Abiotic component

Short description: Non-living factors that affect organisms and ecosystems

"Abiotic factor" redirects here. For the video game, see Abiotic Factor.

In biology and ecology, abiotic components or abiotic factors are non-living chemical and physical parts of the environment that affect living organisms and the functioning of ecosystems. Abiotic factors and the phenomena associated with them underpin biology as a whole. They affect a plethora of species, in all forms of environmental conditions, such as marine or terrestrial animals. Humans can make or change abiotic factors in a species' environment. For instance, fertilizers can affect a snail's habitat, or the greenhouse gases which humans utilize can change marine pH levels.

Abiotic components include physical conditions and non-living resources that affect living organisms in terms of growth, maintenance, and reproduction. Resources are distinguished as substances or objects in the environment required by one organism and consumed or otherwise made unavailable for use by other organisms.[1][2] Component degradation of a substance occurs by chemical or physical processes, e.g. hydrolysis. All non-living components of an ecosystem, such as atmospheric conditions and water resources, are called abiotic components.[3]

## Contents

* 1 Factors
* 2 Examples
* 3 See also
* 4 References

## Factors

In biology, abiotic factors can include water, light, radiation, temperature, humidity, atmosphere, acidity, salinity, precipitation, altitude, minerals, tides, rain, dissolved oxygen nutrients, and soil. The macroscopic climate often influences each of the above. Pressure and sound waves may also be considered in the context of marine or sub-terrestrial environments.[4] Abiotic factors in ocean environments also include aerial exposure, substrate, water clarity, solar energy and tides.[5] Consider the differences in the mechanics of C3, C4, and CAM plants in regulating the influx of carbon dioxide to the Calvin-Benson Cycle in relation to their abiotic stressors. C3 plants have no mechanisms to manage photorespiration, whereas C4 and CAM plants utilize a separate PEP carboxylase enzyme to prevent photorespiration, thus increasing the yield of photosynthesis processes in certain high energy environments.[6][7]

## Examples

Many Archea require very high temperatures, pressures, or unusual concentrations of chemical substances such as sulfur; this is due to their specialization into extreme conditions. In addition, fungi have also evolved to survive at the temperature, the humidity, and stability of their environment.[8]

For example, there is a significant difference in access to both water and humidity between temperate rain forests and deserts. This difference in water availability causes a diversity in the organisms that survive in these areas. These differences in abiotic components alter the species present by creating boundaries of what species can survive within the environment and influencing competition between two species. Abiotic factors such as salinity can give one species a competitive advantage over another, creating pressures that lead to speciation and alteration of a species to and from generalist and specialist competitors.[9]

## See also

* Biotic component, a living part of an ecosystem that affects and shapes it.
* Abiogenesis, the gradual process of increasing complexity of non-living into living matter.
* Nitrogen cycle
* Phosphorus cycle

## References

1. ↑ Ricklefs, R.E. 2005. The Economy of Nature, 6th edition. WH Freeman, USA.
2. ↑ Chapin, F.S. III, H.A. Mooney, M.C. Chapin, and P. Matson. 2011. Principles of terrestrial ecosystem ecology. Springer, New York.
3. ↑ Water Quality Vocabulary. ISO 6107-6:1994.
4. ↑ Hogan, C. Benito (2010). "Abiotic factor". Encyclopedia of Earth. Washington, D.C.: National Council for Science and the Environment. http://www.eoearth.org/article/Abiotic_factor?topic=49461.
5. ↑ "Ocean Abiotic Factors". National Geographic Society. 2011. https://media.nationalgeographic.org/assets/file/Ocean_Abiotic_Factors_1.pdf.
6. ↑ Wang, Chuali; Guo, Longyun; Li, Yixue; Wang, Zhuo (2012). "Systematic Comparison of C3 and C4 Plants Based on Metabolic Network Analysis". BMC Systems Biology 6 (59): S9. doi:10.1186/1752-0509-6-S2-S9. PMID 23281598.
7. ↑ "Rubisco and C4 Plants". RSC. http://www.rsc.org/learn-chemistry/content/filerepository/CMP/00/001/066/Rubisco and C4 plants.pdf?v=1353967268963.
8. ↑ "Abiotic Components". Department of Biodiversity and Conservation Biology, University of the Western Cape. http://www.botany.uwc.ac.za/sci_ed/grade10/ecology/abiotic/abiot.htm.
9. ↑ Dunson, William A. (November 1991). "The Role of Abiotic Factors in Community Organization". The American Naturalist 138 (5): 1067–1091. doi:10.1086/285270.

