Essay Sample on Autotrophs

Introduction

It is important to note in this section that autotrophs are organisms that are capable of producing their food by using materials from inorganic substances. Notably, the word autotroph is derived from the word 'auto' which means for self and 'troph' which means food. Therefore, it should be understood that an autotroph is an organism that feeds itself without any help from any other organism. It is believed that these organisms are essential because, without them, there will be no other form of life that can exist (Nifong et al., 2014). With no plants to create sugars from carbon dioxide gas and sunlight through the process of photosynthesis, no herbivorous animals could be existing. Also, no carnivorous animals that consume herbivores could exist. As a result, they are referred to as producers because they constitute the base of an ecosystem's energy pyramid, thereby providing the necessary energy that all heterotrophs require to exist. The purpose of the essay is to investigate autotroph, by detailing what autotrophs are, various types, and also examples of autotrophs.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

In the investigation, various types of autotrophs were realized. These include; photoautotrophs which are organisms that obtain energy from sunlight to make organic materials. They all carry out photosynthesis through capturing protons from the sun and harvest their energy, afterwards using it to carry out various biochemical processes such as making adenosine triphosphate. Chemoautotrophs is another type of organisms under this classification that obtains energy from inorganic chemical processes (Nifong et al., 2014). Currently, chemoautotrophs are commonly found in a deep water environment with no sunlight. It is observed that many live in deep-sea volcanic vents which have enough heat to allow for metabolism to take place at a higher rate. They use chemicals that are volatile like molecular hydrogen, elemental sulfur among others as their primary source of energy. Most scientific researchers have speculated that life might be able to exist in dark and chemically volatile environments like the seas of Jupiter's moon Titan by using similar metabolism to those observed in chemoautotrophs on Earth (Nifong et al., 2014). However, no proof of such life has been found.

Notably, some of the investigated examples of autotrophs are plants with few exceptions like Venus flytrap which is capable of eating insects. Such plants are photoautotrophs. They yield sugars and other vital ingredients for life by using their pigments like chlorophyll to capture protons and harness their energy. When animals consume these plants, the energy obtained is then used by animals (Nifong et al., 2014). Green algae is another type of photoautotrophs. It is believed that they bear a great resemblance to the primary life form on earth that was cyanobacteria, which is a green bacteria found growing in mats and began the process of changing earth into a world with an oxygen atmosphere. Finally, acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans is another autotroph that obtains energy from ferrous iron. It then converts the iron atoms from a molecular form where they cannot be dissolved in water to a molecular form. As a result, this autotroph is used to extract iron from ores that are difficult to extract through normal means.

Conclusion

In conclusion, autotrophs are essential organisms in an ecosystem. This is compounded by the fact that, from the investigations, it is observed that they do not depend on any organism to make their food. Further, autotrophs manufacture their food using energy from the sun and then acts as a source of energy within the ecosystem. This underlines the importance of these organisms.

References

Nifong, R. L., Cohen, M. J., & Cropper, W. P. (2014). Homeostasis and nutrient limitation of benthic autotrophs in natural chemostats. Limnology and Oceanography, 59(6), 2101-2111.