All living organisms, animals, plants, fungi, bacteria. Biomass of the Earth, infographics

Germinal disc

an accumulation of germ cells at the animal pole of meroblastic eggs, shaped like a circle. Gradually growing at the edges, the third disk envelops the entire egg, and in the middle part of the disk the embryonic organs are laid down, which is why the third disk, unlike the layer of flat cells (vitellocytes) that envelops the entire egg, soon consists of several layers of cells.

Encyclopedic Dictionary F. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron. - S.-Pb.: Brockhaus-Efron. 1890-1907 .

See what “Germinal disc” is in other dictionaries:

germinal disc- ANIMAL EMBRYOLOGY GERMINAL DISC - in mammals at the gastrulation stage, an orderly arranged cell mass remaining after the formation of the hypoblast. From it the epiblast is formed... General embryology: Terminological dictionary

Large medical dictionary

Same as Blastodisc... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

- (syn. germinal node) embryoblast at the stage of formation of the blastocyst cavity before its flattening into the germinal disc (in mammalian and human embryos) ... Large medical dictionary

See germinal disc... Large medical dictionary

See germinal disc... Medical encyclopedia

- (discus embryonicus, LNE; synonym: blastodisc, discoblastula, embryonic shield, embryonic disc) blastula, which has the shape of a round plate located in the area of the animal pole of the egg; characteristic cephalopods, shark and bony... ... Medical encyclopedia

Some animals eat plants. Others are the flesh of organisms that consume plant foods. And those, in turn, can be eaten by humans. But every living thing ever has a time, that’s how nature works.

Law of Nature Renewal

In fact, imagine if organisms existed forever? The world would have long ago experienced overpopulation, leading to a lack of stable nutrition, as well as global pollution environment. Therefore, according to the laws existing in the biosphere, all living organisms are born, grow up, leave behind offspring, grow old and die. And the biosphere is thus updated every second!

Kingdoms of nature: plants, animals, fungi, bacteria

All of them are involved in this reasonable and balanced And when any organism ceases its vital activity, the hour of decomposition of matter into its components begins. And here bacteria and fungi come to the aid of nature itself. Why are fungi and bacteria called decomposers? This concept can be directly related to their activities.

Saprophytes

This is the scientific name for those organisms that obtain their nutrition from the remains of other animals and plants. These mainly include bacteria and fungi. They decompose dead flesh into “raw materials” - inorganic simple compounds, microelements, allowing nature to build new organisms from them or use them to feed existing ones. This is why fungi and bacteria are called decomposers. But with their destructive activity they bring more benefit than harm.

A world without saprophytes

Imagine what would happen if bacteria and fungi did not process dead cells? Life itself would probably have suffocated under the hourly increasing layer of dead remains. And saprophytes, by providing nutrition, “recycle” dead tissue, acting as orderlies or janitors, helping to remove unnecessary things and recycle waste. That is why fungi and bacteria are called decomposers, utilizing the remains of dead organisms. The positive effect of this global impact has now been scientifically proven. biological process on the environment.

Entertaining biology: bacteria, fungi, plants - saprophytes

The concept itself has Greek roots and comes from two words “rotten” and “plant”. What organisms can be attributed to this group?

First of all, these are many bacteria. They decompose organic matter, cause rotting of food, and participate in mineralization and nitrogen fixation. And some bacteria even break down cellulose and form hydrocarbons. Some microorganisms are particularly demanding of the substrate: they use only certain types of organic matter (for example, dairy products) as food. Others are practically omnivorous and can feed on various organic compounds: alcohols, proteins, carbohydrates and acids.
This group includes many large mushrooms. After all, straw and humus, fallen leaves, manure, feathers, fallen antlers and much more serve them as a substrate with nutrients. As a rule, it lives on the remains of foliage and trees, and conifers are chosen. The white dung beetle develops in nitrogen-rich places. And they spoil human food, making it unusable. Many fungi enter into symbiosis with higher plants, processing their waste into microelements that plants can feed from the soil. This process is mutually beneficial and is sometimes reflected in the very names of the mushrooms: boletus, boletus. Group of predator mushrooms feeding small insects, can also conditionally be classified as saprophytes. Because when there is no live prey, they can feed on dead organic matter.
There are saprophytes among fauna representatives. These include: sundew, mistletoe, dodder, for example.

