In nature we can find organisms that produce their own food, called autotrophs, and organisms that do not produce their own food, calls of heterotrophs. Plants, algae, some bacteria and some protists (single-celled beings and eukaryotes) are autotrophic, that is, they are able to manufacture their food from mineral or inorganic substances, such as water, carbon dioxide and mineral salts.
You autotrophic beings are of extreme importance to life, as they are the only living organisms capable of manufacturing organic compounds that will serve as food for heterotrophic beings. For this reason, these autotrophic organisms are called producers.
Autotrophic beings are indispensable to the life of any community
Some heterotrophic beings like cows, capybaras, rabbits, grasshoppers, they are herbivores, that is, they only feed on vegetables, so their survival depends directly on autotrophic organisms. Because they feed only on vegetables, these herbivorous animals are called primary consumers.
You herbivorous animals serve as food for carnivorous animals , which because they feed on herbivorous animals are called secondary consumers. In some cases, the secondary consumers they can serve as food for other animals that are also carnivores. When this happens, we call these animals tertiary consumers and so on. Let's see some examples of the food chain below?
In this food chain, the secondary consumer is the frog
In the example above we can see that the producer is an autotrophic organism, the primary consumer is an organism that feeds only on vegetables, which in this example is the butterfly and the secondary consumer is the frog that feeds on the butterfly.
In this example of a food chain, the secondary consumer is the wolf
In the image above we have the example of another food chain, in which the producer is the carrot, the consumer primary is the rabbit that feeds on carrots and the tertiary consumer is the wolf, which feeds on the Bunny.
In this food chain we have the snake as a tertiary consumer
The food chain in the image above is represented in the same way as the previous ones, the only difference is that it is vertical. In it we can see the algae as producers, the goldfish as the primary consumer, the birds as secondary consumers and the snake as a tertiary consumer.
We cannot forget that when any living organism dies, it serves as food for other living organisms (fungi and bacteria), called decomposers. You decomposers they break down the organic matter of dead beings to obtain nutrients and energy.
Take the opportunity to check out our video lesson on the subject:
