Animals are heterotrophs (consumers): they cannot make such molecules on their own and obtain energy by eating other organisms.
Producers convert that energy into chemical energy of organic molecules.
Consumers obtain energy by feeding on those molecules.
Energy ultimately leaves the ecosystem as heat.
The chemical elements are recycled.
A byproduct of this process is oxygen.
The organic molecules and oxygen are used by mitochondria to produce ATP in a process called cellular respiration.
Byproducts of respiration are water and carbon dioxide, which are used as inputs for photosynthesis.
Heat is released into the environment in this cycle.
Exercise:
Two electrons and one proton (H^+) is transferred to NAD^+ which is reduced to NADH.
The NADH stores energy from the net gain of an electron that can be used to make ATP.
During glycolysis, a glucose molecule is broken into 2 molecules of pyruvate.
The pyruvate enters the citric acid cycle.
These 2 steps produce a few molecules of ATP by substrate-level phosphorylation.
Energy stored in electrons are moved to the ETC, where much more ATP are produced by oxidative phosphorylation.
The net gain is two ATP molecules. In addition, two NADH are also produced; these will be processed in the ETC.
Each acetyl CoA yields one additional ATP and more electron carriers: three NADH and one FADH[2].
Citric acid cycle review:
In anaerobic conditions (absence of oxygen), some cells undergo fermentation instead of aerobic respiration.
After glycolysis, pyruvate is broken down by fermentation in the cytosol via two catabolic pathways:
Note that fermentation itself yields no ATP molecules; it serves to recycle NADH back to NAD^+, which is reused in glycolysis.
Fermentation review:
Only 2 molecules of ATP from glycolysis are harvested, the NADH is recycled back to NAD^+.
Carbohydrates, fats, and proteins can all be used as fuel for cellular respiration.
Monomers of these molecules enter glycolysis or the citric acid cycle at various points.