What Does Abiotic Mean In Biology

Direct Abiotic And Management Drivers Of Multifunctionality

The abiotic environment can drive substantial variation in ecosystem functions and services, independent of biotic variation. Díaz et al. proposed an analytical hierarchy for predicting variation in ecosystem functioning that prioritises abiotic drivers, followed sequentially by community-average trait values, functional diversity and unique species effects. Abiotic factors may be sufficient to explain variation in ecosystem functions if biotic variation has relatively weak effects, or if biotic factors are important but vary consistently with the abiotic environment. While tradeoffs and compatibilities among ecosystem functions and services driven by biotic factors may vary strongly with environmental and biogeographic context, those associated with abiotic drivers may be more predictable. Whether or not management interventions to mitigate tradeoffs among ecosystem functions associated with abiotic drivers can be effective or even possible depends on just how easily abiotic drivers of different ecosystem services can be manipulated.

Rosemary G. Gillespie, in, 2007

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 most ecosystems, and introduces key vocabulary relevant to ecology:

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

The Niche Concept: Niche Dimensions Of Parasites

A niche is defined as the total of an organism’s relations to its biotic and abiotic environment. These relations define the organism’s place in nature or, in ecological jargon, its place in a multidimensional niche space. Important niche dimensions of parasites are hosts, microhabitats, geographical range, sex of host, age, season, and food. Different parasite species use different host species and different microhabitats within or on the host. Thus, particular nematodes of the cat use different microhabitats , and even within each microhabitat, there is further subdivision, some species using certain parts of the small intestine, the stomach, etc. Male lambs in the USA have more nematodes of certain species than females, and many parasites prefer hosts of a certain age, occur only at certain seasons, or are restricted to host populations that use certain food.

Table 3. Nematodes of the cat: sites of infection

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Inorganic Nutrients And Soil

Inorganic nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, are important in the distribution and the abundance of living things. Plants obtain these inorganic nutrients from the soil when water moves into the plant through the roots. Therefore, soil structure , soil pH, and soil nutrient content play an important role in the distribution of plants. Animals obtain inorganic nutrients from the food they consume. Therefore, animal distributions are related to the distribution of what they eat. In some cases, animals will follow their food resource as it moves through the environment.

The Limits And Advantages Of The 3 Definitions Of Ecology

The positive side of the first definition is that it is simple and it emphasizes both biotic and abiotic aspects of nature.

On the negative side is its overemphasis on the organism as the focus. Haeckelian statements should always be cast as the study of relationships rather than the study of organisms in relation to environment. The difference in emphasis may appear to be minor, but it indicates the deficiency of Haeckel’s definition.

The second definition is positive in its emphasis on quantifiable and unambiguous parameters, but it falls short because it omits a range of critical ecological subjects.

To its credit, the third definition is not restricted to patterns or organisms and recognizes that ecology is about processes.

All of the definitions take organisms as their starting point. However, they are not in all cases explicit that ecology can consider all manner of systems that include organisms and their products.

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Our Definition Of Ecology

The scientific study of the processes influencing the distribution and abundance of organisms, the interactions among organisms, and the interactions between organisms and the transformation and flux of energy and matter.

Our definition is unique in that it emphasizes several things:

• A starting focus on organisms, aggregations of organisms, or systems incorporating organisms or their by-products
• The bounding of ecology by both the biological and physical sciences
• The breadth of subject matters within ecology
• The joint consideration of both biotic and abiotic aspects of nature
• Depending on the ecological specialty, the focus can be on different proportions of biotic or abiotic aspects of nature;
• The relationships between organisms and the physical world can be bidirectional, although different specialties may emphasize the effect of the organisms on the physical world, or the effect of the physical world on the organisms
• The boundary between the abiotic and the biotic aspects of ecology is blurry
• The disciplinary focus is on “processes”, “interactions” and “relations” rather than on the physical entities per se

Ecology was originally defined in the mid-19th century, when biology was a vastly different discipline than it is today.

What Does Physical Or Abiotic Factors Mean

Any environmental factor not caused by living organisms is referred to as an abiotic or physical factor. The term is usually applied in the studies of ecology or biology to refer to the resources that organisms use in order to grow, maintain themselves and reproduce. Thus, factors including sunshine, temperature, humidity, soil and the availability of water would be classified as physical or abiotic.

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What Are Examples Of Abiotic Factors

4.2/5Examples of Abiotic FactorsAbioticabiotic factor

Five common abiotic factors are atmosphere, chemical elements, sunlight/temperature, wind and water.

Subsequently, question is, what are some examples of biotic factors? Examples of biotic components include animals, plants, fungi, and bacteria. Abiotic components are non-living components that influence an ecosystem. Examples of abiotic factors are temperature, air currents, and minerals.

Likewise, people ask, what are examples of abiotic?

Common examples of abiotic factors include:

• Wind.
• Salinity

What are the 4 abiotic factors?

Common abiotic factors include sunlight, oxygen, nitrogen, climate, temperature, pH, and water. Maintaining stable abiotic conditions are extremely important for sustaining life.

