Explore the Outdoors!
My specialty is microbiology and I share some of my knowledge in these articles!
Decomposers are heterotrophs because they feed on the organic waste from other organisms. Heterotrophs feed on other organisms, while autotrophs produce their own food through photosynthesis or chemosynthesis. While all decomposers are heterotrophs, certain autotrophs play an important role in the decomposition process by converting decomposed nutrients into compounds that can be absorbed by plants.…
Cyanobacteria are a large group of differently shaped bacteria that are all able to perform photosynthesis. They are an important part of the global carbon cycle and produce a large amount of the world’s oxygen. Cyanobacteria are also known as blue-green algae, although they are not actually algae but bacteria. Cyanobacteria are autotrophs, meaning they…
In my teaching as a molecular biologist, this is a question I get asked surprisingly often! So I decided to write this article as a guide to my students and anyone else interested in the topic of animal cell anatomy and cell walls. Other living organisms like plants and fungi also consist of cells, but…
Blepharisma are common ciliates belonging to the kingdom of protists that live in fresh and salt water. They are heterotrophic, which means that they cannot produce their own food and must instead rely on other organisms for sustenance. The primary food source for Blepharisma is bacteria, although they will also consume algae and other microorganisms.…
Algae are plant-like organisms that grow in water. They are classified as producers since they create their own food using sunlight, sugar, carbon dioxide and minerals. Algae are not decomposers but producers. This is because algae live predominantly off sunlight using photosynthesis to extract energy and they breathe CO2 to obtain carbon atoms to build…
Cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, are a type of bacteria that live in fresh and salt water environments. Cyanobacteria are often mistaken for plants because of this, but they are actually bacteria not plants. They are producers, meaning they produce their own food using photosynthesis. Because cyanobacteria can make their own energy through photosynthesis,…
Decomposers play an equally important role in marine ecosystems as they do in land ecosystems and they are just as numerous and diverse! In the ocean, the most abundant decomposers are bacteria, marine worms, Echinoderms, Crustaceans and Mollusks. They all get their energy by breaking down dead organic matter that float around or fall to…
Tadpoles are amphibian animals that hatch from eggs and eventually turn into frogs. They live in freshwater where they feed mostly on algae and other microorganisms. They are herbivores and decomposers, which means that they feed on both living and dead plant and animal matter in the water. Whereas tadpoles mostly eat microorganisms and smaller…
Tadpoles are the larvae stage of frogs and they are too small to eat insects like grown up frogs do. Therefore they eat a variety of smaller particles floating around in the water or attached to surfaces that they can lick off! Tadpoles eat mostly microorganisms and they majority of these are algae and bacteria.…
Fungi like mold, mushrooms, and yeast grow on a variety of food sources, but common to them all is that their energy comes from the organic molecules that they absorb from other organisms. This makes fungi heterotrophs, which means they use organic compounds as food to provide energy for growth, development, and reproduction. It also…