Learn the producer and consumer definitions in biology. Study examples of producers in an ecosystem, as well as consumers, and explore how ecosystems are connected.
Updated: 11/21/2023
Producers & Consumers in Biology | Overview & Examples
Table of Contents
- Producers and Consumers
- What Is a Producer in Science?
- What is a Consumer in Science?
- Understanding the Ecosystem
- Lesson Summary
- FAQs
- Activities
Create Your Own Ecosystem Activity
In this lesson, students learned about different examples of producers and consumers here on Earth. In this activity, they will stretch their knowledge by coming up with a new alien ecosystem of their own. You could have students work on this individually or in pairs or groups.
Directions:
Imagine you are a space explorer and have found life on another planet. Like Earth, these organisms are divided into producers and consumers. Your job is to describe in words or draw the environment, as well as three producers and three consumers that are found there. Your final product can be a drawing, an essay or a combination of both writing and drawing. However, whatever product you choose to make should include:
Criteria for Success:
- A description of the environment including imagery of what it looks like, weather patterns, climate, and water availability
- A description of three different producers including what they look like, how they get energy, and which method they use to make their own food
- A description of three different consumers including what they look like, what they eat, what eats them and how they contribute to the ecosystem
- A comparison of how this ecosystem is different from Earth and how it is similar
What are producers in an ecosystem?
Producers are organisms that make their own food or energy. In an ecosystem, the producers are organisms such as trees, grasses, other plants, algae, and some bacteria.
What is a consumer in biology?
In biology, a consumer is any organism that does not make its own energy. Instead, it eats other plants and/or animals to get the energy it needs.
What are 5 examples of producers?
Any plant is a producer - trees, grasses, flowers, bushes, or any other plant. Algae, found in aquatic areas, is also a producer.
Table of Contents
- Producers and Consumers
- What Is a Producer in Science?
- What is a Consumer in Science?
- Understanding the Ecosystem
- Lesson Summary
As with many words in the English language, the terms producer and consumer have multiple meanings. The general definition of a producer is one who creates or makes something, such as a factory that makes clothing or a farm that grows crops. The general definition of a consumer is one who buys or uses a product, such as a person who buys those clothes or food from the grocery store. When it comes to science, there are specific definitions these words are referring to. Producers and consumers work closely together in the world of science to support an ecosystem. In biology, producers and consumers make up the organisms in food chains and food webs.
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What is a producer in science? The producer definition in biology is an organism that makes its own food. An organism is any living thing, whether plant, animal, bacteria, fungi, etc. While plants are definitely producers, algae and even some bacteria are also producers. Producers are also known as autotrophs.
The most well-known producer in biology is a plant. Plants get energy from the sun and make their own food in a process called photosynthesis. With the help of water, plants convert the sun's energy into food, a type of sugar called glucose. There is a wide variety of plant producers on land, but they can also exist in the water, as long as there is enough sunlight filtering through.
Another producer, algae, is technically protists. Though similar to plants, algae lack the complex tissue structure that plants have. However, algae use energy from the sun to make food, making them producers. Algae are mainly found in aquatic environments, that is, areas with water.
There are also some types of bacteria that are producers. These bacteria are found in dirt or deep in the ocean, both areas that sunlight does not reach. They fall into the category of chemoautotrophs, producers that use chemicals to create food, not sunlight. Instead, they break down chemicals such as hydrogen sulfide and use the energy released to make their own food. These types of bacteria are called chemosynthetic bacteria.
Examples of Producers in an Ecosystem
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Producers make up the foundation of an ecosystem. They are the foundation of any food web, providing food and energy for the entire ecosystem. Some common examples of producers in an ecosystem are:
- Trees - various trees produce nuts or fruits, which provide food for other organisms. The leaves themselves provide food for organisms in an ecosystem.
- Grasses - grasses provide the basis of food for many insects and animals in an ecosystem.
- Chemosynthetic bacteria - found in the soil or deep in the ocean, these producers create energy from chemicals, not sunlight.
- Algae - found in aquatic areas, they use sunlight to create their own food. Algae is food itself for some aquatic organisms.
