Download Feeding Relationships

Feeding Relationships
Remember Ecology is a study of
relationships, including feeding
relationships.
There are three important terms to
know in understanding these
relationships:
1. Producer
2. Consumer
3. Decomposer
Feeding Relationships
Producer- make their
own food (autotrophs)
They are the basis of
every ecosystem and
the bottom of every
food chain
Most are plants!
Feeding Relationships
Consumer – creatures that ingest
food containing the sun’s energy by
consuming producers and/or other
consumers. Heterotrophs.
Four Types:
1. Herbivores
2. Carnivores
3. Omnivores
4. Detrivores
Consumers
Herbivores:
– Eat plants
- Are Primary
consumers
Consumers
Carnivores:
- eat meat of other
consumers
- are predators:
hunt prey
animals for food.
Consumers
Omnivores - eat both plants
and animals (humans are omnivores)
Consumers
Detrivores:
- feed on dead
plants and animals.
- also called
decomposers
Decomposers
- feed on the
dead.
- recycle nutrients
back into the
ecosystem
Ex: earthworms,
mushrooms
Community Interactions
3 Types:
1. Competition: organisms competing
for resources
2. Predation: one organism captures
and feeds on another (predator/prey)
3. Symbiosis
Symbiotic Relationships
Symbiosis- two species living closely
together
3 Types of
symbiosis:
1. Commensalism
2. Mutualism
3. Parasitism
Symbiotic Relationships
Commensalismone species benefits
and the other is
neither helped nor
harmed
Ex. orchids on a tree
Epiphytes: A plant, such as a
tropical orchid or a bromeliad,
that grows on another plant
upon which it depends for
mechanical support but not for
nutrients. Also called
aerophyte, air plant.
Symbiotic Relationships
Commensalismone species
benefits and
the other is
neither harmed
nor helped
Ex. Egrets
following after
cattle.
Symbiotic Relationships
Mutualismrelationship in
which both
species benefit
Ex. Birds cleaning
the teeth of a
crocodile.
Symbiotic Relationships
Parasitismone species benefits (parasite) and
the other is harmed (host)
Ex.: Tick feeding on the blood of a
mammal
Symbiotic Relationships
Parasitism- parasite-host
Ex. lampreys,
leeches, fleas,
ticks,tapeworm
Type of
Species
relationship
harmed
Commensalism
Parasitism
Mutualism
= 1 species
Species
benefits
Species
neutral