primary producer

(noun)

an autotroph organism that produces complex organic matter using photosynthesis or chemosynthesis

Related Terms

  • zooxanthella

Examples of primary producer in the following topics:

  • Protists as Primary Producers, Food Sources, and Symbionts

    • Alternatively, photosynthetic protists serve as producers of nutrition for other organisms.
    • As primary producers, protists feed a large proportion of the world's aquatic species.
    • (On land, terrestrial plants serve as primary producers. ) In fact, approximately one-quarter of the world's photosynthesis is conducted by protists, particularly dinoflagellates, diatoms, and multicellular algae.
  • Productivity within Trophic Levels

    • For example, in the English Channel ecosystem, the primary producers account for a biomass of 4 g/m2 (grams per meter squared), while the primary consumers exhibit a biomass of 21 g/m2.
    • The productivity of the primary producers is especially important in any ecosystem because these organisms bring energy to other living organisms by photoautotrophy or chemoautotrophy.
    • The rate at which photosynthetic primary producers incorporate energy from the sun is called gross primary productivity.
    • In this ecosystem, the total energy accumulated by the primary producers was shown to be 20,810 kcal/m2/yr.
    • Net primary productivity is the energy that remains in the primary producers after accounting for the organisms' respiration and heat loss.
  • Food Chains and Food Webs

    • In many ecosystems, the bottom of the food chain consists of photosynthetic organisms, such as plants or phytoplankton, known as primary producers.
    • The organisms that consume the primary producers are herbivores: the primary consumers.
    • He found that the primary producers generated 20,819 kcal/m2/yr (kilocalories per square meter per year), the primary consumers generated 3368 kcal/m2/yr, the secondary consumers generated 383 kcal/m2/yr, and the tertiary consumers only generated 21 kcal/m2/yr.
    • Primary producers are outlined in green, primary consumers in orange, secondary consumers in blue, and tertiary (apex) consumers in purple.
    • The opossum shrimp eats both primary producers and primary consumers; it is, therefore, both a primary consumer and a secondary consumer.
  • Ecological Pyramids

    • Even in smaller numbers, primary producers in forests are still capable of supporting other trophic levels.
    • The plants (primary producers) of the Silver Springs ecosystem make up a large percentage of the biomass found there.
    • However, the phytoplankton in the English Channel example make up less biomass than the primary consumers, the zooplankton.
    • As with inverted pyramids of numbers, the inverted biomass pyramid is not due to a lack of productivity from the primary producers, but results from the high turnover rate of the phytoplankton.
    • The phytoplankton are consumed rapidly by the primary consumers, which minimizes their biomass at any particular point in time.
  • Abiotic Factors Influencing Plant Growth

    • Temperature and moisture are important influences on plant production (primary productivity) and the amount of organic matter available as food (net primary productivity).
    • Almost all life on earth is directly or indirectly reliant on primary production.
    • The organisms responsible for primary production, known as primary producers or autotrophs, form the base of the food chain.
    • The aboveground biomass produces several important resources for other living things, including habitat and food.
    • The magnitude and distribution of global primary production varies between biomes.
  • Primary and Secondary Metabolites

    • Specifically, alcohol is used for processes involving fermentation which produce products like beer and wine.
    • Citric acid, produced by Aspergillus niger, is one of the most widely used ingredients in food production.
    • Secondary metabolites are typically organic compounds produced through the modification of primary metabolite synthases.
    • It is mass produced and commonly administered orally .
    • Erythromycin is an example of a secondary metabolite used as an antibiotic and mass produced within industrial microbiology.
  • Primary Market Research

    • Primary research consists of the collection of original primary data.
    • Primary research consists of the collection of original primary data.
    • There are advantages and disadvantages to primary research.
    • Costs can be incurred in producing the paper for questionnaires or the equipment for an experiment of some sort.
    • All research, whether primary or secondary, depends eventually on the collection of primary research data.
  • Primaries and Caucuses

    • The Iowa caucuses are the first nominating election to occur in the presidential primary season and, therefore, they often have a significant impact on later primaries.
    • In a closed primary, only voters who are registered with the party holding the primary are allowed to vote.
    • In an open primary system, voters can vote in either primary regardless of affiliation.
    • Supporters argue that open primaries give more power to the voter and less to the party, since voters are not tied to voting for a party that does not produce a good candidate.
    • Summarize the primary system and how a primary differs from a caucus
  • Primary and Secondary Growth in Stems

    • Most coniferous trees exhibit strong apical dominance, thus producing the typical conical Christmas tree shape.
    • The vascular cambium is located just outside the primary xylem and to the interior of the primary phloem.
    • It produces cork cells (bark) containing a waxy substance known as suberin that can repel water.
    • The cork cambium also produces a layer of cells known as phelloderm, which grows inward from the cambium.
    • The rate of wood growth increases in summer and decreases in winter, producing a characteristic ring for each year of growth.
  • Photochemical Smog

    • The word "smog" was originally coined as a mixture of "smoke" and "fog" and was historically used to describe air pollution produced from the burning of coal, which released smoke and sulfur dioxide.
    • The mixture of these primary and secondary pollutants forms photochemical smog.
    • Both the primary and secondary pollutants in photochemical smog are highly reactive.
    • Photochemical smog is composed of primary and secondary pollutants.
    • Primary pollutants include nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds as a result of industrial processes, while secondary pollutants are created through the reaction of primary pollutants with ultraviolet light.
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