Are you familiar with concepts such as consumers, reducers, and producers? If not, then our article is for you. In fact, these organisms are well known to everyone. Who are they? Let's figure it out together.
The concept of the trophic chain
All ecosystem components are closely interconnected. Thanks to this, various communities form in nature. The structure of any ecosystem includes an abiotic and biotic part. The first is a collection of living organisms. It is called a biocenosis. The abiotic part includes mineral and organic compounds.
The functioning of any ecosystem is associated with energy conversion. Its main source is sunlight. Photosynthetic organisms use it for the synthesis of organic substances. Heterotrophs receive energy through the breakdown of organic substances. For growth, only a small part of it is used. And the rest is spent on the existence of vital processes.
As a result, sequences are formed in which individuals of some species, their residues or waste products are the source of nutrition for others. They are called trophic or food chains.
Trophic levels
Each power circuit consists of a certain number of links. It is established that during the transition from one to another part of the energy is constantly lost. Therefore, the number of links is usually 4-5. The position of the population of individual species in the food chain is called the trophic level.
What are consumers
All organisms of the trophic chain are grouped. These include representatives of absolutely all the kingdoms of wildlife, regardless of their level of organization. Let's consider each of them.
What are consumers? These are heterotrophs - organisms that feed on prepared organic matter. They are not capable of independent synthesis. Depending on the nature of the food and the method of its extraction, several types of consumers are distinguished:
- Phytophages eat only plant foods. Their examples are leaf beetles, aphids, worms, caterpillars of most butterflies.
- Predators attack the prey, kill and eat it. Most of them are representatives of the class of mammals: lions, hyenas, wolves, jackals, foxes. But among the predators there are some types of plants (sundew, pemphigus), fungi (zygos and ascomycetes).
- Parasites feed on the host organism, living on its body or in internal organs.
- Another type of consumer is saprotrophs. Their food source is the remains of dead bodies or excrement. In this way, organics are decomposed by fungi, bacteria and protozoa.
Consumptions: orders
Heterotrophs in the food chain occupy different levels. All herbivorous species are first-order consumers. The next level is predators. They are already second-order consumers.
Let's consider this hierarchy on a concrete example. Let's say the trophic network has the form: mosquito, frog, stork. Which of them is the first-order consumer? This is a frog. Then the second-order consumer is the stork. Heterotrophs are found in nature, which feed on both plants and animals. Such consumers can simultaneously be at several trophic levels.
Producers
Speaking about what consumers are, we drew attention to the type of food. Let us consider in this perspective another group of the trophic network. Producers are a group of organisms that are autotrophs. They are able to synthesize organic substances from minerals.
There are two types of producers: auto - and chemotrophs. The former use the energy of sunlight to create organics. These are plants, cyanobacteria, some simple animals. Chemotrophs have the ability to oxidize various chemical compounds. In this case, energy is generated, which they use to carry out waste products. These include nitrogen-fixing, sulfur, iron bacteria.
The presence of producers is a prerequisite for the development of any ecosystem. This fact is explained by the fact that photosynthetic organisms are a source of energy.
Reducers
Another role in the ecosystem belongs to heterotrophic organisms, which feed on the organic matter of residues or waste products of other species, which they decompose to minerals. This function and perform reducers. Representatives of this group are bacteria and fungi.
It is at the level of producers in the ecosystem that energy is accumulated. Then it passes through consumers and producers, where it is spent. At each subsequent trophic level, part of the energy is dissipated in the form of heat.
Types of power circuits
The energy in the ecosystem is divided into two streams. The first is directed to consumers from producers, the second - from dead organics. Depending on this, trophic networks of pasture and detrital types are distinguished. In the first case, producers are the initial trophic level, which transfer energy to consumers at different levels. The pasture chain ends with reducers.
The detrital chain begins with dead organics, and continues with saprotrophs, which are representatives of consumers. The last link in this chain are also reducers.
Within any ecosystem, there are many trophic chains at the same time. All of them are inseparable from each other and are closely intertwined. This happens because representatives of the same species can simultaneously be links in different chains. Thanks to this, trophic networks are formed. And the more branched they are, the more stable the ecosystem.
To summarize
So, in our article we examined what consumers are. These are heterotrophic organisms that are part of trophic chains. They are an essential component of ecosystems and consume ready-made organic substances. Depending on the nature of the food and the method of its preparation, herbivores, predators, saprotrophs and parasites are distinguished among consumers. Representatives of such organisms are animals, as well as some representatives of plants, fungi and bacteria. In the ecosystem, they are energy consumers.