Publisher's Synopsis
Plants are essential for any ecosystem. They provide all the energy for the ecosystem, because they can get energy directly from sunlight. They use a process called photosynthesis to use energy from the sun to grow and reproduce. They also must get nutrients from the soil. Those nutrients get into the soil when decomposers break down waste and dead materials. Plants require space to grow and reproduce. The size of your ecodome will influence how much space your plants have.
All other organisms in the food chain get energy from plants, either by directly eating them as herbivores do, or by eating plant eaters, like carnivores do. Omnivores can get energy either by eating plants directly or by eating herbivores. Likewise, decomposers get energy either from plants or from the animals that eat them. Since all the energy in your ecosystem comes from plants, you'd better have a lot of them.
