Summary
Producers and Consumers
Consumers – Any animal that has to seek out and eat other
living things for food
3 Types of Consumers:
 Herbivore: Animals that consume (eat) mainly plants and plantlike living things (ie. Moose, elephants, grasshoppers, etc.)
 Carnivores: Animals that consume (eat) mainly animal food
(ie. Cats, hyenas, seals, praying mantises, etc.)
 Omnivores: Animals which consume other animals as well as
plants for food (ie. Humans, bears, racoons, etc.)
Scavengers – consumers that don’t usually kill their own food but
instead feed off the remains of living things that were killed by other
living things (ie. Crows, ravens, maggots, etc.)
Decomposers – consumers that break down animal wastes and dead
plants and animals (ie. Fungi [mushrooms & mould], fruits, and vegetables)
- Nature’s clean-up crew
- Supply nutrients to plants
- Bridge that connects biotic and abiotic components of the ecosystem
Producers – Living things that are capable of making their own
food; all green plants are producers
 Food – water and carbon dioxide
 Energy – Sun
 Color – Plants are green because they contain chlorophyll
o Chlorophyll: a substance that absorbs all colours of light except
green. The green light is reflected off the plant, this is why producers
are green.
Photosynthesis: process where plants use the sun, carbon dioxide, and
water to make their own food
Photosynthesis is important for 3 main reasons:
 It turns the suns energy into chemical energy that we can use for energy
 It provides plants with food that we need to help us function
 It creates the oxygen in the air that we breathe.
Cellular Respiration: living things release the energy that is stored in
their food (in the form of sugar). The sugars combine with oxygen to
release the energy and give off carbon dioxide as a by-product.