What is the difference between autotrophic and heterotrophic?

Answer 1

Heterotrophic means obtaining ready made organic food from the environment and Autotrophic means manufacturing food from inorganic compounds usually carbon dioxide, water using a source of energy

Autotrophic nutrition is a process where plants make food by combining large complex organic molecules such as starch, lipids and protein with simple inorganic molecules like water, carbon dioxide and minerals.

Example: plants

Hetrotrophic nutrition is where organism feed on organic substances that have been made by other organisms.

Examples are animals and fungi

Answer 2

Autotrophic organisms can produce their own food using energy from sunlight or inorganic compounds, like plants through photosynthesis. Heterotrophic organisms cannot produce their own food and rely on consuming other organisms for energy, like animals that eat plants or other animals.