Producers, photosynthesis and consumers

Producers use photosynthesis to make their own food in the form of glucose (a simple carbohydrate). Consumers can only get food by eating producers or other consumers; producers are the source of food for food chains. Consumers cannot use carbon and nitrogen from the environment to make biomass; they get them by eating producers. Producers and consumers use the carbohydrate from photosynthesis to make biomass for growth and as fuel for respiration. Consumers also depend upon producers to add oxygen to the atmosphere, which they use for aerobic cellular respiration.