Matter Cycling in Ecosystems
Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment in an ecosystem
What a learner can do afterwards
- Describe the role of decomposers (fungi, bacteria, worms) in breaking down dead matter
- Trace the movement of matter: plant grows using soil nutrients → animal eats plant → animal dies → decomposers return nutrients to soil
- Create or interpret a simple diagram showing matter cycling through an ecosystem
The lesson
You already know that energy flows through a food chain and leaves as heat. Matter works differently. The atoms in a leaf, a mouse, or a fox never disappear. They get passed around and used again and again.
A leaf falls onto the forest floor. Worms chew it into tiny pieces. Bacteria and fungi break those pieces down even further until the nutrients mix into the soil. Next spring, a new plant's roots soak up those same nutrients and use them to grow.
Fungi, bacteria, and worms are nature's recyclers. Without them, dead leaves and animals would just pile up, and plants would run out of nutrients to grow.
Matter cycles from soil to living things and back again through decomposers; it never disappears.
Watch it
Where it sits
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.