This article will focus on the analysis of the concept of "reducers". We will consider this term in a general descriptive form. We also familiarize ourselves with two concepts that are closely related to reducers and consider their brief description.
Introduction
Reducers are organisms of the kingdom of bacteria and fungi that destroy the total mass of the remains of animals, insects, arachnids, plants, etc. Reducers turn this mass into the simplest compounds of organic nature. It is important to remember that these species of creatures are different from detritophages (animals that feed on decaying organic matter).
For example, reducers are organisms that do not leave behind a solid undigested product - a departure from the process of life (excrement). Detrophagous animals, according to environmental standards, are put in order by consumers. Although in fact all organisms are to some extent responsible for the decomposition of substances. However, animals secrete H 2 O (water) and CO 2 (carbon dioxide), as well as other molecules of an inorganic or organic (but simple, not complicated organization system) nature.
Function
Reducers are organisms involved in the return of mineral salts to the soil and water column. This makes them accessible to autotrophic producers (plant organisms) and allows you to close the biotic cycle.
The presence of reducers in the ecological system of wildlife is mandatory, in contrast to, for example, consumers (which, probably, were absent during the first 2 billion years of evolution; at that time, the ecosystem consisted only of prokaryotes).
Decomposition regulation
NI Bazilevich in 1993 established that terrestrial ecosystems include 2 types of factors that are responsible for the regulation of the destruction process, which plays a rather large role in the circulation of biological substances.
The first group includes abiotic factors - the leaching of soluble substances and compounds, phytochemical oxidative reactions on organic substances and their mechanical destruction, observed during the phenomenon of freezing and thawing. Such types of factors are observed in the thickness of the aboveground layers of the ecosystem, in contrast to biotic ones.
Biotic factors are soil processes that are carried out by saprotrophic organisms (invertebrates and / or vertebrates, microorganisms) living in the soil or its litter. The leading role is played by the microflora of the soil.
Closely related concepts
Reducers and producers are organisms that are interconnected in the biomass cycle, they serve as the 1st link in the food chain. Producers are living organisms responsible for the production of organic substances from inorganic compounds. The predominant amount enters the kingdom of the plant. A certain number of representatives of the producers are among the chemotroph bacteria.
The third important concept is the term “consumers”. Producers and reducers, in contrast to them, are earlier participants in the Earth’s ecological system . Consumers are a group of heterotrophic organisms that consume ready-made substances of an organic nature that produce autotrophs (producers). This type of organism cannot decompose organic substances into inorganic ones.
The group of consumers includes animals, insects, parasites and insectivorous plants. They are classified into several orders of magnitude. As a rule, they are limited to four orders of magnitude, but there are more of them. This is due to the peculiarities of waste of substances and energy due to their transfer along the trophic chain. Man is part of the consumer.
First-order consumers include heterotrophic organisms that consume vegetation as their main food source. They feed on producers. 2nd order consumers are representatives of predatory heterotrophs who consume 1st order consumers.