• Question: what is a leaf litter

    Asked by bgolding to Tommy on 12 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Thomas Doherty-Bone

      Thomas Doherty-Bone answered on 12 Nov 2013:

      It is any accumulation of dead leaves, whether on the floor of the forest or into a piece of water. This is often a major source of food for smaller organisms and the basal resource of a food web.

Comments

  • Photo: bgolding

    bgolding commented on :

    what is your favourite thing in the water

  • Photo: Tommy

    Tommy commented on :

    Caddisfly larvae are getting my attention at the moment. These are basically maggots with style! They actually don’t look like maggots, they have comparatively long legs at the front, which they use for swimming. But you will first notice something like a stick or piece of grass moving on its own – they use bits of debris, such as tiny pieces of wood or leaf or stones, and build them around their soft (maggoty) body. They turn into elegant river flies later on, but they are very important in aquatic ecosystems – there are as many as 203 species in Britain alone and perform functions such as detritivory, filter-feeding and predation.

    And I will always say amphibians (frogs, toads, newt and their larvae), turtles, water snakes 😉