Is bread mold (Penicillium chrysogenum) a detritovore?

Question

Is bread mold (Penicillium chrysogenum) a detritovore?

Answer 1

Members of the Penicillium genus are aerobic decomposers, digesting nonliving detritus for its nutrients so since they are detrital feeders they are detritivores. They are filamentous actinomycetes that  are capable of breaking down and absorbing organic material as osmatrophs. They secrete digestive enzymes onto the material then absorb the digested nutrients.

Reducers (saprotrophs that feed on the dead) are detritivores (detrital feeders) that are either phagotrophs or decomposing osmotrophs. Phagotrophs ingest their food to digest it internally but are not able to reduce it to inorganic forms, only osmatrophs can complete the cycle.  Species such as P. chrysogenum break down organic molecules like cellulose to their constituent molecules to harvest the last biochemical energy and return the carbon to the environment.