1. How do organisms get their energy?  All living things need energy to grow, change, hunt, reproduce, produce wastes, and maintain their life span  Not all living things get their energy from the same biotic (living) or abiotic (non-living) factors  Producers – make their own food using sunlight, water, and minerals from soil  Consumers – take in their food from an outside source (other plants and/or animals)  Decomposers – get their energy from dead or decaying matter

2. What is a producer?  Producer - an organism that uses an outside energy source to make its own food  Examples: Moss, grass, flowers, shrubs, trees, algae, seaweed (Microscopic: volvox, euglena, spirogyra)  Most producers use the sun, and contain chlorophyll, a chemical needed for photosynthesis (gives organism its green color)  Producers like plants are important because they give us oxygen, food, convert the sun’s energy into something usable.

3. Examples of Producers Flowers Moss Grass Trees Cacti Algae

4. Microscopic Producers SpirogyraEuglena Volvox Phytoplankton

5. What is a consumer?  Consumer – an organism that cannot make its own food  Examples: birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, mammals, bugs, insects, crustaceans, mollusks, sponges  They obtain energy by eating other organisms

6. The 3 types of Consumers  Herbivores – eat only plant matter  Examples: deer, rabbits, mice, cows, horses, gazelles  Carnivores – eat only meat (other animals)  Examples: frogs, jaguars, lions, panthers, scavengers (eat only the remains of other animals  An insectivore is a carnivore that eats only insects (ex: ant-eater)  Omnivores – eat both plants and animals  Examples: bears, humans, pigs

7. Predator and Prey  Predator – a consumer that captures and eats other consumers  Prey – the consumer that is eaten  Both predator and prey must be consumers  Fish eating algae is not a predator-prey relationship because algae is a producer Example: The bear is the predator The fish is the prey

8. What is a decomposer?  Decomposer – an organism that gets its food by breaking down dead or decaying matter  Examples: bacteria, fungi, worms, flies  Decomposers recycle once-living matter by breaking it down into simpler substances  The substances can then serve as food for decomposers, be absorbed by plant roots, or be consumed by other organisms  Without decomposers, Earth would be filled with dead organisms.  New organisms would not be able to grow because nutrients would not have been recycled.

9. Decomposers Mushrooms Worms Flies Bacteria (are microscopic) Bread Mold

10. A scavenger is a consumer that eats the remains of animals that were once living Scavenger: a turkey vulture may eat some of the coyote’s leftovers. A scavenger can pick bones completely clean. Decomposer: any prairie dog remains not eaten by the coyote or the turkey vulture are broken down by bacteria and fungi that live in the soil.

11. Who’s Who? Producer Consumer/ Herbivore Consumer/ Carnivore Consumer/ Carnivore Decomposer 1 2 3 4 5