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Lecture notes

AQA A-level Biology Responding to Changes A* Notes

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Want to achieve top grades in AQA A-level Biology? These notes helped me secure an A*,and they can do the same for you! They’re designed to make revision straightforward by breaking down challenging AQA topics into clear concise and example focused explanations. These responding to changes notes include key processes and descriptions that match AQA mark schemes. Plus, they are aesthetically designed with clean layouts, colour coding, and visual diagrams to make revisions more engaging and easier to memorise.

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Responding To

Chges in the
Environment

, Survival d Response
STIMULUS: a detectable change in the internal or external environment of an organism

• causes the organism to respond
• The internal environment consists of the surroundings of the cells in a multicellular organism

RESPONSE: what occurs as a result of the stimulus
NATURAL SELECTION:
• organisms with alleles, enabling them to respond to stimuli, have an increased chance of survival
• More likely to reproduce
• Passing on those alleles to their offspring
• Increasing the frequency of those alleles in the population

• Animals have hormonal communication + NS (more rapid)
• Usually have many different receptors + control effectors
• Each receptor and effector linked to a central coordinator
• Coordinates connect the info from the receptor w/ Appropriate effector
• sequence of events can involve either chemical control or nerve cells
Summarised as:
Stimulus -> Receptor -> Coordinator -> Effector -> Response

STIMULUS: change in the organisms, external internal environment that brings about a response
Change in light , temp , pressure, pain, sound etc


RECEPTOR: a sense cell, which is stimulated by a specific stimulus, ultimately resulting in the
production of a nervous impulse
Rod cells in retina , chemoreceptors in tongue + nose, pressure receptors in the skin

COORDINATOR: formulate a suitable response to a stimulus by connecting information from
receptor with the appropriate effector
Brain , spinal cord
EFFECTOR: a structure that produces a response
Usually muscle or gland

RESPONSE: muscle contracts or gland, secretes a substance
Pancreas secrete insulin if blood glucose levels rise

, 🌍 💧
Tropisms

Movement of a part of a plant, almost always by growth in response to a directional external
stimulus

• ensure that the shoots and roots of a plant are maintained in a suitable environment

• coordinated by means of plant growth factors
• Comparable in effect to animal hormones

* AUXIN

• either negative (away from stimulus)
• Positive (towards stimulus)


1. PHOTOTROPISMS -> responses to light

2. GEOTROPISMS -> responses to direction of gravity

3. HYDROTROPISMS -> responses to water

, Growth factors in Flowering Plts
• plants do not have nervous system
• Use plant growth factors to stimulate growth:
• Chemicals which have effect on tissues

• produced in cells thought the plant
• (not like animals- localised glands)
• have an effect on tissues that produced them + other nearby tissues

Auxin
• auxins chemo which can induce cell elongation in stems
• IAA = type of auxin (plant growth hormone)

• usually affect other processes asw as cell elongation of stem cells

Rts

• high conc of IAA decreases growth in roots
• Explains why roots show neg phototropism


Light
• more IAA in roots
• As darker under soil
• Causes less elongation of
cells
SHOOT




ROOTS
& •

more IAA on shaded side
Less elongation
• cells longer • Shorter cells
• More elongation • Growth inhibited

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Uploaded on
June 10, 2025
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