Living matter
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All living organisms on the planet are divided into 6 large groups, depending on the function they perform in the biosphere:
1 – bacteria
2 – viruses
3 – simplest organic compounds (humus)
4 – plants
5 – mushrooms
6 – animals
The first three kingdoms form the lowest echelon of life. They do not have a formed cell nucleus and therefore form a superkingdom called prokaryotes . The last three kingdoms have a formed cell nucleus and form a superkingdom eukaryotes .
Kingdom of bacteria. Their biosphere function is that they involve the primordial inorganic matter of the planet in the biological process. They live above everyone else and below everyone else, at the highest and lowest temperatures. They gnaw on stone and granite rocks. They are the first to populate the lifeless matter of the planet. Bacteria are the only ones in the biosphere capable of absorbing atmospheric nitrogen and introducing it into a bound state. All other organisms gain access to nitrogen only through bacteria. It is bacteria that synthesize the simplest organic compounds within themselves: carbohydrates, amino acids, lipids and nucleic acids.
Kingdom of Viruses. They lack the ability to independently synthesize the simplest organic compounds, so they do not interact with the original inorganic substance. They invade the cells of other organisms, primarily bacteria. Having infiltrated, they turn off their DNA and connect their own. As a result, the cell begins to produce virions (copies of viruses). After this she dies. Virions pass into the environment, where they remain in an inert state until they are introduced into a new cell.
The kingdom of primary organic compounds is humus. The kingdoms of bacteria and viruses represent a unity of opposites. Bacteria produce primary living matter, viruses destroy it and thereby close the biogenic process. The result of the activity of bacteria and viruses are primary organic compounds: carbohydrates, amino acids, fatty acids. They form a biogenic substrate (soil), on the basis of which three other kingdoms of living organisms develop.
plant kingdom. Their biosphere function is that they produce the bulk of organic matter. The weight of plant organisms accounts for more than 99% of the planet's total biomass. But plants do not grow on bare rocks; they require a primary biogenic substrate (nitrogen compound), which is produced by prokaryotes.
kingdom of mushrooms. Fungi are like viruses. They also constitute the opposite of the plant kingdom. There are more than 100 thousand species, most of them in the form of mucus, mold, powdery plaque, etc. The biospheric function of fungi is opposite to the functions of plants. They are not able to independently synthesize organic compounds, so they grow only on the tissues of living and dying organisms, plants and animals. Fungi decompose dying organic matter into primary organic compounds and thereby prepare them for reutilization (reuse) by plant organisms. Lichens are an indissoluble symbiosis of a plant and a fungus. Mycosis - a whitish coating on potato tubers - is also a mutually beneficial symbiosis of a plant and a fungus. There are only about 100 species of mushrooms that we collect. Their fruiting body consists of tightly closed threads of mycelium.
animal kingdom. Their mass is insignificant, but there are almost 1.5 billion species. Their biosphere function is that they maintain the biological cycle of matter in a state of dynamic equilibrium. By consuming plant products, they stabilize its mass; By widely dispersing the digestion product, they thereby prevent the concentration of dying organic matter in the places where it grows. By transporting foreign reproductive matter (pollen, seeds, spores), animals contribute to the spread of various species throughout their habitat. 80% of plants are pollinated only by insects. If there were no animals, then life would be possible only in and near bodies of water. All other kingdoms of the biosphere either create (bacteria, plants) or destroy (viruses, fungi) living matter. Animals regulate this entire process.
The living world of the Earth is very diverse. In it there are organisms that differ greatly from each other: simple and complex, small and large, plants and animals that live in the cold or only in the heat, and so on. Since ancient times, man has tried to systematize all this diversity, to classify similar living organisms into one group. In this group, he also divided organisms according to smaller, insignificant distinctive features.
A kingdom is one of the highest levels of classification of living organisms. The kingdoms are Animals, Plants, Fungi, Bacteria, Viruses. There are organisms that are difficult to unambiguously attribute to any one of these listed kingdoms.
Aristotle and his student Theophrastus wrote works in which plants and animals were systematized. In the 18th century, Carl Lineus studied the classification and names of species. He identified only two kingdoms - plants and animals. Although microorganisms were already known at that time, they were all classified as either plants or animals.
Only in the 20th century did scientists discover that some microorganisms do not have a cell nucleus. As a result, a separate kingdom of Bacteria was identified. It was also only in the 20th century that mushrooms were separated from plants into a separate kingdom.
Viruses do not even have a cellular structure, so this is also a separate kingdom.
Life on Earth arose about 3.5 billion years ago in the ocean. The first organisms had a very simple structure, like bacteria. They dominated the oceans for about one billion years. Then more complex and diverse unicellular and multicellular organisms appeared.
Question 1. How do plants differ from animals?
Question 2. What signs are characteristic of living organisms?
Living organisms grow, eat, breathe, develop, reproduce, have irritability, and release products of their vital activity (metabolism and energy) into their environment. All living organisms are made up of cells (except viruses).
