take a look at your backyard depending on where you live you may be staring into a forest a desert a grassland or a freshwater ecosystem ecosystems comprise living organisms in their physical environments ecosystems can be quite small such as a log that serves as a home for a family events or they can be large such as Yellowstone National Park all ecosystems however are marked by the presence of biotic and abiotic or living in non-living factors so looking again at your backyard if you live in a temperate climate you may most likely see some trees grass dirt a few rocks sunlight or even rain clouds there may be some birds in the trees or squirrels can you identify the biotic or living factors remember that in order to be alive organisms must have cells consume energy be able to regulate their systems or maintain homeostasis have the ability to grow they must have the ability to sense their environment and respond to stimuli and have levels of organization and be able to reproduce so how about trees are they alive a tree starts as a tiny seed and grows into a towering Giant tree cells form together they give them specific structures or levels of organization trees have specific cells called chloroplasts that allow them to take in sunlight and convert it into energy using photosynthesis trees are capable of reproducing through pollination and spread their seeds they maintain homeostasis by regulating the amount of water held in their branches and leaves they allow water to evaporate from their leaves to keep themselves cool and lastly trees are capable of responding to their environment most plants including trees exhibit phototrophism meaning they turn themselves and grow in the direction of sunlight so trees also demonstrate all the characteristics of living things about rocks can a rock reproduce no you can break a rock into smaller pieces but it cannot reproduce on its own so you can stop there once you have determined that an object does not possess any one of the seven characteristics of living things you can deem it a non-living or abiotic factor how about clouds it would seem like clouds may be living they moved they change sizes they have a general structure however clouds are non-living or abiotic factor they need the wind to push them they are not capable of growing on their own and their size they depend on the amount of moisture in the air and they don't have cells they are nothing more than a collection of water droplets so now that you have guidelines of identifying biotic and abiotic factors let's take a look at some more examples other examples of biotic factors includes grass mushrooms Moss earthworms bacteria and the list is very long other examples of abiotic factors include wind water fire oxygen temperature sunlight so in summary the interaction between living and non-living organisms or biotic and abiotic factors is what creates a complex and interconnected ecosystem living objects need non-living objects to survive thanks for watching and remember kindness multiplies kindness be kind to someone today