Question

Describe how to do oxygen and chemical composition of detritus control decomposition.

Answer 1

Detritus is recognized as small loose parts of the rocks that are damaged or broken down, or any remains or collapsed materials. Falling of leaves in the winter or fragmentation of the rocks are some of the examples of the detritus.

Complete Answer:
- In ecology, detritus are the matter which consists of leaves or plant parts, animal remains, debris and many other natural wastes that fall over the soil or water bodies. Oxygen is highly essential for the decomposition of detritus. Decomposition of detritus majorly takes place under the aerobic conditions.
- Also, the chemical composition of the detritus highly influences the process of decomposition. Detritus, composed of a high amount of water soluble components and nitrogen, decays quickly while the detritus composed of lignin and chitin decays very slowly.
- The detritus decomposition takes place in the presence of microbes. The growth rate of microbes and rate of decaying is highly influenced by temperature of the environment and pH of the rock layer.
- Detritivores are also known as detritus are types of heterotrophs that obtain the essential nutrients by the intake of detritus. Numerous types of plants, invertebrates and vertebrates are present which carry coprophagy.

Note: Various factors which affect the decomposition rate of the organic matter includes quality of substrates, climatic conditions and type of soil. Generally, the simpler components decompose more quickly as compared to the more complex compounds and rate of decaying is slower in the extreme climatic conditions. Humus is the steady fragments of the soil organic matters and is produced from the decayed plants and animal tissues.