1. Energy, Producers, and Consumers
Chapter 3-2
Energy, Producers, and Consumers

2. Daily Objectives Define and describe the role of primary producers
Describe the ways consumers obtain energy and nutrients

3. Primary Producers
Organisms need energy for growth, reproduction, and metabolic processes.
No organism can create energy—organisms can only use energy from other sources.

4. Primary Producers
For most life on Earth, sunlight is the ultimate energy source. (Photosynthesis)
Some organisms use chemical energy stored in inorganic chemical compounds as their energy source (Chemosynthesis)

5. Primary Producers
Autotrophs (producers) use solar or chemical energy to produce “food” by assembling inorganic compounds into complex organic molecules.
Autotrophs store energy in forms that make it available to other organisms that eat them.

6. Feeding Relationships
There are 3 main types of feeding relationships
1. Producer - Consumer
2. Predator - Prey
3. Parasite - Host

7. Producers All autotrophs (plants), they trap energy from the sun.
Bottom of the food chain.

8. Consumers
All heterotrophs: they ingest food containing the sun’s energy
Herbivores
Carnivores
Omnivores
Decomposers
Detrivores

9. Herbivores - Eat plants in order to obtain energy
Ex. Cow, Deer, Caterpillars

10. Carnivores
Eat meat to obtain energy
Example: Tiger and Shark

11. Carnivores Predators Scavengers Hunt prey animals for food.
Example: Fox
Scavengers
Feed on dead organisms.
Example: Vulture

12. Omnivores Eat both plants and animals
Ex. Humans, Bears, Pigs, and Raccoons

13. Decomposers
Breakdown dead and decaying plants and animals into simpler molecules that can be absorbed
Ex. Bacteria and Fungi

14. Detrivores
Feed on detritus particles (bacteria in soil), often chewing or grinding them into smaller pieces.
Example: Earthworms