After Life - The Strange Science of Decay
BBC Documentary Worksheet
This documentary centers around an experiment -- what would happen if a fully stocked kitchen and garden were left to rot for a month? Time-lapse video shows the effects that decomposers have on the food, beginning with flies and continuing with fungi and bacteria. Many related side-topics are also explored, such as the massive overgrowth of trees during the Carboniferous period, before fungi had developed the ability to digest lignin.
The documentary in its entirety (90 minutes) should be available to stream from Youtube.
Essential concepts: Decomposition, biogeochemical cycles of matter, carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle, fungi, bacteria.
