• MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown@fedia.io
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      2 days ago

      Well, now that I’ve reviewed up the definition of detritus, not a whole lot.
      😂 I would say that detritus is coarser and implies the sense being recognizeable as having been part of a larger whole.
      I meant it in the sense of organic debris: leaf litter and such. I think of dirt as being finer and relatively uniform. Water + dirt = mud. Water + detritus = clean detritus.

      What I meant was that worms sustain themselves on organic material, and, after they break it down, it is more incorporated in to the soil.

      Theres is a whole other discussion to be had whether dirt ≈ soil…

      • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        So what does fecal matter count as? For example my chickens eat the plants, then process it. Then the worm population skyrockets in the dirt where they live, and of course many of them get eaten by said chickens as well, but overall the population has still increased noticably.

        Is the chicken’s digestive track just considered part of the composting process? Or is that only once it hits the ground and started getting rained on

        • ameancow@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          It’s actually more complicated than I bet most Lemmy users can comment on, there are so many varieties of worms, different kinds of topsoil and interactions, and the idea that animal feces can vary wildly in composition and starts undergoing chemical changes as soon as it contacts air.

    • I’ll take a shot. “Detritus” is the easier part: it’s decaying plant and animal matter. So the worms are eating leaves and stuff after it’s started breaking down.

      “Dirt” is a little more difficult because it doesn’t have as crisp of a definition. Usually when people say “dirt” in this context, they mean “soil,” but that’s only a little better. The relevant definition for soil is, “the upper layer of earth that may be dug or plowed and in which plants grow.”

      That detritus gets broken down by bacteria and becomes soil even without worms, but worms do basically the same thing faster. Plus their moving around helps loosen the soil, which also is helpful for growing plants.

    • MiddleAgesModem@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      what is the difference between detritus and dirt?

      They’re pretty similar but it seems:

      Detritus - fragments of materials that have disintegrated or worn away.

      Dirt - Unclean matter, soil or grime.

      Close because I’m pretty sure soil is broken down rocks and stuff.

    • bdonvr@thelemmy.club
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      2 days ago

      More available/easily digestible nutrients probably. Stuff like decomposing leaf litter, dead plants, other animal excrement.

      Disclaimer this is a pure guess.

    • That’s actually a very difficult question. In the context if worms and the ops post I think the best definition would be one of energy availability. Detritus would have lower entropy allowing the worms to more easily extract energy. Dirt would have a much higher entropy as many of the complex molecules in the detritus have been broken down into more smaller fragments.