However, some microbes like the heat. These thermophiles can live at temperatures above 45 degrees centigrade. Some thermophiles like it really, really hot. They are called hyperthermophiles. Fungi Fungi are important in the composting process.
Fungi live on leaves and wood in the compost pile.
They can also degrade wood, which is made of large, complex molecules called lignins. Wood also contains the long molecules hemicellulose and cellulose, the stuff that paper is made of. Fungi are the most efficient organisms at breaking down wood. This fungus is growing on a rotting wood stump. Styrofoam is a type of plastic.