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The Food Chain

The Role of Living Things
In the ecosystem, organisms get their food in one of three ways:

An apple tree is an example of a prducer image

1.  A producer is an organism that makes its own food from an inorganic energy source. The energy source that is used in most cases is the sun. The energy from the sun is used to convert CO2 into sugar.

A girl eating an apple is an example of a consumer. image

2.  A consumer is an organism that can not produce its own food and must eat another organism. Consumers include organisms the eat plants, called herbivores, organisms that eat meat, called carnivores, and omnivorous animals that eat both plants and animals.
Mushrooms living on spoiled apples on the ground are decomposers. image
3.   Decomposers consume the bodies of dead organisms as well as organic waste.  Decomposers are important in that they complete the cycle of matter by turning organic waste into the inorganic components producers use to make food.
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The Environment The Food Chain The Water Cycle The Carbon Cycle The Nitrogen Cycle Environmental Hazards