Biodegradable (Ecology)

Waste Management (main)

Biodegradable

Published: September 4, 2008, 12:00 am

Updated: October 28, 2011, 4:54 pm

Topics:

Waste Management (main) Environmental Chemistry (main) Environmental & Natural Resource Accounting (main) Ecology Theory (main) Microbial Ecology (main)

This article is written at a definitional level only. Authors wishing to improve this entry are inivited to expand the present treatment, which additions will be peer reviewed prior to publication of any expansion.

Biodegradable materials are high in organic content and moisture, such that they typically undergo transformation to more fundamental chemical molecules under the actions of micro-organisms. Depending on the moisture content and type of decomposing organisms, this process can be either aerobic (in the presence of oxygen) or anaerobic (in the absence of oxygen).

See also

• Decomposition
• Methane
• Water pollution

References

• W.D.Luzier. 1992. Materials Derived from Biomass/Biodegradable Materials. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 89.3: 839-42

Citation

(2011). Biodegradable. Retrieved from http://editors.eol.org/eoearth/wiki/Biodegradable_(Ecology)