[Music] Have you ever had to take out the garbage? Kind of gross, right? But someone's got to do it. And we're not the only things that make waste; trees drop their leaves, and animals drop, well, other stuff. So what happens to all that waste that's created in nature? It turns out that waste – as gross as it may seem – is actually a good source of energy for lots of different living things, like bacteria, some fungi, insects, and worms. These organisms, called decomposers, break down waste and the remains of dead plants and animals to get energy. Which is a bonus for the rest of us because thanks to decomposers, there's a lot less waste and dead stuff lying around. Now, if you've been paying attention so far in our little talks here, you'll remember that all living things need energy to survive. And energy flows through a system of living things, moving from plant, to animal, to other animals, in a what-eats-what model called a food chain. We use food chains to see how energy flows between living things in an ecosystem. So decomposers are living things too, and since they need energy to live, just like anybody else, they need a spot in the food chain. But where do decomposers fit in an ecosystem's food chain? Let's take a look at a simple little ecosystem to see where they might find a home. Plants like this apple tree are able to grab the energy that comes from the Sun. They use this energy to take water, nutrients, and a little bit of gas from the air, to create chemical energy. The tree stashes some of that energy in its fruit, which happens to be...delicious. If an apple from that tree falls to the ground and gets nibbled on by a mouse, some of the energy from the apple is going to be transferred to the mouse, and if the mouse is unfortunate enough to be spotted by an owl, it's going to end up as an owl brunch, and the energy from that mouse will be transferred to the owl. Apple—mouse—owl. That's a simple enough food chain, right? Everyone has their place in it – the system works! But decomposers can live and work in more than one spot in this food chain. They can show up anytime there's waste to break down, like the leftover apple that the mouse didn't eat, or the owl's droppings. Decomposers break those things down into smaller parts, like nutrients and other chemicals. These chemicals go into the ground, and are taken up by plants so they can use them to make more energy, and the process starts all over again. Not to get all 'Lion King' on you, but I'm thinking that this really closes up the Circle of Life, right? And since we're talking about circles and cycles, let's recycle some of these ideas one last time. Decomposers breakdown waste in an ecosystem into nutrients, and plants use those nutrients to make energy, and that energy goes up the food chain all over again. And like I mentioned before, decomposers don't just put energy back into the food chain, they also keep waste from piling up in an ecosystem. So while we might kind of forget that insects or worms or fungi are there, remember that we need them to clean up waste. Losing the decomposers in a food chain would COMPLETELY mess up the nice balance that all living things have going on. Which... okay, yes, I guess means that I'll finally clean up my desk. [crash] Until next time!