In nature, there are organisms - bacteria, fungi, plants, animals - eating ready-made organic compounds. The source of carbon for them are particles of dead or waste products of living creatures of nature. Such creatures are called "saprophytes." What it is? Let's try to find out in this article.
origin of name
The name of this group of organisms comes from two Greek words: “rotten” and “plant”. From here one can literally understand the meaning of the concept. Saprophytes use for life the products of other organisms, tissues of plant and animal origin, often dead.
The role of saprophytes
The role of these creatures of nature in the global circulation of substances is great. Every living organism must ever die. It is so arranged by nature. Many saprophytes are designed for the disposal of dead tissue. Without them, the biosphere would simply be choked in its own waste, and the whole Earth would be littered with waste products and waste from various organisms - living and dead.
Saprophytes play the role of janitors in nature, cleansing a place for a new life. They also decompose organic tissues into constituent elements, which are then used by other organisms for their own nutrition and functioning.
What bacteria are called saprophytes?
The total number of bacteria living on planet Earth is truly myriad, not amenable to accurate calculation. Microorganisms, in terms of classification in biology, are the largest Kingdom. Most of the existing bacteria are saprophytes.
Main functions
Saprophyte bacteria: what is it? Their purpose is to decompose organic matter in aqueous media and soil, to participate in mineralization, the circulation of chemical elements. Azotobacteria, for example, are actively involved in the process of nitrogen fixation. Some are the most important links in the conversion of carbon, sulfur, phosphorus. And other microorganisms “help” a person to prepare food products. After all, the process of lactic acid fermentation directly depends on saprophytes. Sour cream, cottage cheese, cheese, fermented baked milk, pickles, weak alcohol - those products that simply could not exist without bacteria.
Blue green algae
These cyanobacteria are involved in the production of oxygen. Scientists believe that these very ancient microorganisms began to form the atmosphere of the Earth several billion years ago. After all, then there were still no trees and other plants that emit oxygen in the process of photosynthesis . But bacteria existed. Even now - in view of their abundance - their share in the production of this gas is significant.
Mushrooms and saprophytes
In the kingdom of mushrooms there are also representatives of this category: small and medium, even large. They use fallen leaves, humus, trunks and branches, manure, charcoal, feathers and down of birds, and animal hair for food. In general, any organic matter available to them. For example, white mushroom, false foam sulfur-yellow, shaggy dung beetle, aspen, boletus and many others are saprophytes. Many forest mushrooms come into higher symbiosis with higher plants (trees, shrubs), producing fertilizers necessary for plant nutrition from all kinds of plant and animal remains.
All kinds of microscopic fungal saprophytes are of great importance (often not very pleasant). They often settle in food products, transforming them with their life activity, creating both edible in the future, and inedible products. Moldy bread and sour jam, fermented fruit juice, rotted apple are their “hands”. Of the useful ones - Kombucha , Indian rice, fungal fermentation in the production of alcohol.
The plant kingdom also has saprophytes. What it is? These representatives of the flora, as a rule, lack elements of photosynthesis (pigments) and this process is carried out due to fitness for eating food from mushrooms, for example. The inability to carry out photosynthesis may be partial. So, some types of orchids only to a certain extent depend on fungi, but can also carry out photosynthesis additionally.
Similar plants are called mycoheterotrophs. They include more than 400 various species.
Saprophytes. What it is?
Among the representatives of the fauna there are also similar organisms. For example, saprophyte mites (arachnid family). These arthropods are not directly dependent on other organisms, but they still need ready-made organic compounds. They use decaying plant or animal tissue for their nutrition. Saprophytes are more than 150 species of dust mites , some of which are considered allergenic. They can be seen only under a microscope, as their size is minimal (average - 0.2 mm). The life span of the animal is about four months. During this time, the female tick manages to lay up to 300 eggs. And in just one gram of dust, up to several thousand of these organisms can be “quartered”. They eat the flakes of the skin layer of people who are present in abundance where the person sleeps (according to science, a person can lose up to 700 grams of dead skin particles per year, they feed on dust mites-saprophytes).