Since poop is the solid waste that the majority of organisms produce, how is it so packed with nutrients that plants like?
In: Biology
Food as organic matter gets more complex as you go up the food chain and each member of the food chain is responsible for making more complex organic matter to serve as food. Each step along the chain also produces waste to return to the lower levels. In fact only a minuscule percentage of food taken up at each animal level serves to benefit the organism. Most is returned in fecal matter, but the rest when the animal dies.
Decomposers scavenge dead and decaying organic matter and turn it into raw elements and simple compounds and minerals. Plants take this up and incorporate the organic matter into their tissues. Pretty much all fungi are chemotroph decomposers.
Then chemotrophs that are herbivorous take those plants and incorporate them into their tissues and produce waste that ideally gets returned to the plants.
Herbivores serve as food for carnivores and incorporate their flesh into their tissues. They provide a waste product that returns the herbivore back to the environment.
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