Explain Heterotrophic mode of nutrition.
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Answer:
Heterotrophic nutrition is nutrition obtained by digesting organic compounds. Animals, fungi, many prokaryotes and protoctists are unable to synthesize organic compounds to use as food. They are known as heterotrophs
Answer:
Heterotroph is an organism that is unable to synthesize its own food, and therefore, has to rely on other sources, specifically plant and animal matter.
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Heterotrophic Nutrition
“Heterotroph is an organism that is unable to synthesize its own food, and therefore, has to rely on other sources, specifically plant and animal matter.”
All animals and non-photosynthetic plants are classified as heterotrophs since they are unable to prepare food. So these organisms resort to other various forms of nutrition. Hence, from an ecological perspective, heterotrophs are always secondary or tertiary consumers in a food chain.
Humans and other vertebrates rely on converting organic, solid or liquid food into energy. Other organisms such as fungi rely on converting dead organic matter into nutrients. In essence, heterotrophs break down complex food into its readily usable constituents.