Importance of Heterotrophs and Autotrophs

In the field of natural Sciences, classifications have always been very useful to categorize the different types of living beings, their characteristics and those traits that differentiated them from the rest. The categorization between heterotrophic living beings and autotrophic living beings is elementary and very basic since from it a specific distinction between beings that feed on other living things (heterotrophs) and those that feed on substances (autotrophs).

Autotrophs are perhaps the ones that allow all other living things to exist

To begin to differentiate between the two mentioned categories, we can say that autotrophic beings are those that consume natural substances that they themselves transform into food. As their name suggests, they produce their own food from what they absorb from nature. The clearest example of this group is that of all plant forms that need light and water, substances that are internally transformed into food.

Autotrophic beings are independent of other beings and although they are not completely independent of the environment, they do not need to consume other living beings in order to survive. This is because your

feeding thanks to the process of photosynthesis. This process, just as the word indicates, means the synthesis of light or solar energy as a food source. None of the other living beings have this function.

Heterotrophic beings are the ones that make the food chain more complex and make the planet extremely diverse.

A very different type of living beings is that of heterotrophic beings. Here we include all animals and obviously human beings who need to consume other living beings in order to survive. While there are certain types of animals that eat plants (those we know as herbivores), others They feed on other animals (carnivores) and others that, like humans, can consume different combinations of foods. (omnivores).

Heterotrophic beings are not independent of the environment or of other living beings and this is so since they are a secondary part of the food chain. This means that since they are not the primary part they will always depend on the existence of others, the plant kingdom or other animals that feed on them. Heterotrophic beings are highly diverse and varied precisely due to this possibility of feeding on different elements.

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