Ecology is the study of life interacting with the environment. Competition and cooperation among and within species for the non-living resources of the environment determine the success or failure of individuals, species, communities, and ecosystems. Plants and certain bacteria are producers that utilize the energy from the sun to convert light energy into chemical energy. The rest of the species, the consumers, live by eating and digesting this energy from organisms in lower trophic levels. All life, producers and consumers, compete for space, light, heat, and minerals from the air, water, and land in this thin mantle on earth we call the biosphere.
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