COMPOST NATURE’S BLACK GOLD Instead of throwing food scraps away you can turn them into a useful soil-like substance called compost The next time you finish a meal take a look at your plate Believe it or not that crust of bread and pile of peas that didn’t make it into your stomach have a lot of potential They aren’t just food scraps they’re ingredients for something precious With just a little effort scraps like these can be converted into a substance that people around the world value and depend on black gold Black gold is another name for finished compost a dark crumbly mixture that is rich in minerals and other nutrients It has the smell of fresh earth and holds onto moisture like a sponge Compost can be mixed with soil to improve its quality and help plants to grow 4
It’s Alive Or it Was What is organic matter It’s anything that is or ever was alive This includes plants and animals as well as their products cotton and leather and waste products manure All organic material can be composted although some things take longer than others to decompose What is composting It’s nature’s way of recycling organic matter and all the natural resources it contains Composting happens thanks to a diverse group of tiny organisms called decomposers Decomposers range from single-celled bacteria to worms and other multi-celled organisms These essential players in the web of life do the dirty work of cleaning up dead plants and animals and their wastes They break down organic matter by eating and re-eating it and each other This releases nutrients back into the environment and turns the matter into finished compost Food Chain Facts Decomposers are an important part of every food chain A food chain shows how energy and matter are transferred from one living creature to another The first link in every chain is a producer usually a plant capable of making organic matter Plants do this using the sun’s energy water and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in a process called photosynthesis The next links are consumers animals who get their food and energy by eating plants or other animals When any of the links in the chain die decomposers step in to break down their remains plant producer sun decomposers plant producer 5
The world would be a different place without decomposers Dead plants trees and animals would just lie there Manure piles would build up More and more organic matter would clutter Earth’s surface and important resources wouldn’t be recycled for future organisms to use 6 frogs foxes snakes birds rodents insects leaves fruit and nuts grass fungi worms bacteria Food chains combine and intertwine to create food webs like this one As you can see the web of life can be complicated with different organisms often playing more than one role Decomposer vs Scavenger What’s the difference between a decomposer and a scavenger Scavengers eat dead things breaking them into smaller pieces Vultures hyenas and even raccoons are examples of scavengers Decomposers such as bacteria and fungi take it one step further than scavengers they convert organic matter into basic chemicals that can reenter the soil
All organic matter is eventually turned into compost When we humans get involved in composting we can help speed up the process By supplying decomposers with the right environment and balance of ingredients what might take years in nature can happen in months or even weeks leaves woody materials grass food scraps manures compost water air compost happens macro-organisms earthworms insects etc micro-organisms bacteria fungi microbes 7
