BIOLOGY 2F03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Soil Fertility, Radiant Energy, Chemotroph
11 Dec 2015
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Compare and contrast the terms photoautotroph, chemoautotroph and primary producer. (5 marks). Chemoautotrophs and photoautotrophs are primary producers in that they are both organisms that synthesize organic materials from inorganic materials. In other words, as primary producers, they get their energy from inorganic materials. All three of theses terms indicate that specific organisms that fall under one of the three categories, lie at the bottom of the food chain and serve as energy sources for organisms that lie further up the food chain. Chemoautotrophs and photoautotrophs use different inorganic materials to produce their energy. Chemoautotrophs derive their energy from chemical compounds and reactions and have carbon dioxide as their main source of carbon. Therefore they obtain all their energy form electron donors. They include (for example): mostly archaea and bacteria that live in hostile environments. On the contrary, photoautotrophs use radiant energy (light) for energy. Therefore they obtain all their energy from performing photosynthesis.
