Water Cycle

• Why it's important to cycle water in an ecosystem:

  • maintains habitats
  • organisms need to maintain a correct balance of water
  • needed for chemical reactions
  • reactant in photosynthesis
• Decomposition is important because

  1. it releases nutrients back into the soil (e.g. carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen)
  2. it helps to maintain soil structure
• All organisms are made up of the following chemicals:

  • carbon
  • oxygen
  • hydrogen
  • nitrogen

  these are elements that need to be recycled to provide "building materials" for all new life on Earth
• Detritivores start off the process of decay and increases the surface area for decomposers.

  They feed on dead material and produce waste

  They respire the biomass they consume to release energy

  this returns carbon to the atmosphere in the form of CO2

  e.g. worms, maggots, ants, fruit flies, snails, slugs
• decomposers are microorganisms (e.g. fungi and bacteria), which feed on dead and waste material

  they break down waste from detritivores as well

  mineral ions, e.g. nitrates are returned to the soil

  they release energy via respiration. This returns carbon to the atmosphere in the form of CO2