Chapter 7: Microorganisms
in the environment
Leona Qin 7B
7.1 Microorganisms
Learning objectives
Learn about different kinds of microorganism
Grow some microorganisms on agar jelly
Microorganisms
Microorganisms are living organisms that is
structured so small that you can only see it with
a microscope. Like all other living things, they
are made of cells. Most of them are only made of
one cell. The word for this is single-celled
Bacteria/Bacterium
Bacteria are small, single-called organisms.
Bacteria are found almost everywhere on Earth
and are vital to the planet’s ecosystem. The
human body is full of bacteria. It is estimated to
contain more bacteria cells than human cells.
Most of them are harmless, but some can cause
illness.
Fungi /Fungus
Fungi are not always considered to microorganisms .
Some of them, for instance, are mushrooms and
toadstools, which are large and easy to see. However,
mushrooms and toadstools are just part of the
fungus’s body and only grow at certain time of year.
Most of the time, they are just a tangle of very thin
threads. Some kind of fungi do not produce
mushrooms and toadstools, they are single-celled so
they are microorganisms.
Sometime, you might see yeast on a surface of
grapes.
Many Fungi are not really microorganisms apart from
one stage in their life cycle called the spore stage.
Spores are made fro reproduction(carried by air and
water and have a protein coat to help survive heat,
color or fry conditions).
When it falls on a good for source, the spore case
breaks open and a thin thread called a hypha
grows(digesting food around it). Growing many
hyphae, they form a large structure of tangled
threads called mycelium
In time, the mycelium produces fruiting bodies
(large structure) e.g mushrooms(containing
the reproductive spores).Moulds often produce
a mycelium on bread and their fruiting bodies
(black globes) are called sporangia.
Growing microorganisms
One microorganism is too small to see with naked eyes.
However, when left to grow, a single cell of a bacterium
or fungus divides repeatedly to make collection of many
cells. It is called colony.
We use special equipment called Petri dish and contain
a jelly called agar jelly.
They both have to be sterile, so all the living things on
them have to be killed, because there are already some
bacteria on them.
Algae and Protozoa
You can sometime see through microscope
microorganisms in ponds. Some are plant-like
organism (algae). Some are animal-like
organisms(Protozoa)
7.2 Food chains and webs
Learning objectives
Practice constructing food chains and food
webs, using arrows to indicate energy transfer
Practice using the correct terms to describe the
organisms in a food chain or food web
Think about how well food chains and food webs
describe feeding relationship
Ecology
The study of organism in their environmebt is
called ecology. All the different organisms that
live togethef affect one another in some ways.
For example, one might eat another. A plant
might provide shelter for an animal.
Food chains
A food chain describes how energy and nutrients
move through an ecosystem. The arrows in food
chains show the flows of energy.
Food webs
A food web consists of all the food chains in a
single ecosystem.
The first organism in a food chain is a producer. Plants use
energy from sunlight to make its own food.
All the other organisms are consumer. They consume other
organisms and eat ready-made food to get energy.
Animals that only eats other animal are carnivores
Only plants are herbivores
Both are omnivores
Animal that hunt and eat other animal are predator. Animal
that eat are their prey
7.3 Microorganisms and decay
Learning objectives
Learn about microorganisms and decay
Investigate how temperature affects the rate
of decay
Plan an experiment to test hypothesis about
decay.
Decomposers and decay
Look at the orange in the diagram:
There are microorganisms growing on its surface. Each
of the spots is made of millions of cells of microscopic
fungi. They changed the orange. They have made it
decay. Organisms that make things decay are called
decomposers. Microorganism break down organic
matter when they feed on it. This causes the apple to
decay.
Note: any substance that has been made by living
organism is called organic matter,
7.4 Microorganisms in food webs
Learning objectives
Draw and interpret food webs that include
microorganisms as composers
Think about how microorganisms contribute to
food webs
Reasons why decomposers are important
1. If the dead bodies and waste are not broken down
by composers, they would build up. Then, there will
be a lots of dead plants, animals and animal dung
(solid animal waste) everywhere.
2. Dead bodies and waste contain nutrients
(substances that living organisms can use to supply
them with energy). When microorganisms decay
organic matter, they will return the nutrient to the
soil. Plants can uses them.
Decomposers in food webs
Decomposers feed on almost every organisms
after it dies. So when drawing food webs (with
decomposers),draw an arrow from every
organisms in the food chain or food webs.
This may look complicated, here is a simple
example: