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    Abiotic and Biotic Factors DF

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    John Wu
    This document discusses abiotic and biotic factors that influence environments. [1] Abiotic factors are non-living environmental elements like water, sunlight, oxygen, soil, and temperature that impact living things. [2] Biotic factors refer to living organisms, including producers, consumers, and decomposers that interact with each other in an ecosystem. [3] Together, abiotic and biotic factors determine where plants and animals can survive.

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    Abiotic and Biotic Factors DF

    Uploaded by

    John Wu
    36 views2 pages
    This document discusses abiotic and biotic factors that influence environments. [1] Abiotic factors are non-living environmental elements like water, sunlight, oxygen, soil, and temperature that impact living things. [2] Biotic factors refer to living organisms, including producers, consumers, and decomposers that interact with each other in an ecosystem. [3] Together, abiotic and biotic factors determine where plants and animals can survive.

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    This document discusses abiotic and biotic factors that influence environments. [1] Abiotic factors are non-living environmental elements like water, sunlight, oxygen, soil, and temperature that impact living things. [2] Biotic factors refer to living organisms, including producers, consumers, and decomposers that interact with each other in an ecosystem. [3] Together, abiotic and biotic factors determine where plants and animals can survive.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    36 views2 pages

    Abiotic and Biotic Factors DF

    Uploaded by

    John Wu
    This document discusses abiotic and biotic factors that influence environments. [1] Abiotic factors are non-living environmental elements like water, sunlight, oxygen, soil, and temperature that impact living things. [2] Biotic factors refer to living organisms, including producers, consumers, and decomposers that interact with each other in an ecosystem. [3] Together, abiotic and biotic factors determine where plants and animals can survive.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    DISCOVERY FILE: Abiotic and Biotic Factors

    Many factors influence every part of our environment: things like how tall trees
    grow, where animals and plants are found, and why birds migrate. There are two
    categories of these factors: abiotic and biotic.

    Abiotic factors are the non-living parts of the environment that can often have a
    major influence on living organisms. Abiotic factors include water, sunlight, oxygen,
    soil and temperature.

    Water (H2O) is a very important abiotic factor – it is


    often said that “water is life.” All living organisms
    need water. Plants must have water to grow. Even
    plants that live in the desert need a little bit of water
    to grow. Without water, animals become weak and
    confused, and they can die if they do not rehydrate.
    Think of how you feel after you take a long run. Do
    you feel thirsty? This is your body signaling to you
    that you must rehydrate. By Jon Sullivan [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

    Sunlight is the main source of energy on Earth, which


    makes it an extremely important abiotic factor. Sunlight is
    necessary for photosynthesis, the process by which plants
    convert carbon dioxide (CO2) and water to oxygen (O2)
    and sugar – food for the plants that later becomes food
    for animals. Without the sun, plants could not live, and
    without plants, animals could not live! The sun’s heat is
    also extremely important – see the section on
    Temperature below.

    Like water, oxygen (O2) is another important abiotic factor for many living
    organisms. Without oxygen, humans would not be able to live! This is true for the
    many other living organisms that use oxygen. Oxygen is produced by green plants
    through the process of photosynthesis, and is therefore directly linked to sunlight.
    Soil is often considered an abiotic factor since it is
    mostly made up of small particles of rock (sand and
    clay) mixed with decomposed plants and animals.
    Plants use their roots to get water and nutrients from
    the soil. Soils are different from place to place – this
    can be a big factor in which plants and animals live in a
    certain area.

    Credit: USDA [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

    Temperature is an abiotic factor that is strongly


    influenced by sunlight. Temperature plays an
    important role for animals that cannot regulate their
    own body temperature, such as reptiles. Unlike
    humans, whose normal body temperature is usually
    Credit: Don from USA (Flickr) [CC-BY-2.0],
    around 98.6F, reptiles (such as snakes and lizards)
    via Wikimedia Commons cannot maintain a constant body temperature.
    Reptiles are usually found in warm regions around the
    planet. To regulate their body temperatures, reptiles will sun themselves on rocks,
    which absorb heat from sunlight and then radiate heat back into the environment.

    Biotic factors are all of the living things in an ecosystem, such as plants and animals.
    These living things interact with one another in many ways. Biotic factors and their
    interactions can be broken down into three groups:

    1. Producers. All plants, such as grass and trees, are producers. These
    organisms absorb the sun’s energy and convert the energy into food for
    themselves, allowing them to grow larger, make flowers and seeds, etc.
    2. Consumers. These organisms, mostly animals, eat producers and/or other
    animals. They may also eat decomposers. Two examples of consumers are
    deer (eat plants) and wolves (eat animals). Consumers that only eat plants
    (herbivores) are often known as primary consumers.
    3. Decomposers. These organisms break down dead material (such as a fallen
    tree) into soil and return nutrients to the soil so they can be re-used by
    producers to create food. An example of a decomposer is a mushroom.

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