What returns nutrients to soil?

Answer 1

Decomposition

Answer 2

The producers make the nutrients from the inorganic matter around them. The nutrients are not returned to the producer once they are made.

This is confusing to students who are taught about the food chain. They are told to follow the path of the nutrients from the final consumer to the producer. You are being asked to work backwards.

The producer makes the nutrients, and passes them on to the first consumer, who passes them on to the second consumer, who may pass them on to a third consumer. If you are trying to explain how the nutrients back to the producer, you aren't following the path the nutrients took, you're tracing the path backwards.

Think of if like rewinding a movie (if you remember VHS...) or retracing your steps to find something you've lost. The third consumer got the nutrients by eating the second consumer, before that the second consumer got them by eating the first consumer. The nutrients left the producer, and we're tracing back to, when the first consumer ate the producer.

Lets look at this food chain:

grass 1---> grasshopper 2--> mouse 3---> snake 4---> hawk

Once the grass is eaten by the grasshopper, the grass is gone and the nutrients will not be returned to it.

To trace the nutrients "back to the producer" we start with the hawk, who is the fourth consumer.

• 4 The hawk got the nutrients from eating the snake.
• 3 The snake got the nutrients from eating the mouse.
• 2 The mouse got the nutrients from eating the grasshopper.
• 1 The grasshopper got the nutrients from eating the grass.

Answer 3

Nutrients are added back into the soil through natural composting. Leaves compost and mix with the soil and add nutrients back. Also, animals leaving droppings add to the nutrients as it decomposes and mixes with the soil.

Think of what you would buy at a store to add nutrients to your soil at home. . . compost or manure. Same ideas.

Answer 4

Decomposition of organic matter by microbes, plants, and detritivores returns nutrients to the soil. This process breaks down dead plants and animals, releasing essential elements like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium back into the soil for uptake by plants. Additionally, nitrogen-fixing bacteria convert atmospheric nitrogen to forms that plants can use, further enriching the soil.

Answer 5

Nutrients returned to the ecosystem in which they live.

Answer 6

the dead organism dissolves to transfer to nutrition for plants

this is what i know