Question
Question: What are micro-consumers?...
What are micro-consumers?
Solution
Micro Consumer includes mostly microscopic bacteria and fungi. These organisms feed on debris left behind by scavengers and release the nutrients in the form of simpler substances.
Complete answer:
To answer this question, we have to know about the consumers. Consumer organism in the widest sense is a heterotrophic organism that feeds on living or dead organic material.
Micro consumers are the ones who eat huge nutrient examples of these are omnivores, carnivores and herbivores. Micro Consumers are the organisms that can be observed only using a microscope. These are also known as decomposers. Microconsumers perform a vital role in maintaining the hygiene of the environment. Microconsumers convert organic waste from the environment into usable substances by the process of decomposition. It is the process by which micro consumers can convert dead and decaying matter into organic matter of the soil. Microconsumers form an important part of the ecosystem.
Additional information:
Sometimes the term ‘consumer’ is classified to macroconsumers, micro consumers which are also called ‘decomposers’. Consumers can be determined as ‘primary’ (herbivores), ‘secondary’ (herbivore-eating carnivores), and that continue, according to their presence in the food chain.
Macroconsumers are also sometimes termed phagotrophs or biophages, while microconsumers correspondingly are termed saprotrophs or saprophages.
Note: Micro-consumers such as bacteria and fungi that eat by breaking down complicated organic compounds in dead protoplasm, in taking some of the decomposition products, and at the same time eliminating inorganic and relating simple organic substances to the environment.