Decomposition

The breakdown of dead organic matter, plant, animal or waste, into simpler compounds, returning the nutrients it holds to the soil, water or atmosphere where living organisms can use them again. Fungi and bacteria do most of the chemical breakdown, secreting enzymes that dissolve tissue faster than it could break down on its own, but larger scavengers and detritivores, animals that feed on dead matter and waste, do much of the physical work of opening a carcass or dung pile to that microbial action in the first place. On the Serengeti, vultures, hyenas and dung beetles together process an enormous volume of dead animal matter and herbivore dung with striking speed, a service that keeps nutrients cycling through the grassland rather than locked in tissue slow to break down on its own, and that measurably limits the spread of disease that an unprocessed carcass would otherwise allow.