Decomposition
Decomposition
Decomposition is the process by which dead organisms and their wastes are broken down into an organic form that is usable by other organisms. In ecological terms, the chemicals out of which living things are made were only borrowed from the earth, and when they die, they are returned by the process of decomposition. These chemicals are then recycled in order to be used by other living things.
Decomposition could be called rotting or decay, and it is carried out by a very important group of organisms called decomposers. Decomposers are bacteria and fungi as well as other small animals called detritivores. These decomposers break down waste and dead matter into smaller and smaller pieces until all the chemicals they contain are released into the air, water, and soil. Decomposers may be tiny in size but they are huge in numbers. In addition to bacteria and fungi, which are the most important decomposers, such larger animals as the slug, snail, earthworm, woodlouse, and centipede also play an important role in breaking down organic matter. A common example of a fungus and decomposer is a mushroom growing out of a dead tree trunk and feeding on the tree's decaying remains.
Decomposition is an essential stage in the cycling of nutrients through nature's food web (the connected network of producers, consumers, and decomposers). It is nature's way of recycling nutrients so they can be reused. Some of the major nutrients that are recycled include nitrogen, phosphorous, carbon, and oxygen. The decomposers that are a key link in nature's food web because they allow nutrients to be cycled through it continuously. If it were not for decomposers, the food web could not be self-sustaining and would break down because it would eventually have to obtain more nutrients from outside the ecosystem (an area in which living things interact with each other and the environment). For example, without the carbon dioxide that is released by decomposition, green plants would eventually die since they use it to make their food. Without green plants, there would be much less oxygen, since they give it off as part of the process of making their own food. No plants and no oxygen means that all animals would starve. Finally, without decomposition, the world would be a mineral-deficient land full of waste and corpses.