modes of nutrition in plants and animals, these are the various methods whereby plants and animals carry out food intake. modes of nutrition differ from one animal to another.
modes of nutrition in plants and animals
Animal modes of nutrition focus on nutrients needs of animals,
Essential elements modes of nutrition are chemical elements that meet criteria that determine that the elements are required for plant growth and development and therefore are called plant nutrients
Plants and animals have different modes of nutrition due to their distinct biological characteristics. Here are the main modes of nutrition for plants and animals:
Autotrophic Nutrition: Most plants are autotrophs, meaning they can produce their own food using sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide through a process called photosynthesis. They have specialized structures called chloroplasts that contain chlorophyll, which enables them to capture sunlight and convert it into chemical energy.
Heterotrophic Nutrition: Some plants, known as heterotrophic plants, do not perform photosynthesis and obtain their nutrients from other sources. These plants rely on external organic matter, such as dead insects or other plants, for their nutrition. Examples include carnivorous plants like Venus flytraps and pitcher plants.
Heterotrophic Nutrition: Animals are primarily heterotrophic, which means they cannot produce their own food and must obtain it from external sources. There are various types of heterotrophic nutrition in animals:
a. Herbivores: Herbivores feed exclusively on plant material, such as leaves, stems, and fruits. Their digestive systems are adapted to break down cellulose, the main component of plant cell walls, using specialized enzymes.
b. Carnivores: Carnivores are meat-eating animals that consume other animals. They have adaptations for capturing, killing, and digesting prey, including sharp teeth and claws, and a shorter digestive tract optimized for the efficient digestion of meat.
c. Omnivores: Omnivores have a flexible diet and consume both plant and animal matter. They have a combination of adaptations seen in herbivores and carnivores and can digest a wide range of food sources.
d. Detritivores: Detritivores feed on decomposing organic matter, such as dead plants and animals. They play an important role in nutrient recycling by breaking down organic material into simpler forms.
e. Parasites: Parasites obtain nutrients by living in or on another organism, known as the host. They derive their nutrition from the host\’s tissues or body fluids, often causing harm or disease to the host in the process.
f. Filter feeders: Filter feeders are animals that extract nutrients from water by filtering out small particles, such as plankton or detritus. They use specialized structures like gills, sieves, or fan-like appendages to capture food particles.
How soil fertility affects plant nutrition
Soil fertility is the study of the delivery of essential elements
from the soil to the plant. Soil fertility involves chemical, physical, and biological properties of soils. Some chemical properties of soil fertility are supply of plant nutrients and soil acidity. Some physical properties that affect soil fertility are texture, structure, depth, drainage
, aeration, water, and temperature.
Biological properties of soil that affect plant modes of nutrition
Biological properties refer effects of organisms on soil fertility and may include harmful organisms such as diseases, insect pests,
and weeds or beneficial organisms such as bacteria(types of bacteria and diseases
) that conduct processes of mineralization and nitrification.
It is difficult to sort properties of soil fertility
into chemical, physical, and biological factors because of the interrelations and similaritiesmodes of nutrition
\”Animal nutrition focuses on the dietary nutrients needs of animals, primarily those in agriculture and food production, but also in zoos, aquariums, and wildlife management. There are seven major classes of nutrients: carbohydrates, fats, fibre, minerals, proteins, vitamins, and water\”
Plant Modes of nutrition facts and types
i Autotrophic or holophytic nutrition
is a mode of nutrition by which green leaves or plants manufacture their food using atmospheric carbon
dioxide and soil water as raw materials with sunlight as the source of energy. This type of autotrophic nutrition is the photosynthetic autotrophic nutrition.
plant nutrition explained
Autotrophs are organisms that can produce their own food independently.
WHAT IS PLANT NUTRITION?
Producers are green plants that make use of sunlight to manufacture food from nutrients obtained from the soil. Strictly, the definition implies that autotrophs\’ modes of nutrition acquire carbon from inorganic sources such as carbon dioxide (CO2. Autotrophs
are normally plants; they are as well known as \”self-feeders\” or \”primary producers\”.
