;
2. Regulates own environment;
3. Consumes and use energy;
4. Responds to external environment;
5. Maintains it’s internal environment
(“Structural Level”…has separate organs) ;
6. Reproduces;
7. Repairs itself.
 Cells-Structure/Function
• Structural level is basis for more complex
levels/functions of higher life organisms…
called emergent properties.
• These complex organizations are called
Systems. Thus Cells, Organisms and
Biosphere, Ecosystems are systems.
• Thus, cells are the basic STRUCTURAL
AND FUNCTION UNITS OF LIFE!!!
Why Study Cell
Biology?

The key to every

biological problem must
finally be sought in the
cell, for every living
organism is, or at some
time has been, a cell. E.B.
Wilson, 1925
Cells are Us
 Cells are Us

Cilia on a protozoan Sperm meets egg

Cells are Us

A person contains about 100 trillion cells.

That’s 100,000,000,000,000 or 1 x 1014
cells.

There are about 200 different cell types in

mammals (one of us).
Red and
Cells are tiny, measuring on average about white blood
0.002 cm (20 um) across. That’s about cells above
1250 cells, “shoulder-to-shoulder” per vessel-
forming cells.
inch.

nerve cell
 Cells-Prokaryotic & Eukaryotic
1. Prokaryotic
• Simpler and smaller than Eukaryotic
• Contains no membrane-bound nucleus (but has DNA)
• Bacteria are good example
• Few less internal structures (organelles)
1. Eukaryotic
• Many internal compartments & membranes
• Has nucleus and DNA
• Has many organelles
• We are Eukarya Domain!!!!
Us vs. Them
-Eukaryotes
and
Prokaryotes
 Two Fundamentally Different Types of Cells

A prokaryotic cell

A eukaryotic cell
 Questions
• Which of the following levels of biological
organization includes all others on this
list?
– Cell, Molecule, Organ, Tissue
• Explain how photosynthesis of plants
functions in both the cycling of chemical
nutrients and the flow of energy in an ECS
• Why are cells the basic units of life?
 Common Features of Life
1. DNA is primary common feature.
– 2 chains coiled together in double helix
– Contains 4 building blocks (letters) for
“alphabet of inheritance”. Genes are
combinations of these blocks, thousands of
letters long.
– In DNA they are Adenine, Guanine,
Thymine, Cytosine or A, G, T, C
What’s So Special About DNA?

DNA is one of the most boring macromolecules imaginable

- its made of only four building blocks and has a perfectly
monotonous structure.

Worse yet, DNA just sits there - it doesn’t catalyze

reactions or build the cell or organism.

So, what’s so good about DNA?

The answer lies in DNA’s ability to store and copy

information.
Winners of the Race to Learn DNA’s Structure – Watson and
Crick 53 Years Ago
Two Views of the Double Helix
How Can DNA Store and Copy Information?

Key properties that allow these neat tricks are that DNA is a:

double stranded molecule ….

…. held together by complementary bases …..

…… that pair through simple rules.

DNA is also capable of occasional change, and

occasionally, change is good.
Building DNA Building Blocks
DNA is Made of Two Long Chains of Nucleotides Joined by
Hydrogen Bonds

A Nucleotide

G and C are
complementary as
are A and T
Other Common Features of Life
2. Order
• Complex organization in all organisms
3. Regulation
• Internal environment stable despite
changing external environment.
4. Growth and Development
– Controlled by inherited genes
5. Response to Environment
– A spider can sense a fly in it’s web and respond
 Common Features of Life
6. Evolution
• The capacity of a species to change
• It’s a unifying feature of life
• Estimated that life is about 4 billion
years old.

Now let’s examine the “Diversity of Life.”

 Diversity of Life
• Vertical view refers to Biosphere, ECS,
Community, Population, Organisim, etc.
• Horizontal view sees broad view of
organism including over 1.8 known
species, grouped by similarities.
• Taxonomy names and puts all species
into categories starting with 3 domains,
then 6- >dozens of Kingdoms etc.
Two Views of Life’s Organization – Domains and Kingdoms
3 Domains subdivided by kingdoms
1. Bacteria - Comprised of Prokaryotes
2. Archaea – Like bacteria, comprised of Prokaryotes
that live in extreme environs.
3. Eukarya – Comprised of Protists, (mainly single
celled & photosynthetic), Protozoans (eat
organisms) Plantae, Fungi, and Animalia.

