Biology Basic Study guide What characteristics distinguish living things from non living things 1 all have cells growth development metabolism chemical reactions in the body homeostasis respond to environment reproduce evolution Name all major levels of classification 2 Species Genus Family Order Class Phylum Kingdom Domain Describe two species concepts What are the limitations of theses concepts 3 The biological species concept is when one or more populations whose members are capable of interbreeding in nature to produce fertile offspring and do not interbreed with members of other species Basically this means that if a species from either population interbreeds and produces fertile offspring that classifies it as an actual species A problem with this concept would be that not all species interbreed some species reproduce asexually through binary fission where an entire organism splits into two identical organisms or parthenogenesis an exact copy of an or ganism is made but the parent gives birth Another argument would be the evolutionary species concept or phylogenic species concept This means that for population to be declared a separate species it must have undergone evolution long enough for statistically significant dif ferences to emerge Suggesting that a species can only be declared if it can be traced back to its ancestors which causes a limitation since new species can arise from others 4 What three unique properties of water and how do they affect living things Cohesion allows water molecules to stick together by hydrogen bonds and create surface tension which for some living organisms like a water strider allows them to walk on the surface of water and this allows a barrier on bodies of water A second unique property of water would be adhe sion Adhesion allows water molecules to stick to other kinds of molecules and this benefits liv ing things like plants Adhesion allows water to stick to plants making it easier for plants to transport water up and down giving them the necessary fluids to survive Lastly water has a spe cific heat Specific heat means that whatever the temperature of the surrounding environment is water will not change drastically It s ability to maintain a constant temperature and resist tem perature changes allows the organism who live in bodies of water to survive through all climate changes 5 Explain all four levels of protein structure The primary structure of protein consists of a chain of amino acids The secondary structure forms an alpha helix or beta pleated sheet through forming hydrogen bonds The tertiary struc ture of a protein is where the alpha helix and beta pleated sheets are folded into a complete struc ture that allows it to perform a certain function The last structure a protein can create would be the quaternary structure which has two or more polypeptide chains that have a single function like hemoglobin What are three major differences between DNA and RNA 6 DNA has nucleic bases ACTG double stranded sugar deoxyribose RNA has nucleic bases ACGU single stranded sugar ribose What are a population a community and an ecosystem 7 A population is a group of organisms of the same species that live in a defined geographic area at the same time A community is an association of populations of different species living to gether in a defined habitat with some degree of interdependence Lastly an ecosystem is the in teracting system that encompasses a community and its nonliving physical environment What is pH What do lower pH values reflect 8 pH measures acidity more specifically it measures hydrogen ions lower pH than 7 means its acidic higher than 7 means its a base What are some unique properties of carbon that allow for its prevalence in biological 9 molecules can form 4 covalent bonds can form double and triple bonds