Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The terms detritivore and decomposer are often used interchangeably, but they describe different organisms. Detritivores are usually arthropods and help in the process of remineralization. Detritivores perform the first stage of remineralization, by fragmenting the dead plant matter, allowing decomposers to perform the second stage of ...
The remains of decaying plants or animals, or their tissue parts, and feces gradually lose their form due to physical processes and the action of decomposers, including grazers, bacteria, and fungi. [1] Decomposition, the process by which organic matter is decomposed, occurs in several phases.
Amazon River rain forest in Peru. Tropical rainforests are hot and wet. Mean monthly temperatures exceed 18 °C (64 °F) during all months of the year. [4] Average annual rainfall is no less than 1,680 mm (66 in) and can exceed 10 m (390 in) although it typically lies between 1,750 mm (69 in) and 3,000 mm (120 in). [5]
Banana slugs are detritivores, or decomposers. They consume leaves, animal droppings, moss, and dead plant material, and then recycle them into soil humus . [ 15 ] [ 16 ] They are generalist feeders, though they exhibit a preference for certain mushrooms. [ 17 ]
The consumption of the litterfall by decomposers results in the breakdown of simple carbon compounds into carbon dioxide (CO 2) and water (H 2 O), and releases inorganic ions (like nitrogen and phosphorus) into the soil where the surrounding plants can then reabsorb the nutrients that were shed as litterfall. In this way, litterfall becomes an ...
In a detrital web, plant and animal matter is broken down by decomposers, e.g., bacteria and fungi, and moves to detritivores and then carnivores. [69] There are often relationships between the detrital web and the grazing web. Mushrooms produced by decomposers in the detrital web become a food source for deer, squirrels, and mice in the ...
The Laguna Miramar in the Lacandon Jungle. The Lacandon Jungle (Spanish: Selva Lacandona) is an area of rainforest which stretches from Chiapas, Mexico, into Guatemala.The heart of this rainforest is located in the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve in Chiapas near the border with Guatemala in the Montañas del Oriente region of the state.
Prime decomposers are bacteria or fungi, though larger scavengers also play an important role in decomposition if the body is accessible to insects, mites and other animals. Additionally, [ 3 ] soil animals are considered key regulators of decomposition at local scales but their role at larger scales is unresolved.