Ecosystems

Plants are the producers in and ecosystem. They use the sun's energy, water, and carbon dioxide to make food, this process in called photosynthesis. Their energy is transported to the primary consumer when it eats them. Then, at the end of the cycle, the decomposers break down the body and put the nutrients back into the soil for the plants to use again. This is like nature's recycling system.

Primary consumers eat producers, so they are herbivores. They get 10% of the energy that producers consume. Primary consumers do not go through photosynthesis, like all consumers, they need to eat to get energy.

All other consumers are either omnivores or carnivores, because they eat other consumers. They get 1% or below of the energy transfered.

Decomposers break down dead animals and put nutrients back into the soil. They complete the cycle that keeps the earth clean.

The gases in an ecosystem are important. Carbon Dioxide and Oxygen are some of the most important. Humans and animals take in oxygen and release carbon dioxide, plants then take in carbon dioxide and release the oxygen that we take in. In the hydrosphere, if their were no plants, the animals would have a hard time breathing in oxygen, because there would be no plants to take in the carbon dioxide, then release the oxygen.