Define the following terms Essay Example

respiration involves exchanging gases through cellular reactions with the environment. Oxygen is necessary for aerobic respiration, which generates water and carbon dioxide. Anaerobic respiration also occurs.

The process of respiration involves the metabolic combination of glucose and oxygen by both plants and cells, resulting in the creation of carbon dioxide and water. When oxygen is not available, anaerobic respiration takes place which produces lactic acid as its sole waste product. This type of respiration primarily occurs in the skeletal muscle of vertebrates.

Mammalian muscle tissue has the ability to undergo anaerobic respiration, resulting in the production of lactic acid: Glucose --> lactic acid + Energy or C6 H12 O6 --> CH3 CH OH CO OH + Energy. Obligate anaerobes are organisms that can only respire in the absence of oxygen. Natural selection is a process where organisms better adapted to their environment and possessing competitive advantages survive and reproduce, while less adapted organisms fail to reproduce or die. Stabilizing, directional, and disruptive selection are different types of natural selection which bring about adaptation and evolution within populations in nature through uneven rates of reproduction, ultimately altering gene frequencies.

Natural selection is responsible for the adaptation of animals and plants to their environment. Less efficient ones have a lower probability of passing on their genes through reproduction. During the Industrial Revolution, air pollution, such as sulphur dioxide, blanketed industrial areas. As a result, lichens and mosses died off from surfaces like tree trunks and brickwork, leaving behind blackened regions known as industrial melanism.

Industrial melanism is a phenomenon where the proportion of darkened forms of moth increases in habitats due to their better camouflage, leading to an increase in

the frequency of their genes being passed forward to the next generation. This period saw a rise in the amount of dark variety species of moth. To learn more about cellular respiration breaking down energy, click


here.


Osmosis refers to the diffusion of water molecules across a selectively permeable membrane in living organisms. Water moves from an area of higher concentration to lower concentration or from a hypotonic solution to a hypertonic solution. It can also move from a hyperosmotic solution to a hypo-osmotic solution or from an area of high water potential to lower water potential. The diagram below shows a model of osmosis.
Active transport is another type of molecule transportation where molecules move from lower to higher concentration using protein carrier molecules known as Biological pumps.

Active transport is necessary to move ions against their concentration gradient, and this process always requires energy. For instance, a plant’s Mg2+ ion concentration may be greater than that of the surrounding soil, and the plant acquires Mg2+ ions via active transport through its root hair cell membranes. Only specific protein carriers can facilitate the entry of Mg2+ ions into the plant.

Active ion uptake can also be referred to as a type of active transport.