<P> Primary producers take energy from other organisms and turn it into energy that is used . In almost all cases, these are photosynthetically active organisms (plants, cyanobacteria, protists and a number of other unicellular organisms; see article on photosynthesis). They make usable energy for themselves and other organisms by taking energy from non living sources . However, there are examples of archaea and bacteria (unicellular organisms) that produce biomass from the oxidation of inorganic chemical compounds (chemoautotrophs) in hydrothermal vents in the deep ocean . These organisms are considered to exist at the lowest trophic level . There are many other types of examples of primary producers . Chemosynthesis plays an important role in being a primary producer as well . These organisms are the reasons why Earth is sustainable for life to this day . </P> <P> There are many different types of primary producers in the Earth's ecosystem at different states . Fungi and other organisms that gain their biomass from oxidizing organic materials are called decomposers and are not primary producers . However, lichens located in tundra climates are an exceptional example of a primary producer that, by mutualistic symbiosis, combine photosynthesis by algae (or additionally nitrogen fixation by cyanobacteria) with the protection of a decomposer fungus . Also, plant - like primary producers (trees, algae) use the sun as a form of energy and put it into the air for other organisms . There are of course H2O primary producers, including a form of bacteria, and phytoplankton . As there are many examples of primary producers, two dominant types are coral and one of the many types of brown algae, kelp . </P> <P> Gross primary production occurs by photosynthesis . This is also a main way that primary producers take energy and produce / release it somewhere else . Plants, coral, bacteria, and algae do this . Bacteria is a more recent find in the process of photosynthesis with primary producers, as they were just discovered in the soil . During photosynthesis, primary producers take energy from the sun and produce it into energy, sugar, and oxygen . Primary producers also need energy to convert this same energy elsewhere, so they get it from nutrients . One type of nutrient is nitrogen . </P> <P> Without primary producers, organisms that are capable of producing energy on their own, the Earth would be unable to sustain itself . Plants, along with other primary producers, produce the energy that beings consume, and the oxygen that they breathe . </P>

3 groups of producers in the carbon cycle