Abiotic Factors In The Ocean

The ocean hosts some unique abiotic factors. Notably, the ocean contains salt. It also has the attribute of depth, which affects the amount of sunlight that sea life receives.

The saltiness of the ocean is important for the animals living there. All creatures must adapt to prevent the oceans salt from disrupting their biochemistry. Dolphins that swim in the ocean get all of their water from their prey animals because the saltwater would dehydrate them. Some fish can survive only in saltwater because they have adapted so well to the environment.

The ocean, like the rainforest, also has a number of different zones that receive different amounts of sunlight and host very different types of life. This is because water itself both blocks out and absorbs sunlight.

Life in the topmost zone of the ocean, called the epipelagic zone, receives a large amount of sunlight. This is where photosynthetic ocean life, like coral and seaweed, is found.

The very deep trenches of the ocean contain an even colder, darker zone called the hadopelagic. This zone is named after the Greek underworld.

As a result of these abiotic factors, there are different ocean ecosystems, such as shoreline ecosystems, coral reef ecosystems, and deep ocean ecosystems.

The Three Definitions Have Limits Or Connotations Imposed By Their Vintage And History Of Use

Haeckel operated in a time when biology was dominated by focus on organisms as anatomical, physiological or taxonomic subjects. Many of the modern concerns of ecology, and indeed of biology, were far in the future when Haeckel wrote.

Odum was concerned with the justification of ecosystem ecology as an academic specialty. He highlighted ways in which ecology differed from other university departments in the immediate post-World War II era.

Examples Of Biotic In A Sentence

biotic Glamourbiotic Glamourbiotic Varietybiotic San Diego Union-Tribunebiotic The Atlanticbiotic Quanta Magazinebiotic National Geographicbiotic Alaska Dispatch News

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word ‘biotic.’ Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Measuring The Ph And Moisture Of The Soil

Soil moisture and soil pH meters are also available. Both are used by simply pushing the probe into the soil and reading the meter.

Errors can be made when measuring pH and soil moisture when probes are not cleaned between readings. The reliability of the results can be checked by taking many samples.

Athe Influence Of Seasonality On Assemblage Patterns

The annual changes that occur in the abiotic environment of floodplain rivers are very predictable in tropical regions . Strongly unimodal patterns of annual precipitation result in sheet flooding followed by gradual recession of waters until the only aquatic habitats that remain are permanent stream channels, lagoons, and isolated floodplain pools. Primary production is strongly correlated with initial flooding and the area of aquatic habitat. Secondary production, both in the form of invertebrates and algivorous fishes, rapidly follows suit; degradation of aquatic habitats ensues with the onset of the dry season, with profound effects on fish assemblages.

In the Venezuelan llanos, high temperatures, aquatic hypoxia, habitat reduction, and isolation contribute to a general reduction in local fish populations in the dry season, with changes in assemblage structure and, in many cases, niche shifts . Despite the fact that many species possess adaptations for survival under extreme hypoxia, fish mortality is very high during the llanos dry season. Occasionally all aquatic habitat may be eliminated locally, as was nearly the case in sample Feb94; if this happens, the subsequent wet-season assemblage is reconstructed entirely from immigration. At least two Caño Maraco fishes, an annual killifish and a swamp eel , can survive for several months in the absence of surface water.

Timothy D. Schowalter, in, 2006

Examples Of Abiotic In A Sentence

abiotic Scientific Americanabiotic Scientific Americanabiotic Scientific Americanabiotic San Diego Union-Tribuneabiotic Scientific Americanabiotic oregonliveabiotic National Geographicabiotic Smithsonian Magazine

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word ‘abiotic.’ Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Abiotic Factors Vs Biotic Factors

Abiotic factors are usually contrasted with biotic factors. If you know your Greek roots, you could probably guess the meaning of both words on your own!

Bio- means life from the Greek bitikós ;meaning pertaining to life. Which is why biotic means related to life.

Abiotic has the common prefix a- meaning not, without. Just as amoral means lacking in morals, abiotic etymologically means away from things pertaining to life.

Abiotic factor is generally used in the context of a particular ecosystem. An ecosystem is a bunch of organisms and the environment in which they live. Biotic factors are living parts of that ecosystem, and abiotic factors are nonliving parts .

Some examples of abiotic factors that can make a difference in the life of an organism include sunshine, amount of water, salinity of water, wind, temperature, elevation, soil type, radiation, and pollution.

Lets think about fish. Some fish need to live in salt water, some fish need to live in fresh water, and some fish need to live in brackish water . An ocean fish, like the clownfish, needs a comparatively high amount of salt in the water to stay alive. But a freshwater fish, like a trout, needs a low amount of salt in the water to stay alive.

The amount of salt in the water, then, is an abiotic factor that can contribute to how suitable an ecosystem is for a clownfish or a trout to live in. The clownfish and the trout are biotic factors in their ecosystems.

Socratic.org / Floyd Middle School

The Welwitschia Genome Reveals A Unique Biology Underpinning Extreme Longevity In Deserts

Welwitschia mirabilis is a unique plant that only has two leaves, but it can survive in hostile conditions of the African desert. Here, the authors report its chromosome-level genome assembly and discuss how gene function and regulation have given rise to its;unique morphology and environmental adaptions.

