How Do Water Cycling, Primary Production, Consumption, and Decomposition Fit Together?

Michigan Environmental Education Curriculum
Schoolyard and Urban Ecosystem

Plants, animals, insects, bacteria, and fungi all depend on one another to get the food they need to live and grow. This is called energy flow. Energy is what you turn food into so that you can live and grow.

Plants, animals, insects, bacteria, and fungi must continue to eat throughout their life so they can have energy to keep living and growing:

Plants (primary producers) make their own food by using sunlight, water, and air. Plants also get food from the tiny pieces of dead plants, animals, and insects that are broken down by bacteria, fungi, and some worms (decomposers). Plants turn this food into energy.
Herbivores eat plants and turn that food into energy.
Carnivores eat herbivores and turn that food into energy.
Decomposers break down dead plants, animals, and insects and turn that food into energy.

Play the animation to see how energy flow works.

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