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October 15, 2005

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.

The sowbugs are usually the first decomposers you will notice under a rotting tree stump.

These bugs are also known as pill bugs and roley poleys. They enjoy hiding in dark, moist places such as our tree stump. They mostly eat dead plant material and have a sturdy exoskeleton that protects them from harm.

The slug is another decomposer you may find under the rotted tree log. The slugs are members of the gastropod class and they eat leaves, dead plant matter and fungus. The slug moves via its muscular foot and produces two different types of mucus to aid in its movement. The mucus also helps the slug retain much-needed moisture and protects it against potential predators.

There are several critters that enjoy the taste of a slug and these include Beetles, Centipedes,Lizards, Mice, Shrews, Moles, Frogs, Toads, Birds and Fox.

The snails, also in the gastropod class, share several characteristics with the slugs. They move by the same muscular foot, depend on moisture for survival, produce mucus for locomotion and protection and live in the same habitat.

There are a few differences between snails and slugs. Snails have shells that provide protection and a place to retreat during a dry spell. During those times when no water is available, the snail will retreat into its shell and go into a state of estivation, which is similar to hibernation. When rain moistens its immediate environment, the snails come out of their shells and resume their task of eating dead plant material, bark and young plant shoots.

I wanted to include this picture to show you just how tiny these snails were. There is a snail on either side of my finger. Can you find both of them?

These beautiful mahogany-colored wood roaches are quite different from the roaches you may find in your home. These roaches feed exclusively on wood and they contain tiny microorganisms within their digestive tracts that help them break down the wood material they eat. The adult wood roaches feed their offspring, as their young initially lack the beneficial bacteria to help break down their food.

If you find these roaches in your house, it is because they have stumbled in purely by accident. They will do no harm to your house as they much prefer their damp homes within the woods.

Isn't this a shiny, beautiful beetle? These Patent Leather Beetles live within old logs and eat the decaying wood. Their trees of choice are the black and white oaks, American Elm, Yellow Poplar, American Beech and Sweet gum. These beetles live in colonies and within their wood homes they dig tunnels, creating "galleries" where they lay eggs and rear their young. The young beetles stay in the larval stage for about a year and their parents feed them fecal material mixed with wood chips.

There are a lot of other animals in the forest that dine of these beetles. Wood Frogs, Toads, Mice, Snakes, 5-lined Skinks, Moles, Opposums, Wild Turkeys and Woodpeckers.

The centipedes are one of the prime predators of the decomposers. These fast-moving venomous insects eat cockroaches, spiders, termites and a variety of other insects. They have one pair of legs per segement and have claws that aid them in catching their prey.

I found this gem under a rotted tree stump in the woods of LREC. Isn't it beautiful?

Well, that concludes our brief exploration of the hidden life of decomposers. I've only touched on the surface of these fascinating creatures. I didn't even talk about the millipedes, spiders, termites and other recyclers of the environment. Explore them for yourself and have fun learning!

Here are a few of my sources.

Wikipedia

Iowa State University

Pechenik, Jan A., 2000. Biology of the Invertebrates. 4th ed. New York: McGraw Hill

Posted by Colleen Crank on October 15, 2005 10:17 PM

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