Levels of Biological Organization In your journal start with the biosphere and list the levels of life down to an atom.

Play the game! Levels of Life Card Game… http://www.ldsd.org/Page/1436

Biosphere All of the life on earth and all of the places where life exists

Ecosystem (and Biomes) Consists of all the living things in a particular area, along with all the nonliving components of the environment with which life interacts, such as soil, water, atmospheric gases, and light Biome – any of the world’s major ecosystems

Community All of the living organisms inhabiting a particular area

Population Consists of all the individuals of a species living within the bounds of a specified area

Organism An individual living thing

Organ System A group of organs that cooperate in to carry out a particular function for the organism

Organ A body part that carries out a particular function in the body

Tissue A group of cells that work together to preform a specialized function

Cells Life’s fundamental unit of structure and function unicellular multicellular

Organelles Functional components within a cell

Molecules and Atoms Molecule - A chemical structure consisting of two or more small chemical units called atoms Atom – the smallest unit of matter that retains the chemical properties of an element

So what do all of these levels of life allow for.... Emergent Properties – due to the arrangement and interactions of parts as complexity increases an organisms is capable of specialized functions (i.e. oxidative phosphorylation)

Does emergence only stop at the organism level? No –populations can work together to carryout complex activities – think of a colony of Ants; emergent properties are present at all levels of life

Reductionism vs. Systems Reductionism - Reducing complex systems to simpler components that are more manageable to study Systems Biology – attempts to model the dynamic behavior of whole biological systems based on a study of the interactions among the system’s parts Reductionism could allow for the discovery of a drug that lowers blood pressure – Systems biology would make sure that the drug did not have an adverse affect on the rest of the body.