Energy flow in ecosystems

The relationship between structure (the composition and abundance of ecosystem components) and function (the processing of materials and energy flow) in ecosystems has constituted a central focus of ecological research for several decades... 

There is one further major contributor to sedimentary organic matter, bacteria. A large proportion of the energy flow in ecosystems can pass through the detrital food chain, in which heterotrophic bacteria are prominent participants. Heterotrophic bacteria are important in all sedimentary environments, and although they consume organic detritus they supplement the organic matter with their own remains. In some environments autotrophic bacteria may also be important (e.g. the Black Sea see Section 3.4.3c). 

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