Earth's Life Earth's organisms form an intricate web of interconnections, with every organism depending on and significantly affecting many others. As one very important example, virtually all communities of organisms ultimately depend on plants. Plants capture energy from the sun and store it as chemical energy.
Plants are Earth's producers.
With respect to food energy, the rest of the organisms are consumers. Some eat plants, others eat animals that eat plants and some eat both plants and animals. The plants, in turn, rely on animals for pollination or for spreading seeds, and on decomposers for creating rich soil from dead waste. With respect to life, Earth is a networked system. Not only do organisms form an interconnected web, they also participate actively in Earth's matter cycles and energy flows.