Ecosystem Matter Cycle Explorer

Producers are organisms that make their own food using sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide (CO₂). This process is called photosynthesis.

Examples include grass, trees, algae, and other green plants. They are the foundation of every food chain because all other organisms depend on them for food.

Primary consumers (herbivores) eat plants. Rabbits and deer eat grass and leaves to get the energy and matter they need to grow.

Secondary consumers (carnivores) eat other animals. Foxes and hawks eat rabbits to get energy. Each step in the food chain passes matter from one organism to the next.

Decomposers like mushrooms, earthworms, and bacteria break down dead plants and animals. They return nutrients to the soil so producers can use them again.

Without decomposers, dead matter would pile up and plants would run out of soil nutrients. Decomposers complete the matter cycle!

Matter is not created or destroyed in an ecosystem. It cycles between organisms and the environment. The same atoms that were in soil become part of a plant, then part of an animal, and eventually return to the soil.

Energy flows in one direction (sun → producers → consumers), but matter cycles round and round. This is why decomposers are so important!