Question

Which of the following is true about saprophytes?
A. They trap insects to meet their energy requirement.
B. They live on decaying organic matter.
C. They share their food and shelter.
D. Saprophytes contain chlorophyll.

Answer 1

Hint:- All organisms require energy for their life processes and this energy enters the world of living things through the process of photosynthesis carried on by green plants. Green plants produce carbohydrates by photosynthesis. They are called the primary producer.

Complete answer: All other populations in a community are dependent upon green plants and are referred to as consumers. Under this category are included all the different kinds of animals that are found in an ecosystem. Consumers are also known as phagotrophs. They are heterotrophs that generally ingest or swallow their food. There are different categories of consumers:
Primary consumers include all the herbivores that are dependent on plants for food, e.g., rabbit, deer, goat, etc.
Secondary consumers include carnivores which are the flesh eating animals. They eat herbivores, e.g. fox, wolves, etc.
Tertiary consumers include top carnivores. Besides these, saprotrophs, parasites and scavengers are also included among consumers.
The saprotrophs are also known as the microconsumers, reducers or decomposers. These organisms break down the complex organic compounds of dead bodies of both plants and animals, absorb some of the decomposed products while releasing most of the inorganic compounds into the environment from where these are reused by the producers. So these help in the recycling of minerals or material cycling. They secrete digestive enzymes to digest the organic compounds externally. These include the non-green microscopic organisms like bacteria and fungi like molds, mushrooms, etc.

So the correct answer is 3. They live on decaying organic matter.

Note:- The producers, phagotrophs and saprotrophs are biotic components of the ecosystem and are usually considered as three functional kingdoms of nature. The saprotrophs or decomposers play an important role in maintaining the dynamic nature of ecosystems.