Photosynthetic organisms as producersSpec 6.1
Plants and algae carry out photosynthesis. They use light energy to make glucose from simple inorganic substances, so they do not need to eat other organisms.
This makes photosynthetic organisms the main producers of food and therefore of biomass. Biomass is the mass of living material. The glucose a plant makes is used to build new cells, so it becomes part of the plant's biomass.
Every food chain starts with a producer. Animals cannot make their own food, so they get their biomass, and the energy stored in it, by eating plants or algae, or by eating other animals that have eaten them.
- Producer
- An organism that makes its own food. Photosynthetic organisms (plants and algae) are the main producers of food and biomass.
- Biomass
- The mass of living material, which in a plant is made from the glucose it produces by photosynthesis.