Decomposers with Varying Relations

Decomposers with Varying Relations

Some decomposer organism’s cannot be assigned a rigid or fixed position in the food
web. Their trophic relations can vary from time to time.

1. Nectroph: Some decomposers are nectrophs. They cause rapid death of the food
   source because they have a short-term exploitation of living organism. Nectrophs
   include may plant parasitic microbes as well as some herbivores, predators, and
   microtrophs (organisms which feed on living bacteria and fungi.)
2. Biotrophs: On the other hand biotopes resort to a long-term exploitation of their
   living food resource. For example, root-feeding nematodes and aphids, obligate
   plant parasites, e.g., and mycorhizae and root nodules, etc.
3. Saprotophs: The apostrophes utilize food already dead, and most of the decomposers
   belong to this category.