Question

Which organisms have to consume other organisms to survive?
4. Which organisms do not depend on other organisms in order to survive?
5. Which organisms are herbivores?
6. Which organisms are carnivores?
7. What is being transferred as you move up the energy pyramid?

Answer 1

3. Which organisms have to consume other organisms to survive?
- Those are heterotrophs (consumers): animals, fungi, and many protists and bacteria. They obtain chemical energy and organic carbon by eating producers or other consumers (examples: humans, wolves, mushrooms, most insects).

4. Which organisms do not depend on other organisms in order to survive?
- Autotrophs (producers). They make their own food from inorganic sources, usually by photosynthesis (plants, algae, cyanobacteria) or, in some environments, by chemosynthesis (certain bacteria).

5. Which organisms are herbivores?
- Herbivores eat primarily producers (plants/algae). Examples: deer, cows, rabbits, grasshoppers, many zooplankton. In a food web, any consumer that feeds directly on producers is a herbivore (primary consumer).

6. Which organisms are carnivores?
- Carnivores eat other animals (consumers). Examples: lions, hawks, spiders, sharks, many predatory fish. In a food web, consumers that feed on other consumers (secondary or tertiary consumers) are carnivores. (Some are obligate carnivores; others are facultative or part of omnivores.)

7. What is being transferred as you move up the energy pyramid?
- Energy (chemical energy in food) is transferred up trophic levels. Biomass (stored organic matter) also generally decreases with each level. Only a fraction of the energy (roughly ~10% by the usual “ten percent rule,” though it varies) is passed to the next level; the rest is lost as heat through metabolism, movement, waste, etc. Nutrients (matter) also move between levels but are recycled by decomposers rather than continuously created.

If you have a specific food web or diagram, paste it and I can identify the particular organisms in each category.