Now you know why fungi and bacteria are called decomposers (rather, they mean their positive role in nature). All saprophytes and saprophages are “responsible” for the circulation of substances in the biosphere and the disposal of dead organisms, without which, probably, the planet would cease to exist.

The main characteristics of living things: SELF-RENEWALING, SELF-REPRODUCTION and SELF-REGULATION.

They define and basic properties of living things:

1) MATERIALITY;

2) STRUCTURED - living organisms have a complex structure;

3) METABOLISM - living organisms receive energy from the environment and use it to maintain their high orderliness;

4) MOVEMENT;

5) HEREDITARY and VARIABILITY - living organisms not only change, but also become more complex; and are also able to transmit to their descendants the information embedded in them, necessary for life, development and reproduction;

6) REPRODUCTION - all living things reproduce;

7) IRRITABILITY - the ability to respond to external irritations;

8) ONTO- and PHYLOGENESIS;

9) DISCRETE;

10) INTEGRITY.

Generalizing and somewhat simplifying what has been said about the specifics of living things, we can say that all living organisms eat, breathe, grow, reproduce and spread in nature, and inanimate bodies do not eat, do not breathe, do not grow and do not reproduce.

Kingdom of Viruses.

Their peculiarities : small size; lack of cellular structure; simple chemical composition; the impossibility of existing outside the host's body.

Form viruses: rod-shaped, filiform, spherical, cuboid, club-shaped.

Mature virus particles - virions- consist of two main components: DNA or RNA and protein.

Viruses are the causative agents of many plant and animal diseases. In past centuries viral infections were in the nature of epidemics, capturing vast territories.

For example, in Europe, 10-12 million people fell ill with smallpox and 1.5 million people died. Of particular note is measles. Today, more than 2 million children die from measles every year.

Viral diseases cause enormous damage agriculture. The foot and mouth disease virus is very dangerous for animals. Appearance , the most probable hypothesis seems to be one that interprets viruses as a result of the degradation of cellular organisms. There is another opinion that viruses can be considered as groups of genes that have escaped the control of the cell genome.

Kingdom Bacteria .

Age The most ancient bacteria are at least 3-3.5 billion years old. Many bacteria, according to scientists, appeared relatively recently. They emerge from the ice of the Arctic and Antarctica, penetrate oil wells, live in the water of hot springs, the temperature of which reaches 92°C, abundantly inhabit all types of soils and water bodies, and rise with air currents to a height of 85 km.

Bacteria in Greek means rod. Bacteria were discovered by the Dutchman A. Leeuwenhoek in 1675, but only Louis Pasteur for the first time showed the role of bacteria in the process of fermentation and other transformations of substances in nature. There are 5,000 species of bacteria.

FEATURES OF THEIR STRUCTURE:

§ small dimensions (0.0001 mm);

§ a typical prokaryotic cell, there is no separate nucleus, mitochondria, plastids, Golgi complex, nucleolus, chromosomes, etc.;

§ special structure and composition of membrane structures and cell walls;

§ The shape of the cells can be spherical, rod-shaped and convoluted.

Among bacteria, according to the source of energy used, they are distinguished PHOTOTROPHES and CHEMOTROPHS.

Photosynthetic bacteria for synthesis organic matter use light energy. Chemosynthetic bacteria use energy released during the oxidation of any inorganic substances in the environment to synthesize organic substances.

AUTOTROPHIC - able to synthesize from non- organic compounds organic matter in your body.

HETEROTROPHIC - unable to synthesize organic substances from inorganic ones, therefore they require the supply of ready-made organic substances from the outside in the form of food.

SAPROPHYTES are bacteria that settle on the dead, remains of plants and animals.

Kingdom of Mushrooms.

The kingdom of Mushrooms has 100,000 species, diverse in structure and lifestyle. Mushrooms is a separate group of cellular nuclear heterotrophic organisms that are similar to both animals and plants.

