A producer is an organism that makes its own food from the energy of the sun via photosynthesis. Green algae is a producer; it has chlorophyll pigments and can make glucose via photosynthesis. A frog is a consumer; a worm is a decomposer; a fungus is a saprophyte; a bear is a consumer.

An omnivore eats both plants and animals. Humans are an example of omnivores.

Herbivores only eat plants. Carnivores only eat animals. Detritivores eat decaying matter.

The term “abiotic” refers to the nonliving components of the environment; therefore, a rock would be characterized as an abiotic part of the environment.

Biological organization extends from the level of subatomic particles all the way up to the biosphere. Within the fields of molecular and cell biology, the atomic, molecular, and cellular levels of biology are most important. In the fields of physiology and anatomy, organs, organ systems, and organisms feature prominently.

Within ecology and population genetics, the higher levels of organization are most pertinent. Several organisms make up a population, which in turn makes up a community, and then an ecosystem. A group of ecosystems make up a biome, and the sum of all the biomes is a biosphere.

Atmosphere and Earth are not considered levels of biological organization.

Trophic energy levels show reduced biomass as you go up a food chain from producer, to consumer, to secondary consumer, and so on due to the loss of energy as heat. The hawks, as a secondary consumer, will have the smallest amount of proportional biomass compared to the other species.

Global ecology refers to large-scale interactions between the earth’s ecosystems, atmosphere, landscapes, and seascapes. Landscape ecology refers to the spatial orientation and patterns within specific landscapes or seascapes. Ecosystem ecology observes the interactions, both biotic and abiotic, within a given landscape area. Community ecology is like ecosystem ecology, but applies to communities of organisms. It observes the spatial distribution, abundance, relationships, and interactions between organisms of different species in a given ecosystem. Population ecology refers to the spatial distribution, abundance, relationships, and interactions within the same species in a given community. Organismal ecology studies each organism’s behavior, anatomy, evolution, adaptation, and relative fitness in a given environment.

Variable limiting refers to when an environmental variable that is lacking. If light is lacking, the algae will not grow and reproduce; the environmental variable, light, is limiting the algae’s success. The variable optimum is when the variables are perfectly balanced. Variable inhibiting refers to when when an environmental variable is in abundance, to the point where it is harmful. If there is too much light, the algae will no longer continue growing and reproducing, but will begin too die off. In this situation, light is variable inhibiting.

Producers are always the lowest level of a trophic hierarchy, and consist of the autotrophs in the system. Organisms that feed off of producers are considered primary consumers.

In this example, the grasses are the producers. Both the rabbits and the turtles will be primary consumers.

An organism that feeds on primary consumers is considered a secondary consumer.

A flower in this example is a producer, which means it will make its own energy through photosynthesis. As a result, the flower must be the first element of our chain; food chains will always start with a producer. The caterpillar, frog, and snake are consumers, meaning they will need other organisms for energy.

The latin name consists of the genus and species of the organism. These are the most specific of the taxonomic classifications. The taxonomic classifications are domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species.