Question
What is detritus food chain?
✓
Answer
→ The detritus food chain (DFC) begins with dead organic matter.
→ It is made up of decomposers which are heterotrophic organisms, mainly fungi and bacteria.
→ They meet their energy and nutrient requirements by degrading dead organic matter or detritus.
These are also known as saprotrophs (sapro: to decompose).
→ Decomposers secrete digestive enzymes that breakdown dead and waste materials into simple, inorganic materials, which are subsequently absorbed by them.
→ In an aquatic ecosystem, GFC is the major conduit for energy flow.
→ As against this, in a terrestrial ecosystem, a much larger fraction of energy flows through the detritus food chain than through the GFC.
→ Detritus food chain may be connected with the grazing food chain at some levels: some of the organisms of DFC are prey to the GFC animals, and in a natural ecosystem, some animals like cockroaches, crows, etc., are omnivores.
→ These natural interconnection of food chains make it a food web.
→ It is made up of decomposers which are heterotrophic organisms, mainly fungi and bacteria.
→ They meet their energy and nutrient requirements by degrading dead organic matter or detritus.
These are also known as saprotrophs (sapro: to decompose).
→ Decomposers secrete digestive enzymes that breakdown dead and waste materials into simple, inorganic materials, which are subsequently absorbed by them.
→ In an aquatic ecosystem, GFC is the major conduit for energy flow.
→ As against this, in a terrestrial ecosystem, a much larger fraction of energy flows through the detritus food chain than through the GFC.
→ Detritus food chain may be connected with the grazing food chain at some levels: some of the organisms of DFC are prey to the GFC animals, and in a natural ecosystem, some animals like cockroaches, crows, etc., are omnivores.
→ These natural interconnection of food chains make it a food web.
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