The second type of autotrophic nutrition in plants is chemosynthetic nutrition or chemosynthesis: This is a type of autotrophic nutrition where the energy required for the synthesis of food is derived from chemicals or inorganic compounds instead of from light energy from the sun-modes of nutrition
(ii) Parasitic nutrition: This is the type of plant nutrition by which a few plants derive their organic substance from other plants. Such plants are referred to as parasite while the plants from which they derive their nourishment and protection is referred to as host.
Parasites cause harm to their host and can sometimes lead to the death of the host. This is a type of relationship in which the parasite gains while its host is at a loss.
(iii) Mutualism (symbiosis) type of nutrition
— This is a mode of feeding relationship whereby two organisms are living together for the common benefit of each other. The relationship may be between organisms that belong to the same group or different groups.
An example is seen in the relationship between nitrogen-fixing bacteria
, rhizobium and root noodles of leguminous plants as well as fungi and algae in lichens.
(iv) Epiphytic nutrition
— This is the mode of plant nutrition that occurs when plants attach themselves to other plants for support. They acquire minerals and water from the position of attachment to the host plants but produce their own food through photosynthesis because they have green leaves and chlorophyll.
Photosynthesis in plants
(b) (I) Light reaction takes place in the grana of the chloroplast which contains chlorophyll, a pigment that traps light energy during the process of photosynthesis. The absorption of light energy by chlorophyll assists in the splitting of water molecules into hydrogen and hydroxyl ions as shown in the equation below:
4H20 → Light energy → 4H+ → OH- – 40H .
The hydroxyl components obtained again react with each other to give rise to water and oxygen as shown in the equation below: 20H + 20H → 2H20 + O2. The overall reactions = 4H20 radiant energy 4H+ + 2H20 + O2 + 4e.
In the process of light reaction, electrons are transferred to photosystem I, and two molecules of ATP
are produced from ADP and inorganic phosphate. ADP + P1 → ATP photophosphory — lotion) electrons move further to another photosystem—modes of nutrition in living things
(ii) Dark reaction
takes place in the stomata of the chloroplast in the presence of NADPH and ATP. The Hydrogen (H) produced in the light reaction passes through a series of reactions in which they reduce carbon dioxide to form sugar(glucose)
as represented in the following equation: CO2 + 4H → CH2O + H20. The reactions are catalyzed by enzymes.
Types of animal modes of Nutrition
Two examples of mode of nutrition in animals
There are many modes of feeding that animals exhibit, including Filter feeding: obtaining nutrients from particles suspended in water. Deposit feeding: obtaining nutrients
from particles suspended in soil. Fluid feeding: obtaining nutrients by consuming other organisms\’ fluids.
(i) Explanation of filter feeding in mosquitoes:
modes of nutrition in mosquitoes, Male mosquitoes will live only 6 or 7 days on average, feeding primarily on plant nectar, and do not take blood meals. Females with an adequate food supply can live up to 5 months or longer, with the average female life span being about 6 weeks.
The head of a mosquito has brushes, mandible and maxillae. The ventral surface of the head is upward and this allows the pair of brushes at the sides of the Mouth to sweep through water and enmesh small food particles which are combed into the mouth by the maxilla and mandibles as part of modes of nutrition
(ii) Explanation of parasitic feeding
in tape worm, read more about tapeworm here :
The head or (scolex) of a tape worm has hooks, rostellum and suckers. The hooks and the suckers allow them to attach themselves to the walls of the intestine of its host. The whole body surface is adapted for absorption of digested food from its host as a modes of nutrition
Here is a clear answer to tapeworm nutrition
Tapeworm modes of nutrition is that it attach themselves to the inner lining of the definitive host’s small intestine. They don’t have mouths to hold on with, but they have an arrangement of suckers and hooks that lets them latch on and bury their heads in the intestinal lining. When a worm is in place, the host’s partially digested food flows over him, and the tapeworm absorbs necessary nutrients through his skin. If the parasite steals enough food from the host
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