Which food chain begins with dead organic matter?
A detritus food chain starts with dead plant material, carcasses, feces, or dissolved organic matter rather than living producer tissue. Microbes condition and enzymatically digest this material, and detritivores consume detritus plus its microbial community; predators then feed on detritivores. The pathway dominates in many forests, streams, and soils because only a minority of primary production is grazed alive. It remains energetically dependent on earlier primary production, but its immediate resource base is nonliving organic matter. Thermodynamic constraints set broad patterns, but speci
Ref: Fundamentals of Ecology, Odum & Barrett, 5th Ed., Ch. 3