Signs of similarity between mushrooms and animals: the nature of metabolism associated with the formation of urea; heterotrophic type of nutrition; chitin content in the cell wall; formation of a reserve product - glycogen.

Signs of similarity between mushrooms and plants: nutrition by absorption; unlimited growth; the presence of a cell wall in the cells; reproduction with spores.

STRUCTURE OF MUSHROOMS

The body of the mushroom consists of special intertwining threads - hyphae (mycelium). cap mushroom consists of a mycelium and a fruiting body. And the fruit part is made from a cap and a stump.

Characteristic feature fungi is their heterotrophy : some fungi settle on the dead remains of plants and animals; some feed on living things; some enter into symbiosis with plants.

Reproduce fungi asexually and sexually. Asexual reproduction is carried out vegetatively and by spores. The forms of sexual reproduction in fungi are varied and are divided into three groups: gametogamy, gametangiogamy, and somatogamy.

ROLE OF MUSHROOMS. Fungi are the main group of decomposers in ecosystems. They participate in soil formation, act as orderlies, and serve as food and medicine for animals.

The composition and distribution of the biosphere by mass is quite interesting and significant issue in biology. Although an accurate census of all living organisms on Earth is literally impossible. It’s hard to imagine information like this: meet the bacteria Alice 43 by 10 to the 30th power, lives in a swamp near Ust-Kamenogorsk, sorry, while they were doing the census, Alice died, leaving 23 billion descendants. However, scientists were able to determine the biomass of the kingdoms of living organisms on the planet, as well as determine what influence humans had on its distribution. Although it’s too early to talk about super accuracy, the #infographics are very interesting.
Results
Calculations were made in gigatons of carbon, because carbon compounds are the basis for all living things and make up about 17.5% of animals and plants, while this mass does not depend on the water content in them. 1 Gt C is equal to 10 to the 15th power of carbon. According to scientists, the biomass of all kingdoms of life on the planet is 550 Gt of carbon. The lion's share of biomass is plants, about 450 Gt C, followed by bacteria 70 Gt C, fungi 12 Gt C, archaea 7 Gt C, protists 4 Gt C, animals 2 Gt C and viruses 0.2 Gt C.
Scientists also note that marine biomass, unlike terrestrial biomass, contains more consumers than producers. This refers to the food structure of the community, which is divided into consumers, producers and decomposers. Producers are organisms that create organic substances from inorganic ones, such as photosynthesis. Consumers consume the products of producers, but do not decompose them into inorganic substances, like decomposers. And decomposers are bacteria and fungi that decompose the remains of living beings into simple or inorganic substances. By the way, the error in counting bacteria in the results obtained is quite large.
It is also worth noting that, according to the data obtained, the underground biomass turned out to be less than aboveground, contrary to many statements of scientists. Which is quite understandable due to some gaps in our knowledge on at the moment, especially in the underworld. But the mass of leaves is 6.5 times less than the entire mass of roots. Plant biomass includes ≈70% of tree stems and trunks, which are largely metabolically inert.
The following chart shows average data for the animal kingdom. Marine arthropods have the largest carbon mass (1 Gt C), followed by fish (0.7 Gt C), then mollusks, nematodes or roundworms and terrestrial arthropods, 0.2 Gt C each. Although terrestrial arthropods are significantly more represented in terms of species than marine ones, their mass is 5 times less. Marine arthropods have individual species, such as arctic krill, whose mass is only 4 times less than all terrestrial arthropods. This type of krill can be put on a par with termites, whose mass is also 0.05 Gt C, slightly less than that of humans. Next come cnidarians - these are aquatic multicellular inhabitants that have stinging cells for hunting and protection; their mass is 0.1 Gt C. The same is the mass of all livestock on the planet, which consists mainly of cattle and pigs. But people occupy only 0.06 Gt C, which is almost two times less than livestock and 11.6 times less than fish. However, humans have 8.5 times more carbon mass than all wild mammals and 30 times more than wild birds. And domestic birds, among which chickens predominate, are 2.5 times more numerous than all wild birds.
The influence of humanity on the biosphere.
Distribution of biomass across environments and nutritional regimes for individual organisms.
General food chain, trophic levels.

