Ingests particulate dead organic matter.
Operational definition
Consumer role.
An organism that ingests nonliving particulate organic matter, usually together with its associated microbial community.
Detritivores commonly:
- fragment detritus;
- digest part of it;
- redistribute it;
- increase surface area available to microbes.
They differ from decomposers primarily by ingestion of particles rather than external chemical depolymerization and absorption.