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<font face="Arial">Roles of Organisms</font>
<font face="Arial">Organisms can be either producers or consumers in terms of energy flow through an ecosystem. Producers convert energy from the environment into carbon bonds, such as those found in the sugar glucose. Plants are the most obvious examples of producers; plants take energy from sunlight and use it to convert carbon dioxide into glucose (or other sugars). Algae and cyanobacteria are also photosynthetic producers, like plants. Other producers include bacteria living around deep-sea vents. These bacteria take energy from chemicals coming from the Earth's interior and use it to make sugars. Other bacteria living deep underground can also produce sugars from such inorganic sources. Another word for producers is autotrophs.</font>
<font face="Arial">Consumers get their energy from the carbon bonds made by the producers. Another word for a consumer is a heterotroph. Based on what they eat, we can distinguish between 4 types of heterotrophs:</font>
<font face="Arial">http://www.marietta.edu/~biol/biomes/ecosystems.htm</font>
10 years ago. Rating: 4 | |