As an ecological term, autotrophs are also called independent vegetative organisms, and the corresponding word is heterotrophs. Organisms that survive and reproduce by inorganic nutrition are the corresponding words of organic nutritious organisms. Organisms that assimilate carbon by using energy obtained from chemical dark reactions such as respiration or photochemical reactions are called chemoautotrophs and photoautotrophs respectively.
As an ecological term, autotrophs are also called independent vegetative organisms, and the corresponding word is heterotrophs. Its original meaning refers to organisms that live and reproduce only with inorganic compounds as nutrients. In this classical concept, there is no difference between the two metabolic systems, that is, substrate oxidation for energy and nutrient reduction for carbon assimilation. Today, this concept has been classified according to the nutrients oxidized into energy and their oxidation forms (chemosynthetic organisms, photosynthetic organisms, inorganic oxidizing organisms, organic oxidizing organisms [1]), and according to the intake mode of carbon source nutrients and the synthesis mode of organic metabolites necessary for reduction and assimilation. And it is widely used only in the latter sense.
Autotrophic organisms that survive and reproduce by inorganic nutrition are the corresponding words of organic vegetative organisms. Organisms that assimilate carbon by using energy obtained from chemical dark reactions such as respiration or photochemical reactions are called chemoautotrophs and photoautotrophs respectively.