Remaining chemical free energy is increasingly transformed into:
- metabolic products
- low-grade heat
Operational definition
Postmortem energetic process.
The oxidation of decomposition substrates through microbial or consumer respiration, with part of the chemical free energy conserved temporarily for biological work and the remainder dispersed as heat.
The process converts relatively high-free-energy substrates into lower-free-energy products while supporting decomposer or consumer metabolism.