LIFE SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -Decomposers, like fungi and bacteria, complete the food chain. Decomposers turn organic wastes, such as decaying plants, into inorganic materials, such as nutrient-rich soil. They complete the cycle of life, returning nutrients to the soil or oceans for use by autotrophs. This starts a whole new series of food chains.

Detailed explanation-2: -Bacteria break down (or decompose) dead organisms, animal waste, and plant litter to obtain nutrients. But microbes don’t just eat nature’s waste, they recycle it. The process of decomposition releases chemicals (such as carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus) that can be used to build new plants and animals.

Detailed explanation-3: -Decomposers play a critical role in the flow of energy through an ecosystem. They break apart dead organisms into simpler inorganic materials, making nutrients available to primary producers.

Detailed explanation-4: -In a food web nutrients are recycled in the end by decomposers. Animals like shrimp and crabs can break the materials down to detritus. Then bacteria reduce the detritus to nutrients. Decomposers work at every level, setting free nutrients that form an essential part of the total food web.

Detailed explanation-5: -Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas fluorescens are examples of decomposer bacteria. Additions of these bacteria have not been proved to accelerate formation of compost or humus in soil.