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
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.
Examples of Producers
Grass
Moss
Algae
Flowers
Trees
Cacti
Microscopic Producers
Euglena
Volvox
Spirogyra
Phytoplankton
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
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
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
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.
Decomposers
Bread Mold
Worms
Flies
Mushrooms
Bacteria (are microscopic)
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.
Who’s Who?
Consumer/
Carnivore
Consumer/
Carnivore
Decomposer
3
4
5
1
Consumer/
Herbivore
2
Producer