Decay of dead animals and plants produce low intensity carbonic acid which plays an important role in cracking and breaking of specifically limestone rocks.
Eventually, all living things die. And except in very rare cases, all of those dead things will rot. But that’s not the end of it. What rots will wind up becoming part of something else.
This is how nature recycles. Just as death marks the end of an old life, the decay and decomposition that soon follow provide material for new life.
“Decomposition breaks apart dead bodies,” explains Anne Pringle. She’s a biologist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.
When any organism dies, fungi and bacteria get to work breaking it down. Put another way, they decompose things. (It’s the mirror image of composing, where something is created.) Some decomposers live in leaves or hang out in the guts of dead animals. These fungi and bacteria act like built-in destructors.
Soon, more decomposers will join them. Soil contains thousands of types of single-celled fungi and bacteria that take things apart. Mushrooms and other multi-celled fungi also can get into the act. So can insects, worms and other invertebrates.
Yes, rotting can be yucky and disgusting. Still, it is vitally important. Decomposition aids farmers, preserves forest health and even helps make biofuels. That is why so many scientists are interested in decay, including how climate change and pollution may affect it.
Welcome to the world of rot.
Why we need rot
Decomposition isn’t just the end of everything. It’s also the start. Without decay, none of us would exist.
“Life would end without rot,” observes Knute Nadelhoffer. He’s an ecologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. “Decomposition releases the chemicals that are critical for life.” Decomposers mine them from the dead so that these recycled materials can feed the living.