Author: Mike Colagrossi / Source: Big Think
Scientists have developed new ways of understanding how the biological forces of death drive important life processes.
- Researchers have found new ways on how decomposing plants and animals contribute to the life cycle.
- After a freak mass herd death of 300 reindeer, scientists were able to study a wide range of the decomposition processes.
- Promoting the necrobiome research will open up new areas of inquiry and even commerce.
The biosphere and its many ecosystems rely on more than just life processes to subsist and exist. Death and regeneration are a necessity to the flow of the biome. A new study out of Michigan State University has now figured out a way to investigate how decomposing plant and animal matter helps contribute to a lively ecosystem.
What was coined the necrobiome by Eric Benbowm, forensic entomologist and microbial ecologist, in 2013 – is a collective of organisms that assist in plant and animal decay. The new research sheds light on an established list of organisms that play key roles in carrion decomposition.
The paper was published in Ecological Monographs and its focus is on establishing what they call the necrobiome encyclopedia. The goal is to help bridge the interdisciplinary gap between multiple lines of ecological theory and also show how important death is as a component of all ecosystems.
Researchers have laid out a detailed study of the different stages of the decomposition processes from decaying plant life in the oceans – seaweed, to mass animal herd deaths. The findings are changing the way we view the humble gang of bacterium, vermin, decomposers and more and their ultimate role in the transformation of life.
What is a necrobiome?
Organisms are always dying. When either a plant or some kind of animal corpse sets itself against the cold hard ground, a new process emerges from the detritus of a once living being. A corpse is a cache…
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