How do abiotic factors influence biotic factors

An endemic species is one which is naturally found only in a specific geographic area that is usually restricted in size. Other species are generalists: species which live in a wide variety of geographic areas; the raccoon, for example, is native to most of North and Central America. Species distribution patterns are based on biotic and abiotic factors and their influences during the very long periods of time required for species evolution; therefore, early studies of biogeography were closely linked to the emergence of evolutionary thinking in the eighteenth century.

Some of the most distinctive assemblages of plants and animals occur in regions that have been physically separated for millions of years by geographic barriers. Biologists estimate that Australia, for example, has between , and , species of plants and animals. Figure 1.

Australia is home to many endemic species. The a wallaby Wallabia bicolor , a medium-sized member of the kangaroo family, is a pouched mammal, or marsupial. The b echidna Tachyglossus aculeatus is an egg-laying mammal.

Sometimes ecologists discover unique patterns of species distribution by determining where species are not found. Hawaii, for example, has no native land species of reptiles or amphibians, and has only one native terrestrial mammal, the hoary bat. Most of New Guinea, as another example, lacks placental mammals.

Check out this video to observe a platypus swimming in its natural habitat in New South Wales, Australia. Note that this video has no narration. Plants can be endemic or generalists: endemic plants are found only on specific regions of the Earth, while generalists are found on many regions. Isolated land masses—such as Australia, Hawaii, and Madagascar—often have large numbers of endemic plant species.

Some of these plants are endangered due to human activity. The forest gardenia Gardenia brighamii , for instance, is endemic to Hawaii; only an estimated 15—20 trees are thought to exist. Figure 2. The spring beauty is an ephemeral spring plant that flowers early in the spring to avoid competing with larger forest trees for sunlight.

Energy from the sun is captured by green plants, algae, cyanobacteria, and photosynthetic protists. These organisms convert solar energy into the chemical energy needed by all living things. Light availability can be an important force directly affecting the evolution of adaptations in photosynthesizers. For instance, plants in the understory of a temperate forest are shaded when the trees above them in the canopy completely leaf out in the late spring.

Not surprisingly, understory plants have adaptations to successfully capture available light. One such adaptation is the rapid growth of spring ephemeral plants such as the spring beauty Figure 2. These spring flowers achieve much of their growth and finish their life cycle reproduce early in the season before the trees in the canopy develop leaves.

In aquatic ecosystems, the availability of light may be limited because sunlight is absorbed by water, plants, suspended particles, and resident microorganisms. Toward the bottom of a lake, pond, or ocean, there is a zone that light cannot reach.

Photosynthesis cannot take place there and, as a result, a number of adaptations have evolved that enable living things to survive without light. For instance, aquatic plants have photosynthetic tissue near the surface of the water; for example, think of the broad, floating leaves of a water lily—water lilies cannot survive without light.

In environments such as hydrothermal vents, some bacteria extract energy from inorganic chemicals because there is no light for photosynthesis. Figure 3. Ocean upwelling is an important process that recycles nutrients and energy in the ocean.

As wind green arrows pushes offshore, it causes water from the ocean bottom red arrows to move to the surface, bringing up nutrients from the ocean depths. The availability of nutrients in aquatic systems is also an important aspect of energy or photosynthesis. Many organisms sink to the bottom of the ocean when they die in the open water; when this occurs, the energy found in that living organism is sequestered for some time unless ocean upwelling occurs.

Ocean upwelling is the rising of deep ocean waters that occurs when prevailing winds blow along surface waters near a coastline Figure 3. As the wind pushes ocean waters offshore, water from the bottom of the ocean moves up to replace this water. As a result, the nutrients once contained in dead organisms become available for reuse by other living organisms. In freshwater systems, the recycling of nutrients occurs in response to air temperature changes.

The nutrients at the bottom of lakes are recycled twice each year: in the spring and fall turnover. The spring and fall turnover is a seasonal process that recycles nutrients and oxygen from the bottom of a freshwater ecosystem to the top of a body of water.

These turnovers are caused by the formation of a thermocline : a layer of water with a temperature that is significantly different from that of the surrounding layers. In wintertime, the surface of lakes found in many northern regions is frozen. The deepest water is oxygen poor because the decomposition of organic material at the bottom of the lake uses up available oxygen that cannot be replaced by means of oxygen diffusion into the water due to the surface ice layer.

Figure 4. The spring and fall turnovers are important processes in freshwater lakes that act to move the nutrients and oxygen at the bottom of deep lakes to the top. Surface water temperature changes as the seasons progress, and denser water sinks. How might turnover in tropical lakes differ from turnover in lakes that exist in temperate regions? Biotic and abiotic factors are the environmental conditions that the organisms have to face to live in a specified environment.

Abiotic factors Abiotic factors are the physical and chemical conditions of an environment. For example : heat, salinity, pressure, light, wind, pH It can include prey and predator abundance, available food amount, available space, intra and interspecific competition The development of organims is under the control of abiotic factors. Some are adapted to heat, cold etc The abiotic factors will define which organisms are able or not to live in a specified place.

The living organisms will constitute the biotic factors, which define if and how can an organism live in a specified environment. If soil organic carbon is rich, you can see your tree or plant become healthier if sufficient water and sunlight exist. In general, organic matter organic carbon in the soil improves plant growth.

A practical rule is to use all available crop residues leaves, stems, etc. Other living creatures without these mechanisms die from too much salt in their environment. The Dead Sea and Great Salt Lake are two examples of environments where salinity has reached levels that challenge most living organisms. Temperature: Most organisms require a relatively stable temperature range. Mammals even have internal mechanisms to control their body temperature.

Temperature changes, especially extreme and sudden changes, that go beyond an organism's tolerance will harm or kill the organism.

Temperature changes can be natural, due to sunspots, weather-pattern shifts or ocean upwelling, or can be artificial, as with cooling-tower outfall, released water from dams or the concrete effect concrete absorbing heat. A major difference between biotic and abiotic factors is that a change in any of the abiotic factors impacts the biotic factors, but changes in the biotic factors don't necessarily result in changes to the abiotic factors.

For example, increasing or decreasing salinity in a body of water may kill all the inhabitants in and around the water except maybe bacteria. The loss of the biota of the body of water doesn't necessarily change the salinity of the water, however. Karen earned her Bachelor of Science in geology. She worked as a geologist for ten years before returning to school to earn her multiple subject teaching credential. Karen taught middle school science for over two decades, earning her Master of Arts in Science Education emphasis in geosciences along the way.

TL;DR Too Long; Didn't Read The abiotic factors in an ecosystem are all the nonliving elements air, water, soil, temperature while the biotic factors are all the living organisms in that ecosystem.

Aquatic Ecosystem Facts. Main Types of Ecosystems. Types of Pollutants. Types of Water Ecosystems. Characteristics of a Marine Biome. The Role of a Consumer in an Ecosystem. The Disadvantages of Soil Erosion. Living and Nonliving Things in the Ecosystem. How Do I Identify an Ecosystem? The Effects of Sewage on Aquatic Ecosystems. Nonliving Things in a Forest Ecosystem.

Limiting Factors of the Freshwater Biome.