The Abiotic Environment

The climate and the physical features of the surroundings are part of the abiotic environment. Physical features that make uop the abiotic environment include: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) Light intensity Temperature Amount of water available Oxygen content Salinity (Salt concentration) of soil or water pH of soil and water Determined by climate

How do the physical features of the surrounding affect the environment? The physical features of the surrounding and the nature of the soil determines the types of plants found in a region. Since animals rely directly or indirectly on plants for food, the animals that live in a region are determined by the plants growing in that region. Organisms found in a region are usually adapted to the physical features of their environment. How does light intensity affect the organisms? Light intensity affects the distribution and growth of both plants and animals. Green plants exist only where there is an adequate supply of sunlight. Some plants develop adaptations to reach the light, for example, climbing plants may twine around or grasp support to pull themselves upwards. However, bright light causes plant stems to grow more slowly. This is why plants in the shade grow longer than those in the open. Certain plants have developed adaptations to screen of excessive sunlight. For example, some plants have a dense covering of hairs on the leaf epidermis or a layer of thick-walled cells just below the epidermis called the hypodermis. These adaptations help to protect the plants by screening off excessive heat and reducing the rate of transpiration. Many animals need sunlight to see in order to catch their pray or to detect predators. However, some animals may have special adaptations of living in dark places. For example, bats are specially adapted to move about in dark caves. They locate pray in the dark by bouncing sound waves off objects around them. How does temperature affect organisms? Temperature affects the rate of reaction of enzymes, which control metabolic or physiological activities of plants and animals. Most organisms cannot tolerate extremes of temperatures. Temperature which are too high or too low would kill an organism. ` Many flowering plants are adapted to changing seasons. Such plants are able to survive through a hot and dry season or through winter by storing food in

underground storage organs, shedding leaves to reduce water loss, or forming seeds which are resistant to heat, cold or drought, just before these seasons arrive. How does the amount of available water affect organisms? No organism can live long without water. Hence, the amount of available water is one of the major factors affecting the number and location of plants and animals in a region. The amount of water available depends on the amount of rain and the pattern in which rain falls throughout the year. Some organisms are adapted to survive under conditions where there is a limited supply of water. For example, camels are able to survive for many days in the desert without water because they can drink more than 100 litres of water at one go when available. Some plants known as xerophytes are adapted to survive prolonged drought. Xerophytes may show some of these adaptations: 1) They reduce their rate of transpiration by shedding their young leaves or by developing leaves reduced to spines 2) Their stems become fleshy, thus, storing more water 3) The green stems also take over the function of photosynthesis from the leaves On the other hand, there are plants that live in water or in very wet places. These are called hydrophytes. Hydrophytes may be completely submerged for example, Hydrilla; partially submerged, for example, Water Lily, or free floating, for example, Water Hyacinth. Mangrove plants, such as Avicennia, have their roots buried in oxygen-poor mud. Special breathing roots, known as, pneumatophores, project above the mud surface. Pneumatophores have openings through which oxygen passes downwards to the whole root system. Aquatic animals also show adaptive features for living in water, such as gills for absorbing oxygen or special structures for swimming. For example, frogs have webbed toes and fishes have fins for swimming. How does oxygen content affect the organisms? Most organisms are aerobic, that is, that they require oxygen for respiration. They cannot survive in environments of low oxygen content. However, some aerobic organisms can survive in environments of low oxygen content. This is because they possess special adaptations for obtaining sufficient oxygen, for example, mangrove plants have pneumatophores. Fish living in water of low oxygen content are usually air breathers. They can come to the surface of the water to gulp air. How does salinity affect organisms?

The salinity or salt concentration of water is an important factor affecting aquatic organisms. Animals living in sea water tend to lose water by osmosis as sea water contains a higher salt concentration than the cytoplasm of animal cells. Saltwater or marine fishes have a waterproof coat consisting of closely-fitting scales covered by a slimy mucous material. This reduces the rate of water loss. The cytoplasm of the cells of freshwater organisms usually has a higher salt concentration than the surrounding water. Hence, water tends to enter the cells of these organisms by osmosis. The cells of freshwater plants have rigid cell walls that prevent them from bursting. Protozoa such as amoeba have contractile vacuoles to remove the excess water that enters them by osmosis. Most freshwater fish posses slimy scaly skins which keep water from entering their cells. Most aquatic organisms are so highly specialized that they can only survive in certain habitats. For example, many freshwater animals cannot live in seawater and vice versa. Hence, starfish and corals are only found in the sea. They are not even found in brackish water where freshwater and seawater mix. In brackish water, the salt content can change considerably. Hence, animals living in brackish water must be adapted to withstand large fluctuations or changes in salt concentration. How does pH affect organisms? The term pH refers to the acidity or the alkalinity of a solution. The pH of soil water or the water in freshwater ponds or the sea affects the types of organisms that can live in such environments. Aquatic organisms are sensitive to the pH of the water in which they live and may die if there are drastic change sin the pH. Seawater is alkaline with a pH of about 8. The pH of seawater does not vary much. In freshwater ponds and streams, the pH varies from one region to another. Changes in pH do occur, especially if the pH of the water depends on the amount of hydrogen carbonates present in it. For example, in strong daylight, photosynthesis in plants uses up the carbon dioxide in the water, making the water more alkaline. During the night, photosynthesis stops and the carbon dioxide produced in respiration makes the water more acidic. For most types of freshwater organisms, neutral or nearly neutral water provides optimum living conditions.

The Biotic Environment

The living or biotic environment comprises all the living organisms that an organism interacts with in its habitat. A habitat is a place where an organism lives. A pond, a stream, a river, a forest or a desert could be a habitat. Why do organisms affect other organisms? The organisms in any habitat are never completely independent. The life of each organism depends on, and is influenced by, other organisms around it. We say that organisms are interdependent. What is an ecological community? When different populations of plants and animals live together and interact within the same environment, they make up and ecological community. The various groups of living organisms in ponds, forests, seashores, and oceans are some examples of communities. The various populations in any community live interdependently. A change in one population affects the other populations of the community. For example, the population of small crabs living in the mud of the mangrove community decreases, the population of the mudskippers might also decrease because there will be less food for the mudskippers. It may also have caused the mudskippers to feed on other small insects and worms which are food of other organisms, thus, there will be less food for the other organisms as well. In reality, the abiotic and the biotic factors in an ecosystem interact with each other in very complicated ways. The relative sizes of different populations remain constant. This biological balance or equilibrium is like a web breaking a single strand will affect the whole system. The ECOSYSTEM An ecosystem is an ecological system formed by the interaction of living organisms and their non-living environment. Thus, when considering an ecosystem, we are considering both the biotic and the abiotic environment in that ecosystem. An ecosystem uses both energy and inorganic nutrients. Energy enters an ecosystem from the Sun. Energy is converted into chemical energy and is passed from organism to organism through the ecosystem. Energy is lost to the environment as is flows through the ecosystem. This energy that is lost as heat energy cannot be recycled in the ecosystem. Hence, energy has to be constantly supplied to the ecosystem. Inorganic nutrients, on the other hand, need not be supplied from outside the ecosystem. They are obtained from the abiotic environment and flow through the ecosystem in a cycle. Thus, in a balanced ecosystem, nutrients are continually recycled and are not lost.