Producers, sometimes called primary producers, are organisms that make their own food. Because these organisms change relatively simple inorganic nutrients into more complex, energy-rich, organic forms, they are autotrophs. Thus, they do not need any...

Autotrophs are organisms that are capable of making their own food. They are "self feeders." These organisms make their own food by converting relatively simple inorganic nutrients into more complex, energy-rich, organic forms. Thus, the autotrophs do...

An autotroph is an organism able to make its own food. Autotrophic organisms take inorganic substances into their bodies and transform them into organic nourishment. Autotrophs are essential to all life because they are the primary producers at the...

An organism that derives its carbon for building body tissues from carbon dioxide (CO2) or carbonates and obtains its energy for bodily functions from radiant sources, such as sunlight, or from the oxidation of certain inorganic substances. The leaves...

An autotroph (from the Greek autos = self and trophe = nutrition) is an organism that produces complex organic compounds from simple inorganic molecules and an external source of energy, such as light or chemical reactions of inorganic compounds....

We tested whether standing autotrophic (unicellular algal) biomass is sensitive to variation in initial consumer (nondecomposer, heterotrophic protistan) diversity in experimental microbial microcosms. Our results showed a strong, negative relationship between autotrophic biomass and consumer species richness. Additional microcosm experiments showed that this relationship...

For many years, wastewater engineers have known that the microbial communities in anaerobic digesters include autotrophic methanogens. These organisms live on the energy from the reaction CO2 + 4H^sub 2^ [arrow right ] CH^sub 4^ + 2H^sub 2^O, obtaining the carbon dioxide and hydrogen...