Plants are Primary Producers
- An ecosystem in a particular area includes:
- All the living components (i.e. biotic factors such as organisms and their interactions)
- All the non-living components (i.e. abiotic factors such as temperature and rainfall)
- All ecosystems include (and depend on) primary producers
- Primary producers are organisms that make their own glucose
- For example, plants and algae produce glucose via photosynthesis
- Even deep-sea ecosystems such as those around hydrothermal vents (where there is no light) depend on primary producers (in this case bacteria) that use a process known as chemosynthesis to make glucose from the chemicals released from these vents
- In ecosystems where sunlight and water is available, the process of photosynthesis enables plants to synthesise organic compounds (glucose and other sugars) from carbon dioxide
- In terrestrial (land-based) ecosystems, plants use CO2 from the atmosphere
- In aquatic (water-based) ecosystems, plants use CO2 dissolved in the water
- The process of photosynthesis transforms light energy into chemical energy held in biological molecules
- The chemical energy in these biological molecules can then be used by other organisms within the community known as consumers (i.e. the organisms in higher trophic levels)
- Primary consumers (herbivores or omnivores) feed on producers
- Secondary consumers (carnivores or omnivores) feed on primary consumers
- Tertiary consumers (carnivores or omnivores) feed on secondary consumers
Trophic levels for a simple food chain - the blue arrows show how the chemical energy originally produced by the primary producer (grass) is transferred to other organisms in the community
