Question

Write an explanatory note on: Consumers.

Hint:

Consumers cannot make their own food; rank them by how many feeding steps separate them from a plant.

Answer 1

Step 1: Understanding the Concept:
Not every organism in an ecosystem can make its own food; those that cannot rely on eating other organisms, directly or indirectly, for their nutrition.

Step 2: Define consumers.
Consumers are heterotrophic organisms that depend, directly or indirectly, on producers (autotrophs) for their food, since they cannot photosynthesise or otherwise manufacture their own organic matter.

Step 3: Classify them by feeding position.
Primary consumers, or herbivores, feed directly on producers, such as a deer eating grass.
Secondary consumers, or primary carnivores, feed on the primary consumers, such as a fox eating the deer.
Tertiary consumers, or secondary carnivores, feed on the secondary consumers, occupying an even higher position in the food chain.

Final Answer:
Consumers are heterotrophs dependent on producers for food, classified in order as primary consumers (herbivores), secondary consumers (primary carnivores), and tertiary consumers (secondary carnivores).