Messymate Stringybark

 Nutrients taken from the soil by vegetation

must be replenished if the life of a forest

is to continue. Some nutrients are returned

in the form of dung deposited by animals

that feed on the plants, others return to

the forest floor in the form of dead leaves

and detritus. This material must be broken

down before it can replenish the soil and

be made ready for recycling. In eucalypt

forests this task falls to tiny

invertebrates, among them a variety of

mites. The mites in return provide food

for larger invertebrates such as spiders

and false scorpions. Millipedes, centipedes

and snails also contribute to the breakdown

of plant and animal refuse.

The rate of breakdown and recycling is

slower in sclerophyll forests than in

the rainforests partly because chemicals

found in the leaves of many eucalypts.

trees growing in nutrient-poor soils

must conserve energy, and leaf production

is 'energy-expensive'. The chemicals,

in making its leaves less palatable

to animals such as the koala and

Brush-tail possums, are therefore

advantageous to the plant. However,

the price of this protection is that

nutrients from the leaves are slow in

returning to the soil.

set design©Kids4ME2004

Music - The Forest Speaks