Dead Leaves and Decomposers+

Dino's Kids Club (based at Dynamic Earth) ran an Autumn session on the importance of decomposers! We visited the wooded area next to the Holyrood Park Ranger's centre and thought about what decomposers are. Decomposers are organisms that break down dead or decaying matter, like wood, animal carcasses, animal poo, dead leaves etc. Decomposers are basically Earth’s clean up crew! Without them, dead leaves, insects and animals would pile up around the planet!
Examples of decomposers are worms, slugs, snails, slaters, flies, millipedes, earwigs, funghi and bacteria.
Then we thought about the kind of places we would find decomposers to help us on our hunt! We found lots of tree trunks and rocks to roll over, uncovering hundreds of slaters, slugs and snails! We discovered that dark and damp places are the best spots to find decomposers!
to finish our session, we did some mud painting! To have a go at this yourself, take a piece of paper and lay a leaf over the top. Smudge lots of mud over the leaf and the paper, while holding the leaf in one place. Finally, peel the leaf away, leaving you with its muddy outline!