On 1 Sep 2003 12:53:26 -0700, Mike Lyle wrote:

"Franz Heymann" wrote in message ...
"Rusty Hinge" wrote:

and will in time take nitrogen from the soil.

Which is eventually returned to the soil with some small interest.

I'm heading for out of my depth he but surely cellulose is a
polysaccharide? Where's the nitrogen in that? And I thought lignins
were derivatives of cellulose... Isn't that why we have to add
nitrogen to get it to rot down, and why wood products rob soils of
nitrogen?

You've got me worried now.

Decomposition of organic wastes involves *bacteria* as well as
fungi, to say nothing of macroscopic critters. Don't get the idea
that it's all fungi and nothing else.

The bacteria take up nitrogen as they multiply, but when they die
-- as they eventually do -- their dear sweet little dead bodies
release that nitrogen back to the general environment.

Reminder: cells have lots of proteins in them, not just sugars!
Indeed, proteins are the fundamental structures of cells.
Remember that genes encode *protein* sequences.


--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada