What is happening to these
bananas?
What Are the Roles of
Producers, Consumers,
and Decomposers?
By: Miss. Harrison
Producers
Most living things on Earth get the energy to live
from sunlight.
Any living thing that can make it’s own food is
called a producer.
Producers can be as small as a tiny moss or as
large as a huge redwood tree!
Example: Plants are producer!
Producers
Animals such as deer and cattle get the energy
they need to live by eating plants.
When these animals eat, the energy stored in the
plants moves into the animals’ bodies.
Not all animals eat plants. Lions and hawks, for
example, get the energy they need by eating other
animals.
Consumer
An animal that eats plants or other animals
is called a consumer.
Consumers can’t make their own food, so
they must eat other living things.
Some consumers eat the same kind of
food all year.
Horses, for example, eat grass during
warm weather. During winter, they eat hay,
a kind of dried grass.
Consumer
Some consumers eat other
consumers.
Example: Bobcats eat other
consumers such as rabbits. Other
favorite meals include rodents and
birds. Bobcats also eat young deer.
Question Time!
How are producers and consumers
alike and different?
Answer Time!
Answer: They are both living
things that need energy to keep
living. However, producers can
make their own food, while
consumers must get their food by
eating producers or other
consumers.
You Try!:
Give two examples of a producer and
consumer.
Decomposer
Decomposer is a living thing that
feeds on wastes and on the remains
of dead plants and animals.
Decomposers break down wastes into
nutrients.
Nutrients are substances that are
taken in by living things to help them
grow.
Decomposer
Decomposers come in many shapes
and sizes.
Some of the biggest decomposers are
earthworms and mushrooms.
Decomposer
Bacteria are tiny decomposers that can be
seen only with a microscope.
The bacteria in soil break down tiny pieces
of animal and plant matter.
By doing this, they fill the soil with the
nutrients that plants need to grow.
Question Time!
Do you think bacteria that cause
diseases are decomposers?
Answer Time!
No, decomposers break down dead
tissue. Infectious bacteria live on or
in another living thing.
You Try!
Name two kinds of decomposers, and
describe their role in nature.
What if we didn’t have
decomposers?
Earth would be covered with dead
plants and animals.
Instead, decomposers turn waste and
dead matter into useful nutrients.
They allow living things to use
recycled nutrients!
The
End!