Question

An ecologist is constructing a food web of a grassland ecosystem. if she wants to include decomposers, what arrows would she need to add?

Answer 1

Decomposers are responsible for breaking down dead organisms from any of the classes of a food chain. Therefore, if the ecologist would want to include decomposers in the food chain she could add arrows that went all the way from the upper classes of the food chain, as well as arrows from all the other classes, down to the bottom of the food chain, where the decomposers could be placed. This is because it is the decomposers that give back to the soil the nutrients needed for the plants, and ultimately all others in the food chain, to survive.