Abiotic factors refer to not-living physical and chemical elements in the ecosystem. Abiotic resources are usually obtained from the lithosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere. Examples of abiotic factors are water, air, soil, sunlight, and minerals.

Biotic factors are living or once-living organisms in the ecosystem. These are obtained from the biosphere and are capable of reproduction. Examples of biotic factors are animals, birds, plants, fungi, and other like organisms.

Comparison chart

Abiotic versus Biotic comparison nautical chart
Edit this comparison chart Abiotic Biotic
Introduction In ecology and biological science, abiotic components are not-living chemical and physical factors in the environment which affect ecosystems. Biotic describes a living component of an ecosystem; for instance organisms, such every bit plants and animals.
Examples H2o, calorie-free, wind, soil, minerals, gases. All living things — autotrophs and heterotrophs — plants, animals, fungi, bacteria.
Factors Affect the power of organisms to survive, reproduce; help determine types and numbers of organisms able to exist in environment; limiting factors restrict growth. Living things that directly or indirectly affect organisms in environment; organisms, interactions, waste matter; parasitism, disease, predation.
Affects Individual of a species, population, community, ecosystem, biome, biosphere. Private of a species, population, community, ecosystem, biome, biosphere.

What are biotic and abiotic factors?

Biotic components are living organisms in an ecosystem. A biotic factor is a living organism that affects another organism in its ecosystem. Examples include plants and animals that the organism consumes as food, and animals that consume the organism.

The following video covers the biotic and abiotic factors that influence about ecosystems, and introduces key vocabulary relevant to environmental:

This is a good SlideShare presentation that covers the definition and examples of biotic and abiotic factors in an ecosystem:

Relevance

The scope of abiotic and biotic factors spans across the entire biosphere, or global sum of all ecosystems. Such factors can have relevance for an individual inside a species, its community or an entire population. For example, disease is a biotic factor affecting the survival of an individual and its customs. Temperature is an abiotic gene with the aforementioned relevance.

Some factors accept greater relevance for an unabridged ecosystem. Abiotic and biotic factors combine to create a system or, more precisely, an ecosystem, meaning a community of living and nonliving things considered every bit a unit. In this case, abiotic factors span as far as the pH of the soil and water, types of nutrients available and fifty-fifty the length of the 24-hour interval. Biotic factors such as the presence of autotrophs or self-nourishing organisms such as plants, and the diversity of consumers also affect an unabridged ecosystem.

Influencing Factors

Abiotic factors touch on the ability of organisms to survive and reproduce. Abiotic limiting factors restrict the growth of populations. They aid determine the types and numbers of organisms able to exist within an environment.

Biotic factors are living things that directly or indirectly affect organisms inside an environs. This includes the organisms themselves, other organisms, interactions between living organisms and even their waste material. Other biotic factors include parasitism, disease, and predation (the human action of one brute eating another).

Interaction Examples

The significance of abiotic and biotic factors comes in their interaction with each other. For a community or an ecosystem to survive, the correct interactions demand to be in place.

A elementary instance would exist of abiotic interaction in plants. Water, sunlight and carbon dioxide are necessary for plants to grow. The biotic interaction is that plants apply water, sunlight and carbon dioxide to create their ain nourishment through a procedure called photosynthesis.

On a larger calibration, abiotic interactions refer to patterns such as climate and seasonality. Factors such equally temperature, humidity and the presence or absenteeism of seasons impact the ecosystem. For instance, some ecosystems feel cold winters with a lot of snow. An animate being such as a fox within this ecosystem adapts to these abiotic factors past growing a thick, white-colored glaze in the winter.

Decomposers such every bit leaner and fungi are examples of biotic interactions on such a scale. Decomposers function past breaking downward dead organisms. This process returns the basic components of the organisms to the soil, assuasive them to be reused inside that ecosystem.

References

  • Wikipedia: Abiotic component
  • Abiotic and biotic factors that influence an ecosystem - Catalase Lab
  • Wikipedia: Biotic
  • Biotic and Abiotic - Regents Prep
  • Biology 01-ii Ecosystems - Biotic and Abiotic Factors - HollowayScience on YouTube
  • Wikipedia: Biosphere
  • Follow
  • Share
  • Cite
  • Authors

Share this comparing:

If you lot read this far, you should follow us:

"Abiotic vs Biotic." Diffen.com. Diffen LLC, n.d. Web. xvi February 2022. < >