Energy passes among trophic levels

Trophic levels = rank in the feeding hierarchy
- Producers
- Consumers
- Detritivores and Decomposers

Producers: the first trophic level
- Autotrophs (“self-feeders”) = organisms that capture solar energy for
  photosynthesis to produce sugars, Green Plants, Cyanobacteria and Algae

- Chemosynthetic bacteria use the geothermal energy in hot springs or deep-sea
   vents to produce their food

Consumers: organisms that consume producers
- Primary consumers = second trophic level
  Organisms that consume producers
  Herbivores consume plants and Deer, grasshoppers

- Secondary consumers = third trophic level
  Organisms that prey on primary consumers, Carnivores consume meat and
  Wolves, rodents

Consumers occur at even higher trophic levels
- Tertiary Consumers = fourth trophic level
   Predators at the highest trophic level
   Consume secondary consumers
   Are also carnivores, Hawks, owls
- Omnivores = consumers that eat both plants and animals

- Detritivores and decomposers
  Organisms that consume nonliving organic matter
  Enrich soils and/or recycle nutrients found in dead organisms

- Detritivores = scavenge waste products or dead bodies
  Millipedes

- Decomposers = break down leaf litter and other non-living material
  Fungi, bacteria
  Enhance topsoil and recycle nutrients