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Ecology: Modelling ecosystems: Trophic components

General|

* Abiotic component
* Abiotic stress
* Behaviour
* Biogeochemical cycle
* Biomass
* Biotic component
* Biotic stress
* Carrying capacity
* Competition
* Ecosystem
* Ecosystem ecology
* Ecosystem model
* Keystone species
* List of feeding behaviours
* Metabolic theory of ecology
* Productivity
* Resource

Producers|

* Autotrophs
* Chemosynthesis
* Chemotrophs
* Foundation species
* Mixotrophs
* Myco-heterotrophy
* Mycotroph
* Organotrophs
* Photoheterotrophs
* Photosynthesis
* Photosynthetic efficiency
* Phototrophs
* Primary nutritional groups
* Primary production

Consumers|

* Apex predator
* Bacterivore
* Carnivores
* Chemoorganotroph
* Foraging
* Generalist and specialist species
* Intraguild predation
* Herbivores
* Heterotroph
* Heterotrophic nutrition
* Insectivore
* Mesopredators
* Mesopredator release hypothesis
* Omnivores
* Optimal foraging theory
* Planktivore
* Predation
* Prey switching

Decomposers|

* Chemoorganoheterotrophy
* Decomposition
* Detritivores
* Detritus

Microorganisms|

* Archaea
* Bacteriophage
* Environmental microbiology
* Lithoautotroph
* Lithotrophy
* Microbial cooperation
* Microbial ecology
* Microbial food web
* Microbial intelligence
* Microbial loop
* Microbial mat
* Microbial metabolism
* Phage ecology

Food webs|

* Biomagnification
* Ecological efficiency
* Ecological pyramid
* Energy flow
* Food chain
* Trophic level

Example webs|

* Cold seeps
* Hydrothermal vents
* Intertidal
* Kelp forests
* Lakes
* North Pacific Subtropical Gyre
* Rivers
* San Francisco Estuary
* Soil
* Tide pool

Processes|

* Ascendency
* Bioaccumulation
* Cascade effect
* Climax community
* Competitive exclusion principle
* Consumer-resource systems
* Copiotrophs
* Dominance
* Ecological network
* Ecological succession
* Energy quality
* Energy Systems Language
* f-ratio
* Feed conversion ratio
* Feeding frenzy
* Mesotrophic soil
* Nutrient cycle
* Oligotroph
* Paradox of the plankton
* Trophic cascade
* Trophic mutualism
* Trophic state index

Defense,
counter|

* Animal coloration
* Antipredator adaptations
* Camouflage
* Deimatic behaviour
* Herbivore adaptations to plant defense
* Mimicry
* Plant defense against herbivory
* Predator avoidance in schooling fish

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Ecology: Modelling ecosystems: Other components

Population
ecology|

* Abundance
* Allee effect
* Depensation
* Ecological yield
* Effective population size
* Intraspecific competition
* Logistic function
* Malthusian growth model
* Maximum sustainable yield
* Overpopulation in wild animals
* Overexploitation
* Population cycle
* Population dynamics
* Population modeling
* Population size
* Predator–prey (Lotka–Volterra) equations
* Recruitment
* Resilience
* Small population size
* Stability

Species|

* Biodiversity
* Density-dependent inhibition
* Ecological effects of biodiversity
* Ecological extinction
* Endemic species
* Flagship species
* Gradient analysis
* Indicator species
* Introduced species
* Invasive species
* Latitudinal gradients in species diversity
* Minimum viable population
* Neutral theory
* Occupancy–abundance relationship
* Population viability analysis
* Priority effect
* Rapoport's rule
* Relative abundance distribution
* Relative species abundance
* Species diversity
* Species homogeneity
* Species richness
* Species distribution
* Species-area curve
* Umbrella species

Species
interaction|

* Antibiosis
* Biological interaction
* Commensalism
* Community ecology
* Ecological facilitation
* Interspecific competition
* Mutualism
* Parasitism
* Storage effect
* Symbiosis

Spatial
ecology|

* Biogeography
* Cross-boundary subsidy
* Ecocline
* Ecotone
* Ecotype
* Disturbance
* Edge effects
* Foster's rule
* Habitat fragmentation
* Ideal free distribution
* Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis
* Island biogeography
* Landscape ecology
* Landscape epidemiology
* Landscape limnology
* Metapopulation
* Patch dynamics
* r/K selection theory
* Resource selection function
* Source–sink dynamics

Niche|

* Ecological niche
* Ecological trap
* Ecosystem engineer
* Environmental niche modelling
* Guild
* Habitat
* Marine habitats
* Limiting similarity
* Niche apportionment models
* Niche construction
* Niche differentiation

Other
networks|

* Assembly rules
* Bateman's principle
* Bioluminescence
* Ecological collapse
* Ecological debt
* Ecological deficit
* Ecological energetics
* Ecological indicator
* Ecological threshold
* Ecosystem diversity
* Emergence
* Extinction debt
* Kleiber's law
* Liebig's law of the minimum
* Marginal value theorem
* Thorson's rule
* Xerosere

Other|

* Allometry
* Alternative stable state
* Balance of nature
* Biological data visualization
* Ecocline
* Ecological economics
* Ecological footprint
* Ecological forecasting
* Ecological humanities
* Ecological stoichiometry
* Ecopath
* Ecosystem based fisheries
* Endolith
* Evolutionary ecology
* Functional ecology
* Industrial ecology
* Macroecology
* Microecosystem
* Natural environment
* Regime shift
* Systems ecology
* Urban ecology
* Theoretical ecology

List of ecology topics

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