for each of the following organisms, describe how digested food reaches their body cells: a hibiscus plant, a paramesium, a coral polyp, an earthworm, a mosquito a human

Hibiscus plant: transported by the phloem

Paramecium: simple diffusion from the food vacuole into the cytoplasm

Coral polyp: diffusion from the gut to the body cells

Earthworm: transport through the blood

Mosquito: transport through the blood

Humans: transport through the blood

Explanation:

Digestion involves both mechanical and chemical processes to break up

food into smaller or simpler constituent parts that can be absorbed by the body.

Digestion is divided into external digestion and internal digestion.

External digestion involves digestion of food outside the body using digestion enzymes and then absorption into the body by diffusion.

Internal digestion is when food is ingested into the body, broken down by Digestive enzymes and juices and then absorbed into the body cells.

A hibiscus plant stores it's food as starch. When the stored food is needed, it hydrolyses starch into molecules small enough to pass through the cell membrane. The hydrolysed food molecules are then transported by the phloem to cells that need them for energy production.

A paramecium is a protist which feeds by endocytosis, i.e. sorrounding and digesting food in its food vacuole. The digested food diffuses through the cell

cytoplasm and mitochondria oxidise it to produce ATP.

A coral polyp is a marine invertebrate belonging to the phylum Cnidaria.

Cnidarians have a simple sac-like gut, with only one opening and one unspecialised gut chamber.

They do not have a circulatory system to deliver nutrients to the cells, instead digested food diffuses from the gut to the body cells.

An earthworm is an annelid and carries out internal digestion. Food taken in from the mouth is digested and absorbed by the intestines into the blood. The blood then carries the absorbed food to the earthworm’s body cells.

Mosquitoes both male and female feed on sap and nectar, aphid honeydew, and plant juices, but in many species the mouthparts of the females are adapted for feeding on the blood of other organisms.

Food taken in by the mosquito is digested in the mid-gut by digestive enzymes. The blood absorbs digested food from the mid- gut and carries it to its body cells.

In Humans, digested food molecules are absorbed in the small intestine into our bloodstream. The blood then carried digested food molecules around the body to the cells where they are needed.