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Now that producers in science have been clarified, it is time to look at what is a consumer in science. A consumer, according to the definition in biology, is an organism that cannot produce its own food and must eat other plants and/or animals to get energy. Consumers are also known as heterotrophs. Animals come to mind when thinking of consumers - lions, wolves, deer, birds, rabbits - but consumers also include fungi, amoeba, and bacteria.
There are three levels of consumers in a food chain - primary consumers, secondary consumers, and tertiary consumers. Primary consumers are organisms that eat the producers. They are also known as herbivores or plant-eaters. Organisms such as deer, rabbits, insects, or squirrels are examples of primary consumers that are found in a forest ecosystem.
Secondary consumers eat the primary consumers. In a forest ecosystem, lizards, birds, and snakes are examples of secondary consumers.
Tertiary consumers eat both the secondary and primary consumers. Animals such as raccoons, foxes, owls, and hawks are tertiary consumers that would be found in a forest ecosystem.
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Examples of Consumers in an Ecosystem
There are many different consumers in biology that exist in all types of ecosystems. Some examples of consumers are:
- Bacteria - heterotrophic bacteria (bacteria that eat other organisms for food) are a type of primary consumer. These bacteria do not necessarily eat plants but other microscopic organisms. Bacteria in the soil help to break down organisms.
- Birds - birds can be in any category of consumer. Some birds only eat things such as nuts and seeds, making these birds primary consumers. Other birds, like owls and hawks, eat other animals, making them secondary or even tertiary consumers.
- Fungi - fungi, such as mushrooms, extend tiny tubes that act like straws, allowing them to suck the nutrients from another organism. They feed off of living plants or nonliving organisms, helping to break down and decompose the dead organisms.
- Amoeba - amoeba are single-celled organisms. They feed off of other single-celled organisms, engulfing them for food.
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Producers and consumers are closely linked in an ecosystem. As stated previously, producers provide the foundation for any food web. Producers such as grasses, algae, and plants provide food for the other organisms in the ecosystem. Primary consumers feed off the producers. Examples of these creatures are chipmunks, small fish, insects, and deer.
Secondary consumers eat the primary consumers. Secondary consumers can be omnivores (eating both plants and animals) or carnivores (eating only animals). Organisms such as spiders, lizards, birds, fish, and moles are secondary consumers. It is possible for animals to switch between primary and secondary consumers. For example, a squirrel could eat only nuts, fruits, and seeds, which would make it a primary consumer. If that food supply was short, a squirrel could switch to eating insects, making it a secondary consumer.
Tertiary consumers are at the top of the food chain. These consumers eat both primary and secondary consumers. Tertiary consumers are mostly carnivores, though they can be omnivores as well. Examples of these consumers are organisms such as large fish, sharks, big cats, and wolves.
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An organism is any living thing, whether a plant, animal or single-celled creature. A producer is an organism that creates its own food or energy. A consumer is an organism that gets its energy by eating plants or animals.
Producers, also called autotrophs, include plants, bacteria, and algae. Plants get energy from the sun and turn it into food, a sugar called glucose. This process is called photosynthesis. Algae are a type of protist that also uses the sun's energy to create their own food. Chemosynthetic bacteria are found in the soil or deep in the ocean, so they can not use sunlight to make energy. Instead, they break down chemicals to get their energy.
There are three levels of consumers. Primary consumers eat producers and would include organisms such as deer and rabbits. Secondary consumers eat the primary consumers; examples are spiders and snakes. Tertiary consumers eat both primary and secondary consumers and consist of animals such as lions and foxes. Consumers include animals, insects, bacteria, fungi, and amoeba. Consumers are also called heterotrophs.
Food webs in any ecosystem contain both producers and consumers. Producers make up the foundation of the food web, and consumers make up the rest, starting with the primary consumers that eat the producers and going up to the tertiary consumers at the top of the food web.
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Video Transcript
Producers vs. Consumers
You may have heard the word 'consumer' in everyday life. Chances are good that you think of shoppers as consumers, people who buy goods. Producers might come to mind as factories and people who make the goods.
