Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- Self-nourishing: said of plants which derive their nourishment directly from inorganic matter, that is, of all plants except parasites and saprophytes. See the quotation under
hemiparasite and compareholophytic .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective (Plant Physiol.) Capable of self-nourishment; requiring only minerals for growth; using carbonate or carbon dioxide as a source of carbon and simple inorganic nitrogen as a nitrogen source; -- said of all plants in which photosynthetic activity takes place, and certain bacteria. It is opposed to parasitism or saprophytism.
- adjective of or pertaining to an autotroph.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective biology Of or pertaining to the production of
organic compounds fromcarbon dioxide as a carbon source, using eitherlight or reactions of inorganic chemical compounds, as a source of energy.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective of or relating to organisms (as green plants) that can make complex organic nutritive compounds from simple inorganic sources by photosynthesis
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Rhodophyta are autotrophic, which is an organism that obtains and stores Floridian starch from photosynthesis.
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On land, an estimated 60 Pg C (60 billion tonnes) is emitted to the atmosphere each year by autotrophic respiration.
Carbon dioxide 2010
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In the sea, autotrophic respiration is thought to account for about 58 Pg of the dissolved inorganic carbon in surface waters each year, with the contribution of heterotrophic respiration being 34 Pg C. Vulcanism
Carbon dioxide 2010
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In the time after a fire during which appreciable tree mortality occurred, the majority of respiration shifts from autotrophic to heterotrophic.
Climate change in relation to carbon uptake and carbon storage in the Arctic 2009
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Similarly, among protists, a radiolarian may capture and ingest, more or less indifferently, a bacterium, an autotrophic flagellate, a herbivorous oligotrich ciliate, or another radiolarian (Fig 2E).
Marine microbes 2009
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Thus, the viruses which attack the autotrophic prokaryotes Synechococcus, the bacteria which absorb dissolved organic excreted by autotrophic protists such as diatoms and dinoflagellates, and the protists such as ciliates, radiolarians which feed on autotrophic protists are all consumers of primary production.
Marine microbes 2009
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Among marine microbes, consumers of primary producers are those which feed on autotrophic prokaryotes or autotrophic protists.
Marine microbes 2009
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Microbial autotrophic and heterotrophic eucaryotes in Antarctic waters: relationships between biomass and chlorophyll, adenosine triphosphate and particulate organic carbon.
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Usually in surface waters there are about a thousand per ml of small flagellates which feed on bacteria (both autotrophic and heterotrophic prokaryotes) and 1 or 2 ciliates, oligotrichs (Fig 2B) and tintinnids (Fig 2C) or heterotrophic dinoflagellates which feed on autotrophic protists.
Marine microbes 2009
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Some protist species retain and use the chloroplasts in the prey they eat while other protists harbor symbionts, entire autotrophic bacteria or protists.
Marine microbes 2009
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