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Photosynthesis is the main means by which plants, algae and many bacteria produce organic compounds and oxygen from carbon dioxide and water (green arrow). An autotroph is an organism that can convert abiotic sources of energy into energy stored in organic compounds , which can be used by other organisms .
The trophic level of an organism is the number of steps it is from the start of the chain. A food web starts at trophic level 1 with primary producers such as plants, can move to herbivores at level 2, carnivores at level 3 or higher, and typically finish with apex predators at level 4 or 5. The path along the chain can form either a one-way ...
Fermenting heterotrophs are either facultative or obligate anaerobes that carry out fermentation in low oxygen environments, in which the production of ATP is commonly coupled with substrate-level phosphorylation and the production of end products (e.g. alcohol, CO 2, sulfide). [38]
The intermediate levels are filled with omnivores that feed on more than one trophic level and cause energy to flow through several food pathways starting from a basal species. [14] In the simplest scheme, the first trophic level (level 1) is plants, then herbivores (level 2), and then carnivores (level 3).
Photosynthesis is carried out in the chlorophyll of green plants. The energy converted through photosynthesis is carried through the trophic levels of an ecosystem as organisms consume members of lower trophic levels. Primary production can be broken down into gross and net primary production.
Primary production in most ecosystems is dominated by the process of photosynthesis, In which organisms synthesize organic molecules from sunlight, H 2 O, and CO 2. [3] Aquatic primary productivity refers to the production of organic matter, such as phytoplankton, aquatic plants, and algae, in aquatic ecosystems, which include oceans, lakes ...
Cyanobacteria, which are prokaryotic organisms which carry out oxygenic photosynthesis, occupy many environmental conditions, including fresh water, seas, soil, and lichen. Cyanobacteria carry out plant-like photosynthesis because the organelle in plants that carries out photosynthesis is derived from an [ 4 ] endosymbiotic cyanobacterium. [ 5 ]
Of all the net primary productivity at the producer trophic level, in general only 10% goes to the next level, the primary consumers, then only 10% of that 10% goes on to the next trophic level, and so on up the food pyramid. [1] Ecological efficiency may be anywhere from 5% to 20% depending on how efficient or inefficient that ecosystem is.