5. Life Processes
Life processes in organisms include essential functions such as nutrition, respiration, transportation of materials, and excretion of waste. Different organisms have adapted unique processes for obtaining energy and materials, including autotrophic and heterotrophic nutrition. The efficiency of these life processes is critical for maintaining the structural organization and overall health of living beings.
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What we have learnt
- Movement of various types can be taken as an indication of life.
- Maintenance of life requires processes like nutrition, respiration, transport of materials within the body and excretion of waste products.
- Autotrophic nutrition involves the intake of simple inorganic materials from the environment and using an external energy source like the Sun to synthesise complex high-energy organic material.
- Heterotrophic nutrition involves the intake of complex material prepared by other organisms.
- In human beings, the food eaten is broken down by various steps along the alimentary canal and the digested food is absorbed in the small intestine to be sent to all cells in the body.
- During the process of respiration, organic compounds such as glucose are broken down to provide energy in the form of ATP.
- Respiration may be aerobic or anaerobic. Aerobic respiration makes more energy available to the organism.
- In human beings, the transport of materials such as oxygen, carbon dioxide, food and excretory products is a function of the circulatory system.
- In highly differentiated plants, transport of water, minerals, food and other materials is a function of the vascular tissue which consists of xylem and phloem.
- In human beings, excretory products in the form of soluble nitrogen compounds are removed by the nephrons in the kidneys.
- Plants use a variety of techniques to get rid of waste material.
Key Concepts
- -- Autotrophic Nutrition
- The process by which organisms, such as green plants, use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water.
- -- Heterotrophic Nutrition
- The mode of nutrition in which organisms depend on other organisms for their food, primarily involving complex organic compounds.
- -- Respiration
- The biochemical process where organisms convert sugar and oxygen into energy, carbon dioxide, and water; including aerobic and anaerobic processes.
- -- Circulatory System
- The system in human beings that transports blood, nutrients, oxygen, and waste products throughout the body.
- -- Excretion
- The process of removing waste products from the body of an organism, which is essential for maintaining homeostasis.
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