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 Consumers Types 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 Consumers Types of Consumers
Type of Consumer
Food Eaten
Examples
Herbivore
Plants
Moose and aphids
Carnivores
Meat
Lake trout and wolf
Omnivores
Plants and Meat
Humans and Bears

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

8. Producers and Consumers Special Consumers; Scavengers, Detrivores, and Decomposers
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 Consumers Special Consumers; Decomposers – Helping or Harming?
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 Consumers Special 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 Consumers Essential 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 Consumers Food 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 Consumers Food Chains