Main Difference Biotic Vs Abiotic

Biotic and abiotic are the two components of an ecosystem. An ecosystem is a community of living and non-living things which work together. The biotic and abiotic elements in an ecosystem make the ecosystem unique. The removal of one biotic or abiotic element may affect the entire system. In an ecosystem, biotic elements depend on the abiotic elements for the survival. Hence, abiotic elements determine how organisms survive in an ecosystem. The main difference between biotic and abiotic is that biotic refers toallliving things of an ecosystem while abiotic refers to all the non-living, physical and chemical things of an ecosystem.

The Birds Of New Zealand

The island of New Zealand is a geographically isolated landmass off the southeast coast of Australia. Because of the great distance between New Zealand and any other large landmass, the only organisms that were able to colonize the land were those which were able to fly or float across the sea. Because migration on to the island was so difficult, the island community completely lacked mammals, except for three species of bat and mammals that were able to swim, such as seals and sea lions.

In the absence of mammals, the native animals filled ecological niches of predation, scavenging and grazing, which are filled by mammals in most other ecosystems. This resulted in a diverse set of morphologically distinct birds, insects and reptiles, which are like no others seen on Earth. For example, the South Island takah and the Kakapo Parrot evolved to assume the role of grazers such as sheep, feeding on grass, shoots and leaves. The Giant Moa , although now extinct, were large birds, growing up to around 12ft tall and over 500lb in weight. These birds fed on twigs, leaves and other various plant parts, assuming the niche that in other parts of the world is filled by deer and other ungulate browsing herbivores. The Kiwi, a nocturnal bird of the genusApteryx, assumes the niche that small mammals such as mice and moles usually fill, feeding on seeds, fruit, invertebrates and grubs.

Adaptations Interdependence And Competition

Organisms depend on each other for survival. This is called interdependence. Both living and non-living factors will affect the abundance and distribution of organisms in a habitat.

factors are non-living. They include light intensity, temperature and moisture levels. The abundance and distribution of living organisms in an ecosystem are affected by abiotic factors.

Abiotic Factors In Other Ecosystems

The biomes described above are not the only ecosystems impacted by abiotic factors. Ecosystems make up the entirety of the earths surface, and abiotic factors impact all the living things within them. For example, abiotic factors also shape the features of the following ecosystems:

• Temperate rainforests, sometimes called temperate broad-leaved forests, are characterized by mild, seasonal climates. They are less dense than tropical rainforest due to the milder weather but still play host to rich biomes.
• Freshwater ecosystems represent the non-marine aquatic ecosystems, including rivers, ponds, lakes, springs, and wetlands. Abiotic factors affecting these ecosystems include temperature, light penetration, and pH of the water.
• Grasslands are ecosystems primarily dominated by grass, lacking the abundance of trees required to be considered a forest. These ecosystems are defined by the rainfall: there is too much to be considered a desert, but not enough to support a forest ecosystem.
• Taiga ecosystems are cold forest regions found in the subarctic. They are characterized by the presence of evergreen trees, and other plants that can survive the cold such as mosses and mushrooms. The animals include moose, bear, deer, and lynx.

The Effect Of Abiotic Factors On Organisms

A shingle beach has small stones instead of fine sand. Plant seeds can lodge between the small stones and start to grow, particularly at the top of the shore away from the waves. Two students set up a transect along a shingle beach. They started at the top of the beach and worked towards the sea. Every five metres they placed a quadrat on the beach and measured the height of all the plants found. They found the mean of this data; their results are presented in a graph below.

Question

What conclusions can you draw from this data about the mean plant height? Use numbers in your answer.

Reveal answer up down

The average height of plants falls from 60 cm at the top of the shore to less than 10 cm after 25 metres. After this no plants were found.

Along with this they recorded the depth of soil as the distance increases from the shore top.

Natural Variation In A Type

The genetic basis of low-temperature tolerance in maize is unclear. Here, the authors show that the type-A Response Regulator 1 and mitogen-activated protein kinase are positive and negative regulators of maize chilling tolerance, and ZmRR1 is phosphorylated by ZmMPK8 during cold treatment.

Biotic Or Living Factors

All living organisms, from microscopic organisms to humans, are biotic factors. Microscopic organisms are the most plentiful of these and are widely distributed. They are highly adaptable, and their reproduction rates are rapid, allowing them to create a large population in a short time. Their size works to their advantage; they can be dispersed over a large area quickly, either through abiotic factors such as wind or water currents, or by traveling in or on other organisms. The simplicity of the organisms also aids in their adaptability. The conditions needed for growth are few, so they can easily thrive in a greater variety of environments.

Biotic factors impact both their environment and each other. The presence or absence of other organisms influences whether a species needs to compete for food, shelter and other resources. Different species of plants may compete for light, water and nutrients. Some microbes and viruses can cause diseases that may be transmitted to other species, thus lowering the population. Beneficial insects are the primary pollinators of crops, but others have the potential to destroy crops. Insects also may carry diseases, some of which can be transmitted to other species.