Regarding living organisms, what is the most distinctive characteristic of a habitat?

They refer to one species or individual.

the solute can move "downhill," from regions of higher to lower concentration, relying on the specificity of the protein carrier to pass through the membrane. this process is called passive transport or facilitated diffusion, and does not require energy.

many other transport proteins, often called pumps, move materials against a concentration gradient. active transport drives molecules across a membrane from a region of lower concentration to a region of higher concentration. this process, shown in figure 5.1, uses transport proteins powered by chemi- cal energy.