Detritus

In biology, detritus (/dᵻˈtraɪtəs/) is dead particulate organic material (as opposed to dissolved organic material). It typically includes the bodies or fragments of dead organisms as well as fecal material. Detritus is typically colonized by communities of microorganisms which act to decompose (or remineralize) the material. In terrestrial ecosystems, it is encountered as leaf litter and other organic matter intermixed with soil, which is referred to as humus. Detritus of aquatic ecosystems is organic material suspended in water and piles up on seabed floors which is referred to as marine snow.

Dead plants or animals, material derived from animal tissues (such as skin cast off during moulting et cetera) gradually lose their form, due to both physical processes and the action of decomposers, including grazers, bacteria and fungi. Decomposition, the process through which organic matter is decomposed, takes place in many stages. Materials like proteins, lipids and sugars with low molecular weight are rapidly consumed and absorbed by micro-organisms and organisms that feed on dead matter. Other compounds, such as complex carbohydrates are broken down more slowly. The various micro-organisms involved in the decomposition break down the organic materials in order to gain the resources they require for their own survival and proliferation. Accordingly, at the same time that the materials of plants and animals are being broken down, the materials (biomass) making up the bodies of the micro-organisms are built up by a process of assimilation. When micro-organisms die, fine organic particles are produced, and if these are eaten by small animals which feed on micro-organisms, they will collect inside the intestine, and change shape into large pellets of dung. As a result of this process, most of the materials from dead organisms disappears from view and is not obviously present in any recognisable form, but is in fact present in the form of a combination of fine organic particles and the organisms using them as nutrients. This combination is detritus.

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