Content
The decomposing organisms They are those that are concerned with taking advantage of the matter and energy that the remains of animals and plants present, through the decomposition of these organisms, until they are transformed into inorganic matter.
In other words, decomposing organisms are those that carry out the recycling of nutrients, making the matter that was made useless by one living being to be used by another.
The process that decomposers carry out is to absorb some products that serve them from the waste of animals and plants that have already died. At the same time, they release as many that the abiotic environment incorporates and then be consumed by the producers.
Classification
Decomposers are usually divided into three types:
- Insects: They appear at different points throughout the decomposition process, laying their eggs inside matter.
- Bacteria: Break down dead matter and recycle carbon within molecules into plant nutrients.
- Mushrooms: For their part, they decompose dead matter such as dry leaves, fecal matter, and dead plants.
We can speak of an additional group of decomposers that are scavengers, which due to their belonging to the animal kingdom do not make the contribution of organic matter but instead simply feed on corpses, eradicating the remains of organic matter useful for decomposers that do play a role in the food chain.
- See also: 15 Examples of Commensalism
Examples of decomposing organisms
| Worms | Azotobacter bacteria. |
| Slugs | Crows |
| Acari insect. | Blowflies. |
| Diptera insect. | Vultures |
| Trichoceridae insect. | Nematodes. |
| Aranea insect. | Shiitake mushrooms. |
| Saprophytic insect. | Pseudomonas bacteria. |
| Calliphoridae insect. | Achromobacter bacteria. |
| Silphidae insect. | Actinobacter bacteria. |
| Histeridae insect. | Mucor fungi. |
| Hyenas | Fungi mushrooms thistle. |
| Beetles | Aquatic mold fungi. |
Decomposition process
The stages in which decomposition takes place are five: if it is a living being, after its death a process occurs that forms a purple-bluish discoloration on the skin, due to internal processes that stop occurring, like the pumping of the heart.
The body swells and gas builds up, but then more loss of mass as a result of voracious feeding of worms and the purging of decomposing fluids. The disintegration progresses and the activity of the insects removes the nutrients that remain, and then the remains dry out and transform into inorganic matter.
Role in the food chain
Decomposers are of great relevance in the food chain, because they transform organic matter into inorganic matter. It is precisely the inverse role to that of plants and producer organisms in general, which have the ability to transform inorganic matter into organic.
Although a priori the process of transformation from inorganic into organic may seem more important (since it enables the life of all animals), it is precisely the production of inorganic matter that, one step further back, enables this process to be carried out again, in charge of plants and bacteria: during decomposition, the grass and the environment around the organism grow to a great extent.
- See also: 20 Examples of Food Chain
