New News Biology #64

Biotic and Abiotic Factors

Biotic factors are any living factor that affects another organism or shapes the ecosystem in some way (e.g. predation - living process that influences the population of another species)

Abiotic factors are all the non-living parts of the environment that can affect organisms (e.g. moisture levels, light intensity, temperature, carbon dioxide concentration, wind intensity and direction, mineral content of soil). Take temperature as an example - an increase in temperature may increase the rate of photosynthesis, while animals spend less energy staying warm and more energy in growth.

A question would typically be about IDENTIFYING biotic and abiotic factors, and about what will happen if they change?

For example, a fish chilling out in some sea anemone. What are the biotic factors? - predation by bigger fish and eels, the sea anemone is the habitat, and competition for the plankton and algae. What are the abiotic factors? - temperature of the water, oxygen concentration of water, and levels of acidity and salt.

Although the abiotic factors like temperature may not directly affect the fish itself, it may affect its habitat (the sea anemone) and indirectly affect the fish as well.