Q.Distinguish between producers, consumers and decomposers as biotic components of an ecosystem, giving one example of each.
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Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →Step 1. Producers (autotrophs) manufacture their own organic food from inorganic raw materials by photosynthesis -- grass, trees and phytoplankton are examples. Step 2. Consumers (heterotrophs) cannot make their own food and instead obtain it by feeding on other organisms, either directly on producers (herbivores, e.g. a deer eating grass) or on other consumers (carnivores, e.g. a leopard eating the deer). Step 3. Decomposers (saprotrophs), chiefly bacteria and fungi such as Mucor, obtain nutrition by secreting enzymes onto dead organic matter and absorbing the simpler breakdown products, in the process releasing mineral nutrients back into the soil for producers to reuse -- unlike consumers, the …
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