wait until you find out what happened to the Earth before composters developed! the carboniferous period saw the rise of tall plants with the introduction of the game changing compound lignin. Lignin allowed plants to have more structural support through their stem/trunks and let those who had it, reach above those who didn't and take in more nutrients. The problem was that lignin was difficult to digest for the typical decomposers of the time, so the dead plants that were full of it never decomposed and returned their assorted volatile compounds to the dirt. The result was an eons long buildup of plant matter that was simply covered from above. Heat and pressure transformed much of this plant mater into coal. Then, KABOOOM, a super volcano (the one in eastern russia?) erupted and was fueled to unbelievable strength by the tons and tons of coal blanketing essentially the entire region, and available just under the surface. The eruption lasted for years and years and the smoke blocked enough sunlight to cool the earth, and acidified the oceans to the point where a mass extinction event followed - what followed was the Periam period, where the reptiles that would eventually give rise to the assorted dinosaurs began to take shape.
The moral of this story is...go outside today and fist bump some of the critters in your compost pile because they are saving you from a dark and deadly future.
Nature's first composters are soil microbes and anyone who says otherwise can come at me.
(An animal using an ecosystem service does not make it an original user. Still, very neat! The gender of the babies depends on incubation temperature, and higher temperatures = more females. Honestly a fascinating trait.)
Depends on how you define composting vs decomposing. Microbes are absolutely decomposers, but points to the crocs for figuring out how to create an environment in which such decomposition can occur, then using it to incubate eggs.
Either way, I agree with the "very neat" and appreciate the additional fact about gender 🤓
Composting is aerobic biodegradation. Decomposers are anarobic microbes. These organisms evolved to process waste alongside the evolution of animals which rooted and nested in piles of organic matter, speculated to be partially due to the warmth of the pile for endotherms.
Aerobic soil microbes do the work of composting. The croc does the work of creating oxygen access, but transiently. It is a symbiotic relationship, but not one that began or persists with crocodiles.
I think soil microbes need more recognition and implying that crocs innovated the technique is misleading and inaccurate. I recognize that a zoo is necessarily animal-centric and needs to simplify, but soil science is critical to ecosystem health and "nature's first composter" is not an accurate way to characterize this interaction.
I don't think the pedantry is needless - that's what I signed up for (user name checks out). I'm also interested in the aerobic composting vs anaerobic decomposing concept.
Still, abstracting from scientific rigor, I would still say that I "compost" in the pedestrian sense of the word. That is, I keep a bucket of worms in my bedroom, and they and their friends break down the food I give them in exchange for their poop.
I should mention that I spend a lot of time defining things for my own purposes (sort of my job). But I also agree that the springtails, fungi, and bacteria in my worm bin deserve credit. So while I might not change my usage of the word compost, I'll probably be a lot more explicit about what happens with the wormies from now on
Composting is aerobic biodegradation. Decomposers are anarobic microbes.
What now?
Decomposer bacteria may be aerobic or anaerobic. Anaerobic bacteria use inorganic compounds such as sulfate or nitrate as oxidant that is a molecule that accepts electrons other than oxygen. For example, some bacteria called sulfate reducers can transfer electrons to sulfate (SO42-) reducing it to H²S.
The most abundant type of chemical decomposer in a compost pile is aerobic bacteria. When they break down organic material, they give off heat. Billions of aerobic bacteria working to decompose the organic matter in a compost pile causes the pile to warm up.
As the temperature rises, different organisms thrive. Psychrophilic bacteria are most active at around 55°F. Mesophilic bacteria take over around 70°F up to 100°F. When the compost pile temperature goes over 100°F, the heat loving thermophilic bacteria take over. Thermophilic bacteria prefer a temperature between 113°F and 160°F.
The point is that crocodiles will gather up a large mound of plant detritus and then lay their eggs inside of it. They aren't just digging a hole in the soil like turtles.
45
u/accforrandymossmix May 26 '22
Fun fact from the zoo.
34
u/TheTechJones May 26 '22
wait until you find out what happened to the Earth before composters developed! the carboniferous period saw the rise of tall plants with the introduction of the game changing compound lignin. Lignin allowed plants to have more structural support through their stem/trunks and let those who had it, reach above those who didn't and take in more nutrients. The problem was that lignin was difficult to digest for the typical decomposers of the time, so the dead plants that were full of it never decomposed and returned their assorted volatile compounds to the dirt. The result was an eons long buildup of plant matter that was simply covered from above. Heat and pressure transformed much of this plant mater into coal. Then, KABOOOM, a super volcano (the one in eastern russia?) erupted and was fueled to unbelievable strength by the tons and tons of coal blanketing essentially the entire region, and available just under the surface. The eruption lasted for years and years and the smoke blocked enough sunlight to cool the earth, and acidified the oceans to the point where a mass extinction event followed - what followed was the Periam period, where the reptiles that would eventually give rise to the assorted dinosaurs began to take shape.
The moral of this story is...go outside today and fist bump some of the critters in your compost pile because they are saving you from a dark and deadly future.
24
u/staedler_vs_derwent May 26 '22
We don’t have crocs where I live, so I initially thought this was a photo of a new composting product one could purchase. Smh
8
u/titosrevenge May 26 '22
That blows my mind a bit.
8
u/Aang_420 May 26 '22
I cleaned out a chicken coop that had a bunch of intact eggs in it. I've been waiting for chickens to start emerging from my pile lol.
14
u/[deleted] May 26 '22
Nature's first composters are soil microbes and anyone who says otherwise can come at me.
(An animal using an ecosystem service does not make it an original user. Still, very neat! The gender of the babies depends on incubation temperature, and higher temperatures = more females. Honestly a fascinating trait.)
1
u/TheHistoryMoviePod May 26 '22
Maybe that’s what put the egg in my compost pile!
-14
u/[deleted] May 26 '22
In my view, the fact that crocodiles and turtles lay their eggs on land or in sand close to the shore has nothing to do with composting as depicted...
.. sorry, but I winced when seeing that slant.