Abiotic vs. Biotic

The main difference between abiotic and biotic is that abiotic describes non-living and physical components that affect the ecosystems while biotic describes those living components that affect an ecosystem.

Comparison Chart

Basis Abiotic Biotic
Definition The non-living parts of an ecosystem are called abiotic or non-biotic components. The living parts of an ecosystem are called biotic components
Dependency Abiotic factors don’t rely on biotic factors to survive Biotic factors have to depend on abiotic factors to survive
Measurement The measurement of the abiotic factors is often objective The measurement of the biotic factors is often subjective
Affects Population, individual of a species, ecosystem, community and biosphere Biosphere, community, individual of a species, population, biome
Factors Help determine types and numbers of organisms able to exist in environment Living things that directly/indirectly affect organisms in environment
Attitudes Toward Change Non-ability to adapt to change Ability to adapt to change
Examples Sun. Light, temperature Skin, hair, organism, dead organism

What is Abiotic?

In an ecosystem, abiotic stands for those components that are non-living physical and chemical factors and affect the ecosystems. Abiotic components, for example, temperature, light, and soil can impact an animal species’ capacity to survive. Each species can get by inside a scope of each of these variables. This range is known as the species’ resistance range. Close to the upper and lower points of confinement of the tolerance range, people encounter stress. It will diminish their health and their rate of development and generation.

Inside an animal species’ resistance range is an ideal range, inside which the species is best adjusted. Th e biggest and most beneficial populaces of an animal type will happen when conditions are within the typical range. Every species has a resilience run for each abiotic calculate. The key abiotic figures oceanic biological systems are the salt focus and the accessibility of daylight, oxygen, and supplements. Light is abundant in the clear shallow water yet quickly diminishes with expanding profundity. Oxygen fixation is most prominent close to the water’s surface since this is the place oxygen enters from the air and where most photosynthesis happens.

What is Biotic?

In biology and ecology, biotic refers to the living or once living components of a community or ecosystem. The commons examples of biotic are organisms such as animals and plants. Widely biotic may refer to various other aspects as well such as life, biology, biotic material, biotic potential and biotic energy. Generally, in an ecosystem, biotic factors determine the species’ success as compared to the abiotic factors that determine where a specific species can live.

There are many others key biotic factors that are involved in the interactions between individuals. Individuals are often in competition with members of their species and with other species. The biotic factors then compete with other resources such as light, food, space and mates. The key types and examples of species interactions in biotic factors are competition, predation, mutualism, parasitism, and commensalism. Biotic factors are capable of reproduction. Biotic factors largely depend on abiotic factors for their existence.

Key Differences between Abiotic and Biotic

  1. Abiotic factors often determine which species survive in a particular environment. In biotic factors, all organisms depend on others directly or directly for food, shelter, reproduction or protection.
  2. Abiotic factors determine where a particular species can live, whereas biotic factors often determine the species’ success.
  3. In abiotic, limiting factors in determining the upper limit on the size of a population is access to water while it is the availability of food in case of biotic factors.
  4. Abiotic factors are also called as environmental factors and include water, climate, and temperature. Biotic factors are subdivided as producers, consumers, and decomposers.
  5. The adverse effects have drastically affected the biotic components more as compared to the abiotic components.
  6. Abiotic sources are a non-renewable resource of energy while biotic resources are a renewable resource of energy.
  7. The examples of abiotic resources are plants and animals. The examples of biotic resources are soil, rocks, and minerals.
  8. Abiotic factors don’t rely on biotic factors to survive. While biotic factors have to rely on abiotic factors to survive.
  9. Biotic resources are living resources while abiotic resources are non-living resources.
  10. Examples of abiotic factors are light intensity, soil moisture level, soil pH and temperature. Examples of abiotic factors are a competition of environmental resources, parasitism, grazing, and predation.
  11. Abiotic factors measurement is more objective than biotic and less subjective as compared to the biotic factors.

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