Litzsinger Road Ecology Center
Litzsinger Road Ecology Center
St. Louis, Missouri
The Hidden Life of the Decomposers
The woods and the prairie at the LREC are teeming with life. On any given walk you may see a squirrel scamper across your path or hear the chatter of a Belted Kingfisher as he hunts for food on the creek. On the prairie you can admire the vibrant Purple Coneflower and watch the bees walk across the goldenrod in search of pollen and nectar.
We tend to focus on the flora and fauna that is immediately and easily visible to our senses. But have you thought about the life that is hidden within a rotting tree, under the leaves or in the ground? There's a whole other world down there, where the decomposers, also known as the detritivores abound. What may seem like a dead tree at first glance is actually a tree teeming with life.
There are decomposers hidden within the crevices of the bark, working hard to break the wood down into material small enough for microscopic bacteria to break that matter further down into good, fertile soil material.
And who are these decomposers? Let's take a look under a tree stump and find out.
Please visit the website for lots of photos and to learn more.
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