ABIOTIC FACTORS ______________________

Outline the factors that affect the distribution of plant species including temperature, water, light, soil pH, salinity, and mineral nutrients. High temperature denatures enzymes and retards growth of plants; the rate of transpiration (loss of :water) is also increased. Low temperatures decrease enzyme activity and freezing temperatures inactivate enzymes. Most plants live in moderate temperature zones. Water is needed for enzyme activity, transport, photosynthesis, support, and many other things. There is a low diversity of plants in deserts and polar regions. Light is important for photosynthesis and flowering. Dark areas have small numbers of plants. Soil pH is important for absorption of nutrients. If soil is acidic, desertification can occur; the use of limestone can neutralise the soil. Salinity has an affect on the absorption through osmosis. High salinity causes plants to lose water through osmosis. Halophytes live in high salinity. Mineral nutrients are needed for many vital functions. Nitrogen is needed to manufacture proteins, enzymes, nucleotides, vitamins, and other compounds . Phosphorous is used in the formation of phospholipid and other structures.

Explain the factors that affect the distribution of animal species including temperature, water, breeding sites, food supply and territory. Temperatures affect the concentration of animals. Only especially adapted organisms can live in extreme temperatures. Water is needed for vital functions, so only animals that can conserve water are found in deserts. Breeding sites are needed for growth and protection of young. Some need specific areas to breed. High animal diversity is found in areas with varied topographical nature. Food supply is important for survival since animals are heterotrophs. High animal diversity is once again found in the rain forest. Some animals are territorial and need large areas for feeding, mating, and protecting their young. Some are territorial during breeding season and occupy areas to prevents others from approaching them. There is high animal distribution where there is room to occupy territory and defend against other members of the species.

Light
Sunlight provides the energy that drives nearly all ecosystems although only photosynthetic organisms use it directly as an energy source. Light is not the most important limiting factor in terrestrial environments but may play a role as in the reduction of competition due to shading in a forest. In aquatic environments, the distribution of photosynthetic organisms is limited by the intensity and quality of light. Water selectively reflects and absorbs certain wavelengths; therefore, most photosynthesis occurs near the water surface. The physiology, development, and behavior of many animals and plants are often sensitive to photoperiod. Plants need light for photosynthesis Shade loving plants are able to photosynthesise and reproduce successfully in low light levels ,often by having extra chlorophyll or different mix of chlorophyll pigments which are sensitive to lower light levels or by having large leaves. Animals are affected by light indirectly by the distribution of food plants.

Temperature

affects biological processes and the ability of most organisms to regulate their body temperature. Temperature greatly affects metabolism: few organisms have active metabolisms at temperatures close to 0C, and temperatures above 45C denature most essential enzymes. The actual body temperature of ectotherms is affected by heat exchange with the environment. Most animals maintain a body temperature only a few degrees above or below ambient temperature. Even endotherms function best within the environmental temperature range to which they are adapted. One of the factors that affect the distribution of plants is temperature. Most species of plant live in moderate temperature zones (around 35C) is due to the fact that the enzymes, biological catalyst which speed up reaction in plant cells work at the best rate in an optimum temperature. As temperature increases the more energy enzymes have to move around and speed up reaction but up to a certain temperature. Too high temperatures (above 45C) would denature enzymes and retards growth of plants. Low temperatures decrease enzyme activity, therefore they are unable to work and freezing temperatures inactivate enzymes. The organisms which can tolerate very large fluctuations in temperature are called eurythermal organisms Every organisms can tolerate a particular range of temperature for growth and reproduction. Above or below this range they do not reproduce even if they are living. Temp. affects the enzymes of plants and ectothermal animals. Endothermal animals show behavioral and physiological features to cope with temp.

Wind And Water Currents

. Wind amplifies the effects of temperature by increasing heat loss by evaporation and convection. Wind also increases the evaporation rate of animals and transpiration rate of plants, resulting in more rapid water loss. Mechanical pressure of wind can effect plant morphology (for example, inhibiting growth of limbs on windward side of trees). Wind increase water and heat loss from the body.

Water Avalibilty
essential and adaptations for water balance and conservation help determine a species' habitat range. Marine and freshwater animals face the problems of regulating intracellular osmolarity; terrestrial animals face the problem of desiccation.