Question 1. What kingdoms of living organisms do you know?
There are four kingdoms: Bacteria, Fungi, Plants and Animals.
Question 2. What features distinguish living organisms from inanimate objects?
Living organisms differ from inanimate objects in the following features: growth, nutrition, respiration, development, reproduction, irritability, excretion, metabolism and energy, mobility. Inanimate objects do not have such features.
Question 3. What is the importance of the ability of organisms to reproduce for the existence of life on Earth?
If reproduction stops at any stage of organisms, all living things will gradually disappear. This speaks about the interconnection of living organisms. Reproduction carries out the transmission of hereditary information and the continuity of generations. Reproduction allows a population to exist, to continue its species.
Think
Consider Figure 9. What phenomenon is depicted in it and why is it called the “power circuit”? Make your own food chain typical of living organisms living in your area.
This figure depicts the "power circuit" phenomenon. It really looks like a chain of certain links that successively replace each other. Examples:
Sun →grass →hare →wolf;
Sun → tree foliage → caterpillar → bird (tit, oriole) → hawk or falcon;
Spruce → squirrel → marten;
Sun →grass →caterpillar →mouse →viper →hedgehog →fox.
Tasks. Outline your paragraph.
Paragraph outline
§3. Diversity of wildlife. Kingdoms of living organisms. Distinctive features of living things.
Paragraph outline:
1. Kingdoms of living organisms;
2. Differences between living organisms and inanimate objects;
3. Main features of living organisms;
3.1. Cellular structure;
3.2. Chemical composition;
3.3. Metabolism;
3.4. Irritability;
3.6. Development;
Greetings, friends of nature. Today I want to tell you which kingdoms of living nature and their representatives exist and rule on our land. They interested me in their rich diversity, since nature created all its diversity over many millions of years.
It turns out that this is not one kingdom, but several, and they cannot live without each other, because in nature everything is interconnected. Do you know the representatives of the kingdom of living nature?
How beautiful our earth is at any time of the year, where everything is so rationally arranged that all living organisms on it, to one degree or another, depend on each other.
Sometimes we don’t even think about it and don’t pay attention. I will try to tell you about what kingdoms of nature exist, what they are called and how many there are.
These tiny microorganisms - microbes and bacteria - exist everywhere you look. But they can only be seen under a microscope due to their small size. And so, looking into the microscope lens, you can find bacteria with different structures.
There are those in the form of a ball, and there are also straight bacteria - like a stick, some are curved, while others have bizarre shapes. Their variety is so rich that it would be difficult to list them all here.
Speaking about bacteria, all of them can be divided into:
- Useful, which are found in every living creature and help not only to properly digest food, but also protect against various diseases.
- Harmful, which cause various poisonings and disorders of the digestive system and other organs.
In addition, in this kingdom there are still bacteria and microbes, the first of which, as I said above, can be both useful and harmful. But microbes are only harmful.
This is how this kingdom of good and bad microorganisms works in brief.
Kingdom of Viruses
So, for example, the hepatitis virus can live in the human body without damaging liver cells for many years. Currently known:
After reading this name of the kingdom, you probably thought about forest mushrooms? Of course, you thought correctly, but there are still a lot of mushrooms in the world, growing not only in the forest in the clearing, but also on the river and seabed.
More than 100 thousand species of mushrooms are known to our science today. It turns out that the most common yeast is . And the well-known forest mushrooms are edible and inedible.
Molds are also ubiquitous and can sometimes be difficult to get rid of.
They can be very harmful, as they lead to crop losses and diseases of people and animals. But among them there are also useful mushrooms, such as penicillium. Isn’t it a familiar name, apparently you guessed that the antibiotic penicillin is obtained from it.
Almost everyone who has their own personal plot grows currant or gooseberry bushes. And everyone strives to treat them against powdery mildew in the spring. This plant disease is caused by powdery mildew fungi.
Well, who doesn’t know this fabulous kingdom, which is so rich and diverse?
Their representatives make us happy both at home and on the street. Every spring, various plants bloom and bloom, giving us flowers that exude a delicate aroma.
There are about 400 thousand species of plants on our planet. The table below explains what species the plant kingdom is divided into.
And I would also add medicinal and poisonous plants to them. I hope you don't mind this?
This numerous kingdom plays a huge role on our earth, as it enriches the air with oxygen and provides food for many animals. And you and I grow their representatives in our dacha:
- fruits and berries,
- fruits and vegetables,
- flowers and roses,
- trees and shrubs.
Trees give us cool shade in hot weather, and warm our homes in cold weather. Without it, life on earth will cease to exist.
animal kingdom
A microscopic amoeba and a huge blue whale, what do they have in common, you ask? One is big, and the other is very tiny. And yet they are in this one kingdom. And why? Yes, because they feed, reproduce and breathe on their own.
Approximately 2 million species in the animal kingdom live on our planet. Unicellular or multicellular living organisms, they all exist and evolve for more than one million years.
