Producers and Consumers

1. Producers and Consumers

2. Producers and Consumers • Producers can create their own food from the sun’s energy, water, and nutrients • Everything else in the ecosystem must rely on feeding interactions to supply their food need • These biotic elements are known as consumers • Consumers cannot exist in an ecosystem without producers

3. Producers and ConsumersTypes of Consumers • Consumers eat other living things to get the nutrients they need to create energy • Consumers are classified into three categories; • Herbivores • Omnivores • Carnivores

4. Producers and ConsumersTypes of Consumers

5. Producers and ConsumersPredators and Prey • One type of interaction within an ecosystem is between a carnivore and what it eats • The animal that is hunted is the prey • The animal that hunts and eats the prey is the predator

6. Producers and ConsumersSpecial Consumers;Scavengers, Detrivores, and Decomposers • Every living thing on earth will eventually die • Also they create waste from the food that they eat • If there was not a special type of consumer our world would be littered with dead bodies • These special consumers are grouped into 3 categories – Scavengers, Detrivores, or Decomposers

7. Producers and ConsumersSpecial Consumers;Scavengers, Detrivores, and Decomposers • Scavengers • Don’t kill their own food • Eat remains of dead animals • Examples are; • Crows • Ravens • Maggots • Vultures

8. Producers and ConsumersSpecial Consumers;Scavengers, Detrivores, and Decomposers • Detrivores • Feed off of waste (detritus) • Examples are; • Snails • Earthworms • Eat their way through the soil and organic material • The waste material that they leave behind is full of nutrients • Without detrivores plants would not be able to survive

9. Producers and ConsumersSpecial Consumers;Decomposers – Helping or Harming? • Decomposers • Break down (decompose) dead plants and animals • Examples are; • Fungi (mushrooms) • Mould on bread, fruits and vegetables • Others can only be seen with a microscope (bacteria)

10. Producers and ConsumersSpecial Consumers;Decomposers – Helping or Harming? • E. coli is found in our large intestine • It breaks down the food we eat to leaves behind vitamins that we need • However there is another type of E. coli that is sometimes found in food such as ground beef, milk, and apple juice • When they break down food they produce toxic chemicals that can cause food poisoning

11. Producers and ConsumersEssential to all Ecosystems • Detrivores and decomposers are nature’s clean up crew • They supply plants with the nutrients that they need to grow • They also connect the biotic elements of the ecosystems to the abiotic elements

12. Producers and ConsumersFood Chains • A feeding interaction can be shown with a food chain • A food chain always starts with a producer • Then an arrow points to a consumer that eats the producer • In most food chains there is another consumer to eat the first one

13. Producers and ConsumersFood Chains

14. http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/asset/tdc02_int_energyflow/ http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/tdc02.sci.life.oate.decompose/decomposers/