Biotic factors are the living components of an ecosystem. They are sorted into three groups: producers or autotrophs, consumers or heterotrophs, and decomposers or detritivores.
Producers
Producers, also called autotrophs, convert energy into food, some using photosynthesis. Here are examples of producers:
- Air plants
- Apricot mallow
- Arctic azaleas
- Arctic moss
- Arctic poppy
- Arctic willow
- Avocado
- Ball moss
- Bamboo
- Banana trees
- Bear berry
- Bees - yellow jacket, wasp, honey, carpenter, hornets
- Big galleta
- Blue Dicks
- Bromeliads
- Bush muhly
- Caribou moss
- Cassava
- Cotton grass
- Cyanobacteria
- Desert needle
- Eel grass
- Epiphyte
- Ferns
- Fluff grass
- Fremont's pin cushion
- Fruit trees - lemon, orange, apple, etc
- Green algae
- Green sulfur bacteria
- Hay
- Indian rice grass
- Joshua trees
- Juniper
- Lichens
- Living rocks - Lithops
- Marsh grass
- Orchids
- Owl's clover
- Pasque flower
- Periwinkle
- Phytoplankton
- Pines
- Pinyon pines
- Purple sulfur bacteria
- Red algae
- Red brome
- Red maids
- Resurrection fern
- Rubber trees
- Shrubs
- Seaweeds
- Sedges
- The corpse lily
- Turf algae
- Turfed saxifrage
- Venus fly traps
- Vicia cracca
- Vines
- White fir
- Zooxanthellae
Consumers
Consumers, also called heterotrophs, rely upon producers for food. Here are examples of consumers:
- Acacia ant
- American alligator
- Anteater
- Arctic bumble bees
- Arctic ground squirrel
- Arctic hare
- Arctic peregrine falcon
- Arctic shrews
- Arctic wolf
- Badger
- Barracuda
- Bass
- Bats - most
- Bears - black, American, Asian, grizzly, Kodiak,sun, Polar
- Bighorn sheep
- Bobcats
- Cactus wrens
- Canada goose
- Caribou
- Catfish
- Cattle - zebu, taurine, sanga, dwarf lulu, chianina, brown
- Swiss Cheetah
- Chimpanzee
- Chuckwalla
- Crab
- Colobus monkey
- Common kingsnake
- Cougar
- Coyote
- Crocodile
- Dall sheep
- Desert tortoise
- Dingo
- Dolphins - Chinese River, Amazon River, Baiji, Ganges and Indus River
- Dunlin flavus
- Eagles - bald, harpy, golden, crested, white tailed
- Electric rays
- Elephants
- Fox - Arctic, red, crab eating, fennec
- Giant Pacific octopus
- Goatfish
- Golden lion
- Grass shrimp
- Green crab
- Green sea turtle
- Groupers - white, black, giant, Nassau Harlequin duck
- Harp seals
- Herring gull
- Humans
- Humming birds
- Jackrabbits
- Jaguar
- Krill
- Lemmings
- Lemurs
- Leopards - clouded, snow, sunda clouded
- Liver tape worm
- Lobster
- Loris
- Lynx
- Marlin
- Marmosets
- Minnow
- Mojave rattlesnake
- Moray eels
- Mosquitos
- Mountain lions
- Mule deer
- Musk oxen
- Mussules
- Opossum
- Otter
- Owls - cape eagle, great horned, tawny fish
- Pacific tree frog
- Parrotfish
- Pronuba moth
- Pygmy
- Ravens
- Red-shanked douc
- Langur
- Red-spotted toad
- Red-tailed hawks
- Roadrunners
- Sea bass
- Seals - leopard, baikal,
- Mediterranean monk
- Sea lion
- Sea urchins
- Scorpions
- Sharks - great white, tiger, angel, basking, blue, hammerhead
- Shrimp
- Sloth
- Snakes - boa constrictor, rattlesnakes, pythons, anacondas, bushmaster
- Snappers
- Snapping turtle
- Spiders
- Sponges - yellow, vase, tube, red tree, common sea squirt, painted tunicate
- Sturgeon
- Sumatran rhinoceros
- Surgeonfish
- Swordfish
- Tarantula
- Tarantula hawk
- Tigers
- Toco toucan
- Trout
- Tuna
- Vampire bats
- Walrus wasps
- Whales - orca, sperm, pilot, right, blue, humpback
- Wolves - gray, Himalayan, maned, red, Indian
- Wood bison
- Wrasses - butterflyfish, filefish, triggerfish, damselfish
- Zooplankton - copepods or urchins
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Decomposers
Decomposers, also called detritivores, break down chemicals from consumers and producers into simpler forms that are used again. Here are examples of decomposers:
- Bacteria - streptomyces, penicillum, bacillus, aspergillus
- Beach flies
- Clams
- Cockroaches
- Crabs
- Earthworms
- Flat worms
- Flies
- Freshwater shrimp
- Fungi - mushrooms
- Lobsters
- Macrofauna
- Mesofauna
- Microbes
- Microfauna
- Protozoans
- Shelf fungus
- Slugs
- Snails
- Termites
- Wasps
By reviewing these examples of biotic factors, or living things, you can see that they are varied in type and function.