Parasites belong to the producer or consumers? Classification of parasites

Our planet is inhabited by people, animals, trees, grasses, mushrooms grow on it. But besides useful organisms, there are also harmful ones, such as parasites. Why do they harm in some cases, but in others they benefit? Parasites refer to what, what is their classification? Read in this article.

Producers

At the heart of any ecosystem are living and nonliving organisms. The latter are called abiotic factors. Any biotic structure is impossible without producers-living beings capable of producing organic substances, while using inorganic substances. These include plants, the process of photosynthesis which occurs with the help of light energy. Plants, using carbon, water and certain minerals, when they are exposed to chlorophyll are able to synthesize organic substances.

Consumables

These are organisms that feed on ready organic substances. These include animals, humans, some microorganisms, plants. Do parasites refer to what? Based on the way of life, they are consumers. And there are different types.

• Primary or first order. These include animals, the food of which are plants.
• Secondary or second and subsequent orders. They feed on animal food, but their diet includes plant organisms, that is, primary consumers. This means that the parasites belong to them. Consumers are animals consuming organic substances. The main energy they receive from eaten plants. This is the beginning of a common food chain. Predators feed on the tissues of herbivorous animals, as well as weak carnivores. Parasites exist at the expense of other organisms, and they, in turn, use superparasites. Proceeding from this, it follows that parasites belong to consumers. Microorganisms-decomposers complete the food chain, returning organic substances to the mineral state. The energy flow is gradually losing its power.

Reedents

This is a special group of microorganisms and fungi that destroy the remains of dead plants and animals, turning them into water and carbon dioxide. Thus, parasites relate to Microorganisms that complete this cycle and return the destroyed substances again to the atmosphere, but in a new state. This is how the food chains are formed, which from the producers go to consumers and decomposers.

Parasites refer to decomposers, since they fully correspond to their description and lifestyle. All components of the food chain are closely related. They interact clearly: some absorb different substances, while others excrete them. Oxygen and organic substances synthesize producers, and they are consumed and breathed by consumers and decomposers.

Heterotrophs

These are organisms that are unable to synthesize organic matter from the inorganic. Therefore, other organisms produce it, and heterotrophs only get ready. Heterotrophs in communities are a different order of consumers and decomposers. Parasites refer to heterotrophs, which are also: humans and animals, plants and fungi, microorganisms that are not capable of photosynthesis. Some plant heterotrophs completely lack chlorophyll. These include rafflesia and broomrape, and some have retained some of it. For example, a dodder.

Plants-parasites

What are they? To parasitic plants are those that have lost the ability to independently form organic compounds, that is, to the process of photosynthesis. They do not produce chemical energy for their food, but suck the juice from the host plants that they feed on. To survive, parasites stick to the roots and stems of cultivated and wild plants. Losing nutrients, host plants are greatly weakened and can not develop normally. Begin to lag behind in growth and wither away. On such plants, the fruits do not ripen.

Some varieties of dodder, such as clover and alfalfa, belong to the parasitic plants. These weeds do not have chlorophyll and roots. They, with their long, flexible stems, completely encircle the host plant and penetrate into it. Stem parasites, to which the dodder belongs, suck out the juice until the plant completely drains. There are also root parasites, which include broomrape. It attacks the roots of sunflower, tomato, tobacco, hemp.

Plants-semi-parasites

Their diet is also the nutrients of the host plant, to which parasites are sucked by roots or stems. But semi-parasites have the ability to photosynthesize. And yet, if the host plant dies, weed-parasites continue to live on it independently. An example is the mistletoe, which has chlorophyll, and it has the ability to photosynthesize. Some half of the food is extracted by the semi-parasite independently, releasing the tissue of the sucker host plant into the interior.

Mistletoe has many varieties, and almost all of them parasitize on trees. And mistletoe of the same species lives quietly on different trees. But in nature there are such subspecies that are adapted to some one tree species. For example, if a mistletoe of a pine grows on a pear and begins to destroy it, the tissues of the owner tree become dead, and the mistletoe will perish.

Mushrooms-parasites

They are in the nature of two thousand species. In order to survive, fungi-parasites use donors. They are insects, animals, fish, plants. The place of settlement of mushrooms can be dead trees, animals or fallen leaves. To mushrooms-parasites are rust fungi, smut, ergot. They infect potatoes, wheat, oats and other plants. This leads to a decrease in yield.

To mushrooms-parasites are aspergillas and cordyceps, the place of settlement of which are insects. In an infected bee, the mycelium of the fungus aspergillus sprouts rapidly. This results in the coating of the insect's chitinous cover with a white shell. The bee is dying. As for the fungus Cordyceps, so it arranges even better: settles inside the caterpillar, feeds on its internals and sprouts outward. As soon as this happens, the caterpillar dies. The most harmful hat mushrooms are scabs and scales.

Classification of parasites

It is based on different criteria. Let's consider some of them. The habitat of parasites is:

• Internal, settling inside the host organism.
• External, living on the surface of the body of the host.

By the time of parasitism during development:

• Constants - have a pernicious effect throughout life. For example, it is Trichomonas.
• Periodic - manifest themselves in separate periods. For example, flat worms.
• Short-term - one or more times encounter for a short time with the host's body. It can be fleas, leeches, bugs, mosquitoes.

From the relationship of the parasite to the host:

• Unconditional - the process of parasite development can not be completed without an intermediary.
• Relative - parasitize at a certain stage of development and life.