Producers and Consumers in an Ecosystem

In our daily situations, a consumer may refer to someone who buys goods, and a producer may refer to a factory that produces the goods. The same concept goes in biology, but the specifics are different. In biology, both the producers and consumers refer to living organisms. Producers manufacture their food. In comparison, consumers get their food from producers directly or indirectly. Check out the article to learn more about the producers and consumers in an ecosystem and its types, characteristics and examples.

What are Producers?

Producers or autotrophs are organisms that produce food for themselves and other organisms. 

Energy from the sun or chemicals is an essential factor in producing food. Producers, with the help of water, convert this energy into sugar or food. Generally, producers are green plants, which use sunlight and water to generate glucose through photosynthesis. Algae are protists, as a particular type of single-celled organism with a cellular structure different from that of plants can also make their food. Thus, they are also referred to as producers.

Producers make food not only for their reproduction and growth but also for nourishing the rest of the ecosystem. Hence, the stability of producers is essential to ecosystems since all organisms need organic molecules.

Types of Producers

There are two types of primary producers:

• Phototrophs – Phototrophs are the ones that use the energy from the sun to convert carbon dioxide into carbohydrates. The process by which it occurs is called photosynthesis.
• Chemotrophs – Chemotrophs go through a similar process, except that the energy source is inorganic oxidation and reduction reactions. Chemotrophs are found in regions where water and light are scarce.

Characteristics of Producers

The characteristics of the producers are as follows:

• Producers can make their food.
• They are found at the lowest trophic level in an ecosystem and serve as the basis for the survival of higher animals.
• Producers have a type of pigment in their bodies called chlorophyll.
• These producers can also bind solar energy to their bodies.
• They release oxygen while making food. As a result, producers contribute to the oxygen supply in the environment.
• Producers occupy a large part of the world’s biomass. And the number of green plants is more than that of consumers.

Examples of Producers

Photosynthetic producers can be grouped into three broad categories: 

• Plants
• Cyanobacteria 
• Phytoplankton

What is a Consumer?

Consumers or heterotrophs are organisms that feed on other organisms to obtain energy. These consumers do not make their own food. Animals and birds are the most commonly known consumers and the lesser-known ones are fungi. Fungi get their food and energy by inserting tiny tubes into other organisms and sucking nutrients out. 

Even single-celled organisms can also be heterotrophs. For example, amoeba chases other microscopic organisms and engulfs them for energy. The bacteria in the soil act as decomposers, consuming dead organic matter and breaking it down to be recycled into the ecosystem.

Types of Consumers

Following are the four types of consumers in an ecosystem:

• Primary consumers – Herbivores that only eat plants, vegetables, grass, or other vegetation types are the majority of primary consumers. Ruminants are an example of a herbivore.
• Secondary consumers – Secondary consumers are organisms that eat other consumers or organisms. They are predominantly carnivores. The big cats would be an example.
• Tertiary consumers – Tertiary consumers are also called omnivores. Since they feed on both plants and meat, they combine primary and secondary consumers. Humans are an example of tertiary consumers.
• Decomposers – Decomposers feed on the remains of dead plants and animals. Fungi and bacteria are examples of decomposers.

Characteristics of Consumers

• Consumers can not prepare their food. They get their food from plants and other animals.
• They breathe oxygen and emit carbon dioxide into the environment during respiration.
• The energy they obtain from food is used for a variety of physiological functions.
• Consumers are located in the second to highest trophic levels in the ecosystem.
• Consumers are only a small part of the world’s biomass. The number of consumers is less than that of producers in the ecosystem.

Examples of Consumers

Following are the examples of four types of consumers in an ecosystem:

• Primary consumers: Sheep, cows, and goats 
• Secondary consumers: Lion, tiger, jaguar, and puma
• Tertiary consumers: Humans
• Decomposers: Bacteria and fungi

Relationship between Producer and Consumer

In the ecosystem, the producers and consumers are closely related to each other. The producers absorb carbon dioxide and water from the environment and collect them in the leaf mesophyll tissue. Producers make food by the chemical reaction of water and carbon dioxide, in the presence of sunlight and with the help of chlorophyll. And they convert solar energy to potential energy. Finally, water and oxygen are produced as byproducts. In this way, the producers in an ecosystem make food.

Consumers consume the food that is generated. Consumers use this food as energy for their physiological activities. When consumers die, they are decomposed by many organisms in the ecosystem, and their bodies are buried in the soil. In this way, the nutrients of the consumer’s body are absorbed into the soil. And the plants absorb those nutrients to grow and develop themselves.

Hence, the producers and consumers of an ecosystem are interrelated. The food chain is formed by a combination of producers and consumers of the ecosystem. 

What important roles do producers and consumers play in an ecosystem?

A producer captures energy and stores that in food as chemical energy. Producers like plants have special organelles called chloroplasts which absorb energy from the sun. Consumers obtain nutrients and energy from producers as they cannot make their food. Decomposers are organisms that break down dead plants and animals into simple compounds.

Producers

• Without the primary producers, the consumers and decomposers would not be able to live. It is because producers are the ones who start every food chain. 
• In an ecosystem, the flow of energy begins with sunlight which is the ultimate source of all energy on Earth. 
• That energy is absorbed by the producers, which goes to the consumers and then to the decomposers. Then it goes back to the producers to start the cycle again. 
• Thus, the ecosystem cannot function without producers.

Consumers

• Consumers balance the food chain by keeping plant populations in a limited number. Without proper balance, the ecosystem may collapse and will decline all the affected populations.
• Thus, the ecosystem cannot function without consumers.

Summary

The ecosystems require constant inputs of energy from sunlight or other chemicals. The producers use energy and inorganic molecules to produce food. And the consumers are the ones who eat producers or other living things. In comparison, the decomposers break down dead organisms and organic wastes and release inorganic molecules back into the environment.

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