Summary
Food is chemical energy stored in organic molecules.
Food provides both the energy to do life's work and the carbon to build life's bodies.
• Autotrophs make their own carbohydrate foods, transforming sunlight in photosynthesis
or transferring chemical energy from inorganic molecules in chemosynthesis.
Heterotrophs consume organic molecules originally made by autotrophs.
All life depends absolutely upon autotrophs to make food molecules.
Questions:
Use the text above to answer the following questions.
1. Water and carbon dioxide mdlecules are reactants in the process of photosynthesis. Does
this mean they are "food" for plants, algae, and blue-green bacteria? Use the definition of "food
to answer this question.
2. Compare autotrophs to heterotrophs, and describe the relationship between these two grou
3. Name and describe two types of food making found among autotrophs, and give an example of each. which is quantitatively more important to life on earth (Which are there more of)