Difference Between Biotic and Abiotic

Biotic vs Abiotic
 

Biodiversity is the totality of all organisms and the ecosystems to which they belong. Biodiversity comprises of 3 divisions. Those are the ecosystem diversity, species diversity and genetic diversity. An ecosystem is a functional unit or a system in the environment where abiotic or nonliving components and biotic or living organisms interact.

Abiotic

Abiotic components are soil, water, atmosphere, light, humidity, temperature and pH. Soil provides anchorage for all plants. In addition, it provides habitat for many organisms. Water is necessary for all living organisms to perform their metabolic activities. Atmosphere provides carbon dioxides for photosynthesis and oxygen for respiration and nitrogen for nitrogen fixing organisms. Sunlight provides energy for all naturally existing ecosystems. A suitable temperature is necessary for all the metabolic activities. Non-living substances are also needed by an ecosystem.

All materials required by organisms are obtained from the environment that is soil, water and atmosphere, but the total amount of available material is limited. Therefore, they are cycled between the organisms or the living part and the non living part of the ecosystem. Decomposers play an important role in the cycling process. No life is possible on earth without the input of energy. The main source of energy in an ecosystem is solar radiation. It is fixed in to living material by plants and passes through a sequence of organisms with loss at each stage and passes out. Energy is not cycled, and it moves unidirectionally.

Biotic

Living organisms has an internal hierarchy within an ecosystem. They are the primary producers, consumers and decomposers. Living organisms interact with each other forming food chains within an ecosystem. A food chain is a sequence of feeding relationships through which energy fixed by the primary producers is passed through a series of consumers or animals in an ecosystem. Consumers are of different types. Primary consumers depend directly on primary producers and they are called herbivorous organisms. Secondary consumers feed on primary consumers and tertiary on secondary etc. Animals belonging to secondary consumers and above levels are carnivorous animals. Animals feeding on primary producers, other animals and any other organic matter are omnivorous animals. Primary producers in an ecosystem include all green plants, algae and cyanobacteria. Decomposers depend on all these levels.

Food chains do not exist as simple chains in an ecosystem. They are interconnected at certain links forming complex webs. That is because different animals feed on different types of food. These are called food webs. In an ecosystem, these food webs contribute to the existence of an ecosystem.