decomposer

(noun)

any organism that feeds off decomposing organic material, especially bacterium or fungi

Related Terms

  • saprobe
  • exoenzyme

Examples of decomposer in the following topics:

  • Fungi Habitat, Decomposition, and Recycling

    • Fungi are the major decomposers of nature; they break down organic matter which would otherwise not be recycled.
    • In these environments, fungi play a major role as decomposers and recyclers, making it possible for members of the other kingdoms to be supplied with nutrients and to live.
    • The food web would be incomplete without organisms that decompose organic matter .
  • Components of a Vector

    • To visualize the process of decomposing a vector into its components, begin by drawing the vector from the origin of a set of coordinates.
    • Decomposing a vector into horizontal and vertical components is a very useful technique in understanding physics problems.
  • Organization of Ecosystems

    • Decomposers break down dead plant and animal material and wastes and release them into the ecosystem as energy and nutrients for recycling.
    • Within ecosystems, the biotic factors that comprise the categories above can be organized into a food chain in which autotrophic producers use materials and nutrients recycled by decomposers to make their own food; the producers are in turn eaten by heterotrophic consumers.
    • Microorganisms play a vital role in every ecological community by serving both as producers and as decomposers.
    • Other microbes are decomposers, with the ability to recycle nutrients from dead organic matter and other organisms' waste products.
  • Protists as Plant Pathogens

    • Many protists act as parasites that prey on plants or as decomposers that feed on dead organisms.
    • Describe the ways in which protists act as decomposers and the actions of parasitic protists on plants
  • Partial Fractions

    • The main motivation to decompose a rational function into a sum of simpler fractions is to make it easier to perform linear operations on the sum.
    • The first step to decomposing the function $R(x)$ is to factor its denominator:
    • Substituting these coefficients into the decomposed function, we have:
    • If there are repeated roots in the denominator of a rational function (for example, consider $G(x) = \frac{x+2}{(x-1)^2(x+3)}$, for which $x=1$ is a repeated root), additional steps must be taken to decompose the function.
    • For a rational function $R(x) = \frac{f(x)}{g(x)}$, if the degree of $f(x)$ is greater than or equal to the degree of $g(x)$, the function cannot be decomposed in a straightforward way.
  • The Phosphorus Cycle

    • Later in the summer, the plants and algae begin to die off, and bacteria decompose them, and inorganic phosphorus is released back into the ecosystem.
    • When the excess plant material is broken down, the decomposing bacteria can use up all the oxygen in the water causing dead zones.
  • Food Spoilage by Microbes

    • Harvested crops decompose from the moment they are harvested due to attacks from microorganisms.
    • This apple has decomposed to the point that it is unappealing for humans to eat.
  • Physical Properties of Soil

    • The O horizon has freshly-decomposing organic matter, humus, at its surface, with decomposed vegetation at its base.
  • Summary

    • Still, the search for multiple substitutable sub-structures in graphs (particularly in large and complicated ones) may reveal that the complexity of very large structures is more apparent than real; sometimes very large structures are decomposable (or partially so) into multiple similar smaller ones.
  • Diazo Ketone Reactions

    • If we assume that diazo ketones normally decompose to acyl carbenes, then numerous subsequent reactions can be imagined, and many have been realized.
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