Question

Why are detritivores important to energy transfer within an ecosystem?

Answer 1

They break down decomposing matter from a macroscopic scale into even smaller molecular scale that can be handled by bacteria and plants etc, and since they are in turn eaten by bigger stuff that is also a way for energy to be recycled into a form usable by other organisms (ex. worm eat dead-leaf, a mole cant digest the leaf to extract nutrients but it can eat the worm and extract nutrients).