How do decomposers fit into a food web?
Hi. I am working on a science project making a food web and I need to know how to put a decomposer into a food web. I know what a decomposer is, but I need to know how to fit it in to the food web.
I'm making a Sahara Desert Food Web. So far, I have all my producers, consumers, and my decomposer, which is a dung beetle. A dung beetle eats... dung... and how would I put it? At the botom?
On my food web, the dung beetle gets eaten by a scorpion, a sand cat, an ostrich, and a camel and it eats cacti and grasses. But in real life, it eats everything dead without harming them.
Please Help!!! *10 points Best answer!*
Thanks! 
Comments
Firstly, camels do not eat insects. They are herbivores. Or perhaps you means 'the beetle gets eaten by scorpions, sand cats and ostriches. There is also a camel which eats cacti and grass.' Sorry if I misunderstood.
What you need to remember is that a food web is not about 'who kills who'. It is a diagram of ENERGY flow within a system. That is why the arrows point from the prey to the predator; it points in the direction that energy flows through the system. So if a camel eats grass, energy in the grass 'flows' into the body of the camel.
Decomposers break down dead organisms of their waste materials. Although a dung beetle does not kill a camel, the food web is about energy flow. Energy flows from the camel to the dung beetle (via the dung). So the arrow should go from the camel to the dung beetle.
You may also want to indicate that the dung beetle is a decomposer rather than a scavenger though in your project. You could try having the arrows in different colours; for example, green arrows from plants to the herbivores that eat them, red arrows from prey animals to the predatory animals that eat them, and black arrows from animals that produce waste to the decomposers that get their energy from their waste products.
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