Have you ever thought about what this world would be like if nothing died and rotted away?
Think about it. Trees and bushes would just keep growing, and if a windstorm blew them down they would just lay there year after year, century after century, piling up higher and higher. How would you deal with that?
The forest would have trees from hundreds and thousands of years ago in it. Would the trees be in the way? Would there be too many trees? At what point would we run out of nutrients because they are all tied up in living plants, as well as dead ones that refused to rot?
Well, fortunately we don’t have to deal with that.
The natural world has a way to repurpose so much that grows and dies. It is called decomposition.
Let’s take a look at tree trunks of trees that are no longer living.
Trees in dryer climates tend to last longer once they die. Why is that? Moisture has a lot to do with how fast things decompose because moisture allows fungus to survive. Fungus is the main component of initial decomposition. It gets into the dead tree and attacks the tough lignin and cellulose, breaking it down into something softer.
The growth of the fungi hyphae (root like structures that are part of the fungi) helps other decomposers, like bacteria and beetle larvae, get a foothold on and into the woody material so they can start working on the dead tree.
The larger openings made by beetle larvae allow more moisture into the tree.
Eventually the tree starts falling apart and that allows earthworms, springtails, sowbugs (isopods) and millipedes to move in and further the decomposition.
Not only do these critters break down and help rot the dead trees, but they become food for predators like woodpeckers, centipedes, beetles, spiders, robber flies, and wasps.
Eventually a standing dead tree loses its strength to stand and falls to the ground.
This speeds up the rotting process because there is more moisture on the ground. The rotting trunk is converted to soil. Roots of growing trees take up the nutrients in the soil and use it to grow. This completes a nutrient cycle that allows the natural world to continue over time. Dead trees feed living trees!
You may not like rotting trees, but think about all they do for the natural world.
- Keep trees from piling up when they die.
- Provide food for the decomposers that break them down.
- Provide food for predators that feed on the decomposers.
- Recycle nutrients for other trees to use to grow.
Check out these resources for further information:
