Detritivores in the soil break down detritus into smaller particles. This process is called ______.

🔑 Key Points
→ Decomposition of detritus (dead remains of plants and animals) is the process in which decomposers break down complex organic matter into inorganic substances like carbon dioxide, water, and nutrients.
→ The important steps in the process of decomposition are fragmentation, leaching, catabolism, humification, and mineralization.
→ Detritivores (like earthworms) break down detritus into smaller particles. This process is called fragmentation.
→ By the process of leaching, water-soluble inorganic nutrients go down into the soil horizon and get precipitated as unavailable salts.
→ In the catabolism process, bacterial and fungal enzymes degrade detritus into simpler inorganic substances.
→ Humification leads to the accumulation of a dark-colored amorphous substance called humus that is highly resistant to microbial action and undergoes decomposition at an extremely slow rate.
→ The humus is further degraded by some microbes and the release of inorganic nutrients occurs by the process known as mineralization.