NUTRITION

• Nutrition is the process of providing or obtaining food necessary for health, survival and growth of an organism.
• Nutrients - chemical substances found in every living thing on earth. They are necessary to the lives of plants, people, animals and all other organisms.
• Autotrophic

  • They can manufacture their own nutrients.
  • Two types: Photoautotrophs and Chemoautptrophs
• Photoautoptrops - organisms directly use energy from the sun and other inorganic substances such as carbon dioxide and water to form organic food.
• Chemoautotrophs - use chemicals to create simpler organic substances important for their survival.
• Heterotrophic

  • Heterotrophs obtain their energy by digesting organic matter.

  Examples: animals, fungi, and some bacteria
• Saprophytic - organisms obtain their nutrients from dead organic matter. These organisms secrete digestive juices to the surroundings, which will be later absorbed through their body surface.

  Examples: Penicillium (fungi), Monotropa uniflora (plants) , Bacillus (bacteria)
• Parasitic - an organism takes food from another organism. The organisms that takes food is called a parasite, and the organisms from where the food is taken is called the host.
• Two types of parasitic:

  • Ectoparasitism - this type of parasitism happens when the parasite is outside the body of the host.

  Examples: Fleas in dogs and head lice in humans

  • Endoparasitism - this type of parasitism involves parasites that live inside the body of the host.

  Examples: roundworms and hookworms
• Holozoic - organism that ingest solid or liquid food. The food is then digested and absorbed by the body. Types of holozoic includes carnivore, herbivore, and omnivore.