Converts organic nutrients into inorganic forms that reenter biogeochemical cycles.
Operational definition
Biogeochemical role.
An organism or metabolic process that converts organically bound elements into inorganic forms.
Examples include conversion of:
- organic carbon to carbon dioxide;
- organic nitrogen to ammonium;
- organic phosphorus to phosphate;
- organic sulfur to inorganic sulfur compounds.
A decomposer may be a mineralizer, but decomposition can stop at simpler organic products without complete mineralization.