is there a word that classifies an organism that are both heterotrophic and autotrophic?

Answer 1

Add the word "facultative" to either.

A facultative autotroph would be a plant that gets most of it's nutrition from other sources, but can use photosynthesis if it has to.

A facultative heterotroph is a plant that is a usually makes its own food, but can use other sources in the absence of light.

Just remember that when you use the term, it means it usually does the "other", but "can" do the word used with it. Another way of thinking of the term is to switch it for "optional".

Answer 2

I think what you have in mind is omnivore, but that doesn't really refer to a combination of the two words. An autotroph makes its own food, also known as a primary producer, such as a plant.

A heterotroph, literally meaning "other-feeding", is anything that can't make its own food. Going up the food chain from primary producers, the first heterotroph would be a primary consumer, which eats plants. This can be a grazer (cow) or a plant predator (goat), like an herbivore (plant eater). After that you have secondary consumers, who feed on the primary producers (herbivore), or primary consumers (carnivore). If the feed on both, then that makes them omnivores.

There isn't a word that I know of for both auto- and heterotrophs, however, there is at least one description and example.

Corals can be considered both. Each coral is made up of polyps and the calcium carbonate skeleton that surrounds them. Within the polyps are tiny microscopic algae called zooxanthellae (a type of dinoflagellate). The polyps and the algae have a symbiotic relationship. This means that their interaction with each other is benefical to both of them.

The polyps "come out" at night to feed on microscopic plankton in the water. This is what makes the coral heteroptrophic. In other words, it feeds on something else (the plankton).

The algae in the polyps works like plants on land and makes its own food, enough to supply the entire coral polyp population. This is what makes it autotrophic, or self-feeding. At over 90% of food intake, the algae is the majority of the food source for polyps.

Hence, a coral is both an autotroph and a heterotroph, but a word for both, I do not know.

Good luck!