The Five Kingdoms taxonomy of Robert Whittaker is based nutritive modes. Animal is an ingestive mode kingdom. Plant is a photosynthetic kingdom. Fungi is an absorbing nutritive kingdom. Animal, Plant and Fungi are multicellular organisms. Protist are unicellular eukaryotes. Monera are unicellular prokaryotes. A domain is grouping of kingdoms. Eukaryota is a domain of all life except Monera (bacteria).
Phototroph (Plantae Kingdom) and Chemotroph (Fungi & Animalia Domain) are the only two types of nutritive found in the Environment. Robert Whittaker was a mycologist; and, saw the kingdom
fungi as separation of the
Chemotroph Domain.
My own opinion is that the entropy (S) flux is a more useful view; and, nutritive flux is subsumed within the rubric. BELOW is the periodic table of entropy (S) flux. The system (eater) and environment (eaten) is my viewpoint of the metabolite web.