Although the specifics are slightly different, in biology the same general idea applies. Since biology concerns life, producers and consumers are living things, or organisms. Producers make the food for the rest of us, and since we consume that food, we're called consumers. Let's look more closely at each of these types of organisms.
What Are Producers in Biology?
Producers are organisms that make their own food; they are also known as autotrophs. They get energy from chemicals or the sun, and with the help of water, convert that energy into useable energy in the form of sugar, or food. The most common example of a producer are plants. Through a process called photosynthesis, green plants use sunlight and water and make a type of sugar called glucose. Green plants such as trees are found on land, but they can also exist underwater as long as there is enough sunlight.
Although algae look like plants, they're actually a special kind of single-celled organism called a protist. A protist's cellular structure is different from a plant's, but it can still make its own food and, therefore, it is a producer. Algae and its relatives can be found in aquatic ecosystems.
Surprisingly, single-celled bacteria can also be producers. Located deep below the ocean surface are areas that get little to no sunlight. Green plants can't survive there, since they are unable make food without sunlight. But, single-celled bacteria use a process to make food called chemiosynthesis, which involves taking chemicals expelled from hydrothermal vents deep in the ocean and converting them into the same type of food that plants make.
The food producers create food for themselves in order to grow and reproduce. However, plants also serve as food for the rest of the ecosystem, the consumers.
What Are Consumers in Biology?
Consumers are organisms that need to eat (i.e. consume) food to obtain their energy. These organisms are called heterotrophs, meaning they must eat something else (hetero) as food. When we think of things eating for energy, our minds probably drift to animals, like birds, cats, or insects. These are all examples of consumers, but there are other lesser-known ones as well.
Fungi, or mushrooms, may look like plants, but they are actually heterotrophs. They extend tiny tubes into other living or dead organisms and literally suck the nutrients right out of them! The mold that you see on strawberries is actually a fungus. It's eating the strawberries as they rest on your counter.
Single-celled organisms can also be consumers. The amoeba is just a single cell, but it chases after other microscopic prey, engulfing it for food. Bacteria in the soil act as decomposers, consuming dead material and breaking it down to be recycled back into the food chain.
Example of an Ecosystem
Let's look at how producers and consumers interact in a specific ecosystem: the temperate forest. The temperate forest spans the globe in a band towards the northern United States. These lush forests are filled with broad-leafed trees and animals. The producers in this ecosystem are numerous. All green plants, such as grasses, moss, ferns, and maple trees produce the food needed for the rest of the organisms.
Consumers can actually be divided into different levels:
Primary consumers eat only producers. These are animals such as deer, rabbits, chipmunks, or squirrels that are found in the forest.
Secondary consumers like birds, lizards, snakes, and weasels eat the primary consumers.
Lastly, the tertiary consumers eat the secondary and primary consumers. These animals include owls, hawks, foxes, and coyotes that are found in the forest.
Lesson Summary
In summary, producers are organisms that make their own food. Producers create food for themselves and also provide energy for the rest of the ecosystem. Any green plant, like a tree or grass, as well as algae and chemosynthetic bacteria, can be producers.
Consumers are organisms that need to eat to obtain energy. Primary consumers, such as deer and rabbits, eat only producers. Secondary consumers (such as a weasel or snake) eat the primary consumers. And tertiary consumers, like barn owls, eat both primary and secondary consumers. Consumers can also be single-celled, like with decomposing bacteria or amoebae. Although fungi may look like plants, they are actually consumers, too, sucking energy from living or dead organisms.
Producers v. Consumers
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| Producers | Consumers |
|---|---|
| *Autotrophs *Create their own food *Use photosynthesis or chemiosynthesis to create food *Include plants, algae, and chemosynthetic bacteria *Can be single or multi-celled organisms |
*Heterotrophs *Need to eat to obtain energy *Characterized in three levels: primary (herbivores), secondary (eat the primary), and tertiary (eat the primary and secondary) *Can be single or multi-celled organisms |
Learning Outcomes
Upon completing this lesson on producers and consumers, assess your ability to:
- Distinguish between consumers and producers
- Provide examples of each
- Examine a temperate forest as an example of an ecosystem
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Producers & Consumers in Biology | Overview & Examples
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