Transcript Producers and Consumers

 Grade 9’s
 read pages 10 – 13, questions page 13 #1,2,4
Lesson 5
August 30th, 2010
Producers and Consumers
Producers (Autotrophs)
 Organisms that carry out photosynthesis
 Convert the suns energy into useable chemical energy
 Plants, algae and some other organisms
Consumers (Heterotrophs)
 Organisms that eat other organisms to obtain energy
because they cannot produce their own energy.
Consumers (Heterotrophs)
 Trophic levels of consumers
 Primary Consumer

Eat producers

Grasshoppers, Deer, Moose
 Secondary Consumer

Eat Primary consumers

Robins, Small snakes, Frogs
 Tertiary Consumers

Eat Secondary Consumers

Foxes, Wolves,
Consumers
 Consumers can further be classified as to what
type of tissues they eat
 Herbivore

Only eat plant tissue

Deer, Moose
 Carnivores

Eat mostly animal tissue

Wolves, Coyotes
 Animals that hunt and kill other animals are called
predators; the animals they kill are the prey.
 An animal can be a predator to a smaller animal and prey to
a larger one.
Consumers
 Carnivores

Eat mostly animal tissue

Wolves, Coyotes
 Animals that hunt and kill other animals are called
predators; the animals they kill are the prey.
 An animal can be a predator to a smaller animal and prey to
a larger one.
Consumers
 Scavengers

Carnivores that eat the tissue of animals they did not
kill

Vultures
 Omnivores

Eat plant and animal tissue

Most humans, Bears, Racoons
Consumers
 Decomposers
 Special group of consumers that break down organic
matter and release the nutrients back into the
ecosystem.
 They do not eat the organic material directly; they
release enzymes which break it down which they then
absorb.

Fungi and bacteria
 Detritivore

Consumers that feed on Organic Matter
 The remains of dead organisms and animal waste
 Snails, worms, maggots.