Life has existed on Earth for billions of years. At first these were the simplest organisms, which consisted of a single cell. Over time, their structure became more complex, and multicellular organisms appeared. During the process of evolution, the diversity of life forms has become enormous. In order to somehow systematize them when studying, scientists group the inhabitants of wildlife according to similar characteristics.

Living nature, non-living nature - what are the differences?

Objects of inanimate and living nature have overall quality- they have the same chemical elements. But that's where the similarities end, because only living things have the following properties:

All of them (except viruses) consist of cells.
To live, they need to receive energy from outside. Plants capture it from the sun and then use it to synthesize organic substances. Herbivores eat plants and in this way also obtain energy and everything they need to exist. And many of them themselves become food for predators.
Living organisms cannot do without metabolism with environment - they must breathe and eat, get rid of the products of their vital activity.
All living things grow and acquire new qualities, reacts to changes external conditions and reproduces organisms similar to itself (that is, it reproduces).

Living nature includes absolutely all living organisms living on Earth.

Why is nature divided into kingdoms?

Since ancient times, scientists believed that organic world must be divided into plants and animals. The development of science has shown that such grouping does not reflect the full picture.

In the twentieth century, a new concept was introduced - the kingdom, and from this the system of recording millions of living beings became more convenient and detailed. According to modern classification, bacteria, fungi, plants and animals form separate kingdoms.

Kingdom of bacteria

Almost 10 thousand species of these microorganisms are known, but without a microscope you can’t see any of them. Bacteria are shaped like flagella, rods or balls and live everywhere- in water, air, soil and other living organisms. They can be useful and harmful. They can, for example, protect human health, turn milk into kefir, ferment cabbage, or make dough fluffy. Or they can bring illness and cause poisoning.

To date, about ten thousand species of bacteria have been described, but it is estimated that there are over a million of them.

To meet less with people in everyday life harmful bacteria, you must follow the rules of hygiene, food processing and food preparation.

kingdom of mushrooms

And these living organisms number about one hundred thousand species. Many properties of mushrooms are unique- for example, reproduction in three ways or the presence in them of substances from which medicines and vitamins are made. But they also have characteristics characteristic of the inhabitants of other kingdoms. The presence of cell walls, immobility, and apical growth make fungi similar to plants. They are similar to animals in terms of metabolism.

plant kingdom

Plants differ from other living things in their ability to photosynthesize. This means that inorganic substance they turn into organic. Nature has made plants the main source of food and energy for all inhabitants of the Earth.

Representatives of this kingdom are divided into:

lower plants (various algae), in which organs such as leaves, stems and roots are not expressed;
higher (mosses, ferns, angiosperms).

Ferns vary greatly in size, life forms, life cycles, structural features.

Further classification takes into account in more detail the characteristics of these living organisms, and there are about 350 thousand species of them on the planet.

animal kingdom

It is the most numerous - it is inhabited by almost 2 million species of animals, including humans! What they have in common with plants is the need for metabolism and cellular structure. And the main differences are the consumption of ready-made organic compounds and the ability to move independently.

The classification of such a number of species is very complex, and it begins with the division of animals into unicellular and multicellular.

Is man the king of nature?

In his life cycle man obeys natural laws, like all other living organisms. From the point of view of biology, it does not reign in nature at all, although it stands at the very top stage of evolution. That is, man is the highest developed creature on Earth. That is why he bears responsibility for the well-being of our living planet.

Why should we protect nature?

This report would be incomplete without mentioning that human activities can harm nature. People have interests everywhere - on earth and underground, in the air and water. They cut down forests and change river beds, fish and hunt, mine minerals and build cities.

There are many places that have been damaged by human activity, and nature cannot make up for what has been destroyed. Many animals and plants fell into Red Book, because they were on the verge of extinction.

Nature has both material and spiritual significance for us.

Environmental protection laws have been adopted in Russia and other countries. But also in everyday life a person can take care of nature, for example, not litter in the forest, plant young trees or feed birds in winter.

We must remember that we have one planet, and many more generations of living beings will live on it.