It all start with Plants! Producers & Consumers, It all start with Plants!

All organisms need energy ?? All organisms need energy to live & grow. Energy come from food. Plants can make their own food while animals can’t. Plants make their food through a process called photosynthesis.

What is a Producer ? Producer: is a living thing, such as plants, that makes its own food. Producers get their energy and food from the sun.

Producers: Make food through photosynthesis

Producers: Plants are the main producers in most land ecosystems.

Producers: Other organisms such as algae & bacteria produce their food also by photosynthesis. Algae:

Producers: Bacteria

What is a Consumer? Consumer: An animal that eat plants, other animals or both . They need to eat their food to get energy. When animals eat plants they receive the energy stored in those plants.

Consumers: The word “ Consume “ means “ to eat “. What happens when you eat a salad?? When you eat a salad, you take in the energy stored in the lettuce leaves & carrot roots. When you eat strawberries, you get the energy stored in the fruit & seeds.

Humans & every animal on Earth depend on Plants?! Even animals that eat only other animals depend on plants. For Example: without plants animals such as deer & rabbits, which eat only plants, would starve. Animals such as wolves, which eat deer & rabbits, would have nothing to eat. They ,too, would starve.

Sunlight Energy: Energy from sunlight moves from plants to animals that eat plants to animals that eat other animals. Sunlight energy plants animals that eat plants animals that eat other animals.

What is an Ecosystem? It’s a community of organisms & the environment in which they live. “ Eco” means environment. In other words an ecosystem is all living & non-living things interacting in an area.