Bacteria and Archaea used to be considered almost

similar but since DNA became available, now
considered separate.
Life’s History
and Diversity

The Big Picture

 What’s the Domain Archaea?

The Archaea are one of two groups of prokaryotic

organisms (Bacteria are the other group).

Although Bacteria and Archaea are both prokaryotes, Archaea are even more
different from bacteria than they are from us.

Archaea are best known for living in spectacularly inhospitable environments, but
they also occur in great numbers in less extreme conditions.

Much remains to be learned about this recently appreciated “third” life form.
Prismatic Pool, Yellowstone Park – Another “Hot” Site for Archaean
Extremophiles
 Bacteria – the Most Abundant Cells

There are more bacteria in your mouth than there have

been people living since the dawn of humans.
A Sense of Scale and Abundance – Bacteria on the Head of a Pin
 What Good Are Bacteria?

Bacteria are essential for many processes we depend on – sewage treatment,

cheese production, antibiotic production, and biotechnological processes like
gene cloning and protein production.
 Questions
• What is the chemical basis for all life’s
kinship?
• To which of the three Domains of life do
we belong?
 Evolution
• 1859 Charles Darwin published “Origin of
Species by Means of Natural Selection.”
• Essential inheritable small variations
exposed to environmental factors could lead
to huge changes in species that confer
reproductive success.
• This is a Theory often in conflict with
another theory called: “Intelligent Design.”
• Thus, Evolution not a creative process
(unlike Intelligent Design).
 Evolution

Nothing in biology makes sense except in

the light of evolution. – Theodosius
Dobzhansky
Charles Darwin in later years
 Darwin’s Observations and Inferences

Observation 1: Individuals in a population vary in

many inheritable traits.

Observation 2: Left unchecked, the number of

organisms of each species will increase exponentially,
generation to generation.

Observation 3: Environmental resources are limited, so individuals are unequal in their

ability to survive.

Inferences: 1. Today’s species arose from a succession of ancestors “Decent with

modification” 2. Production of more individuals than can be supported by the environment
leads to a struggle for existence among individuals, with only a fraction of offspring
surviving in each generation. Those whose traits are best suited for an environment will leave
offspring….NATURAL SELECTION
 Evolution’s Core Principles

1. Varied inheritable
traits (genes)

2. Natural selection.

3. Adaptation. Leads
to multiplication.
 EXQUISITE ADAPTATIONS
• Look at the structure of a bat’s wing.
• Forelimbs adapted for flight have same
structures as that of man’s forearm,
horse’s foreleg and whale flipper.
• All mammalian forearms are a variation on
a theme.
 Tree of Life
• Darwin said that natural selection over
time would give rise to 2 or more species.
• If isolated, (Galapagos Island), one
species could then give rise to multiple
species as they adapted over generations
to different geographies.
 Scientific Methods
• At the heart of science is inquiry. No set
formula for successful inquire…methodology
is varied.
• 2 Main types of inquiry
– Discovery
– Hypothesis-based
• Each has there own important value to man’s
knowledge base (Jane Goodall).
 Discovery Science
• Leads to conclusions based on “Inductive
Reasoning.”
• From this we derive generalizations from a
large number of observations.
• “The sun always rises in the east”
• “All organisms are made of cells”
– This came from generations of observations.
 Hypothesis Based Science
• The observations and inductions from
discovery science compell us to seek
“what causes” the observations we made.
• Example: What caused the finches to
diversify on the remote island?
• In HBS, A hypoethesis that can be
TESTED is formed from a well-based
question. based from observation. IT is
TESTABLE!!!
 Hypothesis
• This type of science uses DEDUCTIVE
REASONING.
• This is somewhat opposite of inductive.
Starting from a general premise (not an
observation), we extrapolate to results we
should expect if our premise is true.
• It uses “if”… “then” logic.