EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -Many plants like the pitcher plant and Venus flytrap are partly autotrophic and partly heterotrophic. Since they grow in nitrogen-deficient soil they trap and digest insects to meet their nitrogen requirements.

Detailed explanation-2: -You might call a venus flytrap a ‘mixotroph’. Autotrophs make their own food (like most plants); heterotrophs get food from elsewhere (like animals, which eat other organisms), and mixotrophs can do both.

Detailed explanation-3: -So while carnivorous plants may be considered heterotrophic to a certain degree, for the most part they are autotrophic just like other plants.

Detailed explanation-4: -Because autotrophs do not consume other organisms, they are the first trophic level. Autotrophs are eaten by herbivores, organisms that consume plants. Herbivores are the second trophic level. Carnivores, creatures that eat meat, and omnivores, creatures that eat all types of organisms, are the third trophic level.

Detailed explanation-5: -Both primary (herbivores) and secondary (carnivores and omnivores) consumers are heterotrophs, while primary producers are autotrophs.