How do heterotrophs get their food

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Apna phone number register karein. Ab aap Whatsapp pe solutions paa saktey h, hum aapko message karenge. A much smaller group of autotrophs - mostly bacteria in dark or low-oxygen environments - produce food using the chemical energy stored in inorganic molecules such as hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, or methane. While photosynthesis transforms light energy to chemical energy, this alternate method of making food transfers chemical energy from inorganic to organic molecules.

It is therefore called chemosynthesis , and is characteristic of the tubeworms shown in Figure below. Some scientists think that chemosynthesis may support life below the surface of Mars, Jupiter's moon, Europa, and other planets as well.

Ecosystems based on chemosynthesis may seem rare and exotic, but they too illustrate the absolute dependence of heterotrophs on autotrophs for food. A food chain shows how energy and matter flow from producers to consumers.

Matter is recycled, but energy must keep flowing into the system. Where does this energy come from? Though this food chains "ends" with decomposers, do decomposers, in fact, digest matter from each level of the food chain? Tubeworms deep in the Galapagos Rift get their energy from chemosynthetic bacteria living within their tissues.

No digestive systems needed! The flow of energy through living organisms begins with photosynthesis. This process stores energy from sunlight in the chemical bonds of glucose. By breaking the chemical bonds in glucose, cells release the stored energy and make the ATP they need. The process in which glucose is broken down and ATP is made is called cellular respiration. Photosynthesis and cellular respiration are like two sides of the same coin.

This is apparent from Figure below. The products of one process are the reactants of the other. Together, the two processes store and release energy in living organisms. Autotrophs are known as producers because they are able to make their own food from raw materials and energy.

Examples include plants, algae , and some types of bacteria. Heterotrophs are known as consumers because they consume producers or other consumers.

Dogs, birds, fish, and humans are all examples of heterotrophs. Heterotrophs occupy the second and third levels in a food chain , a sequence of organisms that provide energy and nutrients for other organisms.

Occupying the first trophic level are autotrophs, such as plants and algae. Herbivores—organisms that eat plants—occupy the second level. Carnivores organisms that eat meat and omnivores organisms that eat plants and meat occupy the third level. Both primary herbivores and secondary carnivores and omnivores consumers are heterotrophs, while primary producers are autotrophs. A third type of heterotrophic consumer is a detritivore. These organisms obtain food by feeding on the remains of plants and animals as well as fecal matter.

Detritivores play an important role in maintaining a healthy ecosystem by recycling waste. Examples of detritivores include fungi, worms, and insects. There are two subcategories of heterotrophs: photoheterotrophs and chemoheterotrophs. Photoheterotrophs are organisms that get their energy from light, but must still consume carbon from other organisms, as they cannot utilize carbon dioxide from the air. Chemoheterotrophs, by contrast, get both their energy and carbon from other organisms.

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