abiotic

Examples of abiotic in the following topics:

• Inorganic Nutrients and Other Factors

  • Soil structure, oxygen availability, wind, and fire are abiotic factors that have influences on species distribution and quantity.
  • Inorganic nutrients, soil structure, and aquatic oxygen availability are further abiotic factors that affect species distribution in an ecosystem.
  • Some abiotic factors, such as oxygen, are important in aquatic ecosystems as well as terrestrial environments.
  • In addition, salinity, water current, and tide can be important abiotic factors in aquatic ecosystems.
  • Wind can be an important abiotic factor because it influences the rate of evaporation and transpiration.

• Sources and Sinks of Essential Elements

  • Biogeochemical cycles are pathways by which essential elements flow from the abiotic and biotic compartments of the Earth.
  • Most important substances on Earth, such as oxygen, nitrogen, and water undergo turnover or cycling through both the biotic (living) and abiotic (geological, atmospheric, and hydrologic) compartments of the Earth.
  • This flow from abiotic to biotic compartments of the Earth is typical of biogeochemical cycles.

• Community Ecology and Ecosystem Ecology

  • Community ecology studies interactions between different species; abiotic and biotic factors affect these on an ecosystem level.
  • The ecosystem is composed of all the biotic components (living things) in an area along with that area's abiotic components (non-living things).
  • Some of the abiotic components include air, water, and soil.
  • Researchers interested in ecosystem ecology could ask questions about the importance of limited resources and the movement of resources, such as nutrients, though the biotic and abiotic portions of the ecosystem.

• Abiotic Factors Influencing Aquatic Biomes

  • As with terrestrial biomes, aquatic biomes are influenced by a series of abiotic factors.
  • While there are some abiotic and biotic factors in a terrestrial ecosystem that might obscure light (such as fog, dust, or insect swarms), usually these are not permanent features of the environment.
  • In freshwater systems, stratification due to differences in density is perhaps the most critical abiotic factor and is related to the energy aspects of light.

• Abiotic Factors Influencing Plant Growth

  • The two most important abiotic factors affecting plant primary productivity in an ecosystem are temperature and moisture.
  • Annual biomass production is directly related to the abiotic components of the environment.

• Biogeography

  • Biogeography is an ecological field of interest that focuses on the distribution of organisms and the abiotic factors that affect them.
  • Biogeography is the study of the geographic distribution of living things and the abiotic (non-living) factors that affect their distribution.
  • As these abiotic factors change, the composition of plant and animal communities also changes.
  • However, different ecosystems exist at the same latitude due in part to abiotic factors such as jet streams, the Gulf Stream, and ocean currents.
  • Species distribution patterns are based on biotic and abiotic factors and the influences these factors have had during the very long periods of time required for species evolution.

• Biogeography and the Distribution of Species

  • Biogeography is the study of the geographic distribution of living things and the abiotic factors that affect their distribution.
  • As these abiotic factors change, the composition of plant and animal communities also changes.
  • Since species distribution patterns are based on biotic and abiotic factors and their influences during the very long periods of time required for species evolution, early studies of biogeography were closely linked to the emergence of evolutionary thinking in the eighteenth century.

• Introduction to Ecology

  • In ecology, ecosystems are composed of dynamically-interacting parts, which include organisms, the communities they comprise, and the non-living (abiotic) components of their environment.
  • Organisms and resources comprise ecosystems which, in turn, maintain biophysical feedback mechanisms that moderate processes acting on living (biotic) and nonliving (abiotic) components of the planet.

• Life Functions

  • Nonliving things are living things that have died or inanimate (abiotic) objects that were never alive to begin with.
  • The abiotic components of an ecosystem are the physical and chemical factors necessary for life—energy (sunlight or chemical energy), water, temperature, oxygen, and nutrients.

• Freshwater Biomes

  • Lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, and wetlands are all freshwater biomes, which differ in depth, water movement, and other abiotic factors.
  • Temperature is an important abiotic factor affecting organisms found there.