What are some decomposers, producers and consumers of freshwater?

Decomposers, consumers, and producers?

• why are decomposers categorized as consumers? how do they differ from producers

• Answer:

  Decomposers are categorized as consumers because they are. First off, plants do not breathe carbon dioxide; they, just like any other organism, undergo Aerobic Cellular Respiration which will be explained later. Let's look at it this way... Producers are your typical primary synthesizing organisms such as plants who photosynthesize to form carbohydrates. What happens is that these producers use carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, take a hydrogen off of water, do their magic and form carbohydrates with oxygen as a by-product. Consumers are organisms like us, who cannot synthesize carbohydrates and have to eat and digest what we eat to obtain these carbohydrates. What happens is a process called Aerobic Cellular Respiration where, in the presence of oxygen, carbohydrates are broken down and the energy from them is stored in a compound called ATP (adenosine triphosphate) releasing carbon dioxide and water as by-products. Decomposers are consumers because when a living organism dies and decomposition occurs, the decomposers essentially take in all the carbohydrates and organic material from the organism and undergo Aerobic Cellular Respiration. So essentially, decomposers are consumers, the only difference is that consumers deliberately hunt or harvest food while decomposers decompose dead organic tissues.