Decomposer Hike
One of our favorite activities any time of year, but especially Fall, is turning over logs to look for decomposers. Decomposers are an organism, especially a soil bacterium, fungus, or invertebrate, that decomposes (breaks down) organic material. They play a critical role in the flow of energy through an ecosystem. They break apart dead organisms into simpler inorganic materials, making nutrients available to primary producers (like plants!.) Maybe that doesn't sound exciting, but decomposers are an incredibly important part of life-- without them, dead leaves, dead insects, and animals would just pile up everywhere. Imagine what the world would look like! You can do this in your backyard or on a hike in the woods, once you start looking decomposers are everywhere and it's fun to see what different types you can find and identify with…