Oxygen Avalibility
When water is cold and fast flowing oxygen gets dissolved. In water logged areas the air spaces in the soil is filled with water, so less or no oxygen. Mangroves have specially adapted roots for breathing.

Edaphic Factors
The physical structure, pH, and mineral composition of soil limit distribution of plants and hence animals that feed on those plants. The composition of the substrate in a stream or river greatly influences the water chemistry, which in turn influences the plants and animals. The type of substrate influences what animals can attach or burrow in intertidal zones.

BIOTIC FACTORS_________________
Biotic Factors Biotic factors are all the living things or their materials that directly or indirectly affect an organism in its environment. This would include organisms, their presence, parts, interaction, and wastes. Factors such as parasitism, disease, and predation (one animal eating another) would also be classified as biotic factors.

 Interspecific competition is competition for resources (such as food, space, water, light, etc.) between members of different species, and in general one species will out-compete another one. This can be demonstrated by growing two different species of the protozoan Paramecium in flasks in a lab. They both grow well in lab flasks when grown separately, but when grown togetherP.aurelia outcompetes P.caudatum for food, so the population of P.caudatum falls due to interspecific competition:

 Intraspecific competition is competition for resources between members of the same species. This is more significant than interspecific competition, since member of the same species have the same niche and so compete for exactly the same resources. Intraspecific competition tends to have a stabilising influence on population size. If the population gets too big, intraspecific population increases, so the population falls again. If the population gets too small, intraspecific population decreases, so the population increases again: Intraspecific competition is also the driving force behind natural selection, since the individuals with the "best" genes are more likely to win the competition and pass on their genes. Some species use aggressive behaviour to minimise real competition. Ritual fights, displays, threat postures are used to allow some individuals (the "best") to reproduce and exclude others (the "weakest"). This avoids real fights or shortages, and results in an optimum size for a population.

 The populations of predators and their prey depend on each other, so they tend to show cyclical changes. This has been famously measured for populations of lynx (predator) and hare (prey) in Canada, and can also be demonstrated in a lab experiment using two species of mite: Eotetranchus (a herbivore) and Typhlodromus (a predator). If the population of the prey increases, the predator will have more food, so its population will start to increase. This means that more prey will be eaten, so its population will decrease, so causing a cycle in both populations:

 Parasites and their hosts have a close symbiotic relationship, so their populations also oscillate. This is demonstrated by winter moth caterpillars (the host species) and wasp larvae (parasites on the caterpillars). If the population of parasite increases, they kill their hosts, so their population decreases. This means there are fewer hosts for the parasite, so their population decreases. This allows the host population to recover, so the parasite population also recovers:

 Territorialism, the need for certain kinds and sizes of territory, can determine whether a species survives or disappears.

Microclimate - Climatic condition in a relatively small area, within a few feet above and below the Earth's surface and within canopies of vegetation. Microclimates are affected by such factors as temperature, humidity, wind and turbulence, dew, frost, heat balance, evaporation, the nature of the soil and vegetation, the local topography, latitude, elevation, and season.

The effect of abiotic factors

Energy transfer self notes .

Primary production is the production of organic compounds from atmospheric or aquatic carbon dioxide. Gross primary production (GPP) is the rate at which an ecosystem's producers capture and store a given amount of chemical energy as biomass in a given length of time. Some fraction of this fixed energy is used by primary producers for cellular respiration and maintenance of existing tissues (i.e., "growth respiration" and "maintenance respiration").[1] The remaining fixed energy (i.e., mass of photosynthate) is referred to as net primary production (NPP). NPP = GPP - respiration [by plants] Net primary production is the rate at which all the plants in an ecosystem produce net useful chemical energy; it is equal to the difference between the rate at which the plants in an ecosystem produce useful chemical energy (GPP) and the rate at which they use some of that energy during respiration. Some net primary production goes toward growth and reproduction of primary producers, while some is consumed by herbivores. Both gross and net primary production are in units of mass / area / time. In terrestrial ecosystems, mass of carbon per unit area per year (g C/m2/yr) is most often used as the unit of measurement.

Self notes energy