Do you enjoy walking through piles of autumn leaves and hearing
the crunch underneath your feet? Those leaves you're stepping on
might actually be home to a wide variety of plants and animals!
Leaves, twigs and pieces of bark that have fallen to the ground
make up leaf litter. Leaf litter is an important component of
healthy soil. Decomposing leaf litter releases nutrients into
the soil and also keeps it moist. It also serves as great
nesting material, hiding places and protected spots for animals.
This dead organic material provides the perfect habitat for a
plethora of organisms, including worms, snails, spiders, and
microscopic decomposers like fungi and bacteria. For this
reason, leaf litter is considered very biodiverse.
"Biodiversity" is a concept that refers to the variety of
different life forms, from the genetic level to the species
level. Species diversity in particular is a subcategory of
biodiversity that refers to the number of different species
represented in a set. Where can biodiversity be see