Representatives of all these 5 kingdoms live and prosper, mutually complementing each other.
It is impossible to imagine a predatory wolf grazing in a clearing and chewing grass. Or a curly-haired lamb hunting a long-eared hare. After all, this is impossible in nature. So all the kingdoms of the living world cannot exist without each other.
Living organisms, dying, are processed by bacteria. Viruses, killing the host, provide food for bacteria. The bacteria, in turn, provide food to the plants. Plants produce oxygen and feed animals. The circulation of living beings in nature is indisputable proof of their interconnection.
Take a look at all this diversity of the kingdoms of nature, which are presented here as a small but visual diagram, and everything will become clear to you.
I hope you enjoyed my short overview of the kingdoms of living nature and their representatives, and you learned a lot from it that was useful for yourself. Write about it in your comments, I will be interested to know about it. And that's all for today. Let me say goodbye to you and see you again.
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Traditionally, all living organisms are divided into three domains (superkingdoms) and six kingdoms, but some sources may indicate a different classification system.
Organisms are placed into kingdoms based on similarities or shared characteristics. Some of the traits that are used to define a kingdom include: cell type, nutrient acquisition, and reproduction. The two main types of cells are and cells.
Common methods of obtaining nutrients include absorption and ingestion. Types of reproduction include and.
Below is a list of the six kingdoms of life and a brief description of the organisms that comprise them.
Kingdom of Archaea
Archaea growing in Morning Glory Lake in Yellowstone National Park produce vibrant color
Initially, these prokaryotes with one were considered bacteria. They are found in and have a unique type of ribosomal RNA. The composition of these organisms allows them to live in very challenging environments, including hot springs and hydrothermal vents.
- Domain: Archaea;
- Organisms: methanogens, halophiles, thermophiles, psychrophiles;
- Cell type: prokaryotic;
- Metabolism: depending on the type - metabolism may require oxygen, hydrogen, carbon dioxide, sulfur, sulfide;
- Method of nutrition: depending on the species - food consumption can be carried out by absorption, non-photosynthetic photophosphorylation or chemosynthesis;
- Reproduction: Asexual reproduction by binary fission, budding or fragmentation.
Note: in some cases, archaea are classified as belonging to the Kingdom of Bacteria, but most scientists classify them as a separate Kingdom. In fact, DNA and RNA data show that archaea and bacteria are so different that they cannot be combined into one Kingdom.
Kingdom Bacteria
Escherichia coli
These organisms are considered true bacteria and are classified under the domain of bacteria. Although most bacteria do not cause illness, some can cause serious illness. Under optimal conditions, they reproduce at an alarming rate. Most bacteria reproduce by binary fission.
- Domain: ;
- Organisms: bacteria, cyanobacteria (blue-green algae), actinobacteria;
- Cell type: prokaryotic;
- Metabolism: depending on the species - oxygen may be toxic, transportable or necessary for metabolism;
- Method of nutrition: depending on the type - food consumption can be carried out by absorption, photosynthesis or chemosynthesis;
- Reproduction: asexual.
Kingdom Protista
- Domain: Eukaryotes;
- Organisms: amoebas, green algae, brown algae, diatoms, euglena, slimy forms;
- Cell type: eukaryotic;
- Feeding mode: depending on the species - food consumption includes absorption, photosynthesis or ingestion;
- Reproduction: predominantly asexual. occurs in some species.
Kingdom Mushrooms
Includes both single-celled (yeast and mold) and multicellular (fungi) organisms. They are decomposers and obtain nutrients through absorption.
- Domain: Eukaryotes;
- Organisms: fungi, yeast, mold;
- Cell type: eukaryotic;
- Metabolism: Oxygen is necessary for metabolism;
- Nutrition method: absorption;
- Reproduction: sexual or asexual.
Plant Kingdom
They are extremely important for all life on Earth, since they release oxygen and provide other living organisms with shelter, food, etc. This diverse group contains vascular or avascular plants, flowering or non-flowering plants, and others.
- Domain: Eukaryotes;
- Organisms: mosses, angiosperms (flowering plants), gymnosperms, liverworts, ferns;
- Cell type: eukaryotic;
- Metabolism: Oxygen is necessary for metabolism;
- Nutrition method: photosynthesis;
- Reproduction: Organisms undergo alternating generations. The sexual phase (gametophyte) is replaced by the asexual phase (sporophyte).
Animal Kingdom
This Kingdom includes everyone. These multicellular eukaryotes depend on plants and other organisms for sustenance. Most animals live in aquatic environments and range from tiny tardigrades to extremely large blue whales.
- Domain: Eukaryotes;
- Organisms: mammals, amphibians, sponges, insects, worms;
- Cell type: eukaryotic;
- Metabolism: Oxygen is necessary for metabolism;
- Method of feeding: ingestion;
- Reproduction: Most animals reproduce sexually, but some animals reproduce asexually.
