In today's video we're going to cover biotic and abiotic factors, so we'll discuss what each of them are and then we'll take a look at an actual ecosystem and try to spot the relevant factors there. We can describe biotic factors as any living factor that affects another organism or that shapes the ecosystem in some way. It's kind of a hard one to describe, but if you think of something like predation then we would class that as a biotic factor.
because it's a living process and it can influence the population of another species, in this case whoever's leg that was. Other biotic factors would be things like competition for resources or habitat, the amount of disease, and the availability of food. So if you're asked to find the biotic factors in an ecosystem, just think of all the ways that the living organisms, whether they're animals, plants, bacteria, or anything else that's living can affect one another. Abotic factors, meanwhile, are all of the non-living parts of the environment that can affect organisms. So these are often the chemical or physical parts of the environment.
It includes things like the light intensity, temperature, carbon dioxide concentrations, moisture levels, the intensity and direction of the wind, and the pH and mineral content of the soil. So if we were to pick any one of these, we could hopefully explain what impact changing it might have on the environment. For example, an increase in temperature could increase the rate of photosynthesis, because the enzymes involved can work faster, and so as a result, there might be an increase in the overall rate of plant growth.
It could also mean that animals have to spend less energy staying warm, so they might be able to use more energy for growth, or spend less time searching for food. Now typical questions for this topic will generally focus around identifying these various biotic and apodic factors, and then trying to explain what will happen if they change. So if you think about a clownfish chilling out by its sea anemone, what would be the main biotic and abiotic factors that affect it.
For biotic factors we have predation by bigger fish or eels. We have the sea anemone itself which remember acts as the clownfish's habitat and so there could be competition for that habitat and there could also be competition for the plankton and the algae that the clownfish eats. And always remember the burden of disease that the animals Then when it comes to the abiotic factors, we can think of the temperature of the water, which might change throughout the day or throughout the year, the oxygen concentration of the water, and also the levels of acidity and salt in the water.
Then even though factors like light intensity and carbon dioxide concentration might not affect the clownfish directly, they might affect other species around them, like the sea anemone, which will ent- turn affect the clownfish. And that's all for today. This was just a quick one, so hope you enjoyed it, and we'll see you next time.