Secondary Consumers

Secondary consumers is a consumer that gets its energy from other consumers. These are often called carnivores. These consumers consume the animals that eat only plants. These animals primarily consume meat and obtain their substance by killing and capturing other organisms. Secondary consumers are the third in the food chain.

Decomposers/Scavengers

When plants and animals die, they become food for decomposers and scavengers. Decomposers and scavengers break down dead animals and plants. They also break down the waste of these organisms. These two composers are very important for our ecosystem. If they didn't exist, plants would not get essential nutrients, and dead matter and waste would pile up.

The scavengers do their job before the decomposers. Scavengers are animals that find dead animals or plants and eat them. While they eat them, they break them down into small bits. Flies, wasps, and cockroaches are scavengers. Earthworms are also scavengers, but they only break down plants.

Once the scavenger is done, the decomposers takes over, and finish the job. Many kinds of decomposers are microscopic, which means they can't be seen without a microscope. Other, like fungi, mushrooms, and worms, can be seen. Some kinds of bacteria prefer breaking down meat or waste from carnivores. Actinolites can only break down dead plants or waste from herbivores. Some certain kinds of fungi prefer fruits and vegetables.

Primary Consumers

Primary consumers are an organisms that gets its energy from producers such as plants. These are often called herbivores. A basics primary consumer is green sea turtles, zoo plankton, manatees, mullet, bunny (etc). These consumers are the second in the food web.

Introduction

Hello, and welcome to our blog. This a simple food web. It shows the producer (tree), the consumer (deer), and the decomposer (fungi). The tree gives oxygen and the deer eats the tree. When the deer dies, the fungi decomposes it.
Now you must think, what is a food web. A food web is a chain of animals or organisms who are consumed by others. The sun is a major source of energy on Earth's surface. The sun is the beginning of all food webs. All plants, or primary producers, convert the sunlight into energy, which is called photosynthesis. This is how the plants get their food. The plants are usually eaten by primary consumers, such as horses, bunnies, etc. These primary consumers are also called herbivores. Primary consumers are eaten by secondary consumers, who are cougars, lions, tigers, bears, etc. No organisms eat any secondary consumers. Instead, when the secondary consumers, or carnivores, die, they are then decomposed by scavengers and decomposers. Scavengers do their job first. They eat and break down the secondary consumers. Some examples are eagles, crows, etc. The decomposers then come into play by finishing up the remains of the animals. Some examples are worms, fungi, mushrooms, etc.

Now that you know what is in the food web and what they do, we will give you a specific example of a food chain. The sun, as usual, starts of by giving food, or energy, to the grass. The grass is eaten by horse. The horse is eaten by the cougar. The cougar, since it can not be eaten by anyone else, is decomposed by first a eagle, and then some worms.

Primary Producers

Primary Producers are organisms that produce their own food and do not depend on any organisms for food. All plants are primary producers. Plants are called primary producers because they can make their own food through photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the process of which plants turn their sunlight into energy, which is the plant's food. No other organism on Earth can produce their own food, which is why they are called producers. They produce all the energy that gets transferred throughout every other living organism on the planet. Some examples of primary producers are grass, trees, algae, plankton, etc. These organisms are very important, because they are the ones which start the food chain or web. Without any primary producers, no creatures would exist on this Earth. This is because primary producers breathe carbon dioxide and let out oxygen which the other creatures need to breathe in. These other creatures breathe out carbon dioxide for the primary producers. It is a cycle of life.

Extinct

What would happen if the primary consumers ,in the food web diagram, became extinct? The primary consumer in our food web is the horse. If all horses became extinct, the cougar would have nothing to eat. If the cougar had nothing to eat, it would die very quickly, because they have no food. Not only would the cougars die, but the other carnivores such as, lions, tigers,etc.,who eat horses, would die too. If many carnivores died, the scavengers and decomposers would finish them off. This would lead to extinction to other animals, too.

Endangered Species Links

http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/a/abalone.htm