Science glossary · New Zealand
Producer
A living thing that makes its own food, usually a plant.
Producers start every food chain. Consumers eat producers or other consumers, and decomposers break down dead things.
Example: Grass, trees and algae are producers.
Lessons, worksheets, practice and tools on this: Ecosystems and food webs.
Related words
- Food web: A diagram of all the food chains in an ecosystem and how they link.
- Ecosystem: All the living things in an area and the nonliving things they interact with.
- Decomposer: A living thing that breaks down dead plants and animals and returns nutrients to the soil.
- Consumer: A living thing that gets its energy by eating other living things.
- Predator: An animal that hunts and eats other animals.
- Prey: An animal that is hunted and eaten by another animal.