Decomposers
• Producers are organisms that make their own
food using air, sunlight, and water
• Such as, green plants and algae
• Photosynthesis is the process by
which green plants make their
own food using the sun’s energy,
water and carbon dioxide.
Formula:
Sunlight + CO2 + Water (H20)  O2 + Glucose (C6H12O6)
• Photosynthesis occurs in the chloroplasts
• Leaves have little openings called stomata
• These stomata on the leaves are used for gas
exchange
1.SUN
2.PRODUCERS
3. CONSUMERS
4. DECOMPOSER
• Consumers cannot make their own food
• Consumers are organisms that must eat other
organisms (plants or animals) for their food
• What are plant-eating consumers called?
-Herbivores
• What are meat-eating consumers called?
-Carnivores
• What are consumers that eat both plants and
animals called?
-Omnivores
• What are consumers that eat dead plants or
dead animals called?
-Scavengers
• Primary (1°) Consumers = “first eaters”
• Secondary (2°) Consumers = “second eaters”
• Tertiary (3°)
Consumers = “third eaters”
1.SUN
2.PRODUCERS
3. CONSUMERS
4. DECOMPOSERS
• Decomposers are organisms
that break down the cells of
dead material and recycle
the nutrients back into the
ecosystem
• Eventually all food chains end in decomposers
1. Bacteria
-very important decomposers
-important for recycling nutrients
-widely distributed
-can break down just about any type of organic matter
-a gram of soil typically contains 40 million bacterial
cells!
2. Fungi
-includes yeast, mold, and mushrooms
-primary decomposers of litter in many ecosystems
-primary decomposers in forests
3. Worms
-various types of worms can act as decomposers
-they can break down organic materials and add
nutrients to the soil
-they can also help
loosen the soil so air
can circulate
-This helps plants grow!
• The earth would be covered in a layer of dead flies almost 20
feet deep!
• Decomposers recycle the nutrients back into the ecosystem
• If we didn’t have decomposers, producers would not get their
nutrients and would die
• If we didn’t have producers (plants), all living things would die!
• Think of pop can recycling. When pop cans are recycled, they
are melted down into aluminum and sent off to processing
plants so the metal can be used again
• If we did not recycle pop cans, we would run out of aluminum
in the future
• Likewise, if nutrients were not recycled in our environment they
would not be available to other organisms
• Warmth
• Lots of air
• Lots of food
• Moisture (water)
• Darkness
• Scavengers eat dead material that they find
(they have mouths).
E.g. Vulture
• Decomposers “break down” the cells of
dead material. E.g. Mold
1. Producer
A. Green pigments that absorb light
2. Herbivore
B. Consumers that eat both plants and animals
3. Consumer
C. The process by which green plants make their own food
4. Photosynthesis
D. Organisms that break down the cells of dead material and
recycle the nutrients back into the ecosystem
5. Carnivore
E. Plant-eating consumers
6. Chloroplasts
F. Consumers that eat dead plants and dead animals
7.Omnivores
G. Meat-eating consumers
8. Decomposer
H. Where photosynthesis occurs
9. Scavengers
I. Organisms that need to eat plants or animals for their food
10. Chlorophyll
J. Organisms that make their own food