In this activity, students learn the importance of decomposers in terms of
breaking down dead organic matter and their broader importance in food webs in terms of nutrient recycling and bioturbation.

After discussing decomposers and their importance in the soil food web and
terrestrial ecosystem, students can create a log hotel, which is a terrarium habitat for common backyard decomposer organisms. Once they create their
habitat, they can find decomposers in their yard or local park to add and
observe. Decomposers are easy pets to keep and the log hotel can be kept
indefinitely!

View Lesson
Organization
University of Tennessee
Discipline
Life Sciences
Grade Level
3-5
6-8
9-12
Lesson Area
Soil Biology
Lesson Type
Activity
Lesson Keywords
Decomposition
Decomposers
Detritovores
Detritus
Bioturbation

Next Generation Science Standards

Grade Discipline Core Idea
3-5 LS2.A: Interdependent relationships in ecosystems

The food of almost any animal can be traced back to plants. Organisms are related in food webs in which some animals eat plants for food and other animals eat the animals that eat plants, while decomposers restore some materials back to the soil.
3-5 LS2.B: Cycles of matter and energy transfer in ecosystems

Matter cycles between the air and soil and among organisms as they live and die. 
3-5 LS4.C: Adaptation

Particular organisms can only survive in particular environments.
3-5 LS2.C: Ecosystem dynamics
6-8 LS2.A: Interdependent relationships in ecosystems

Organisms and populations are dependent on their environmental interactions both with other living things and with nonliving factors, any of which can limit their growth. Competitive, predatory, and mutually beneficial interactions vary across ecosystems but the patterns are shared.
6-8 LS2.B: Cycles of matter and energy transfer in ecosystems

The atoms that make up the organisms in an ecosystem are cycled repeatedly between the living and nonliving parts of the ecosystem. Food webs model how matter and energy are transferred among producers, consumers, and decomposers as the three groups interact within an ecosystem.
6-8 LS4.C: Adaptation

Species can change over time in response to changes in environmental conditions through adaptation by natural selection acting over generations. Traits that support successful survival and reproduction in the new environment become more common.
6-8 LS2.C: Ecosystem dynamics
9-12 LS2.A: Interdependent relationships in ecosystems

Ecosystems have carrying capacities resulting from biotic and abiotic factors. The fundamental tension between resource availability and organism populations affects the abundance of species in any given ecosystem.
9-12 LS2.B: Cycles of matter and energy transfer in ecosystems

Photosynthesis and cellular respiration provide most of the energy for life processes. Only a fraction of matter consumed at the lower level of a food web is transferred up, resulting in fewer organisms at higher levels. At each link in an ecosystem elements are combined in different ways and matter and energy are conserved. Photosynthesis and cellular respiration are key components of the global carbon cycle.
9-12 LS4.C: Adaptation

Evolution results primarily from genetic variation of individuals in a species, competition for resources, and proliferation of organisms better able to survive and reproduce.  Adaptation means that the distribution of traits in a population, as well as species expansion, emergence or extinction, can change when conditions change.
9-12 LS2.C: Ecosystem dynamics