Abiotic component

In biology, abiotic components are non-living chemical and physical factors in the environment. Abiotic phenomena underlie all of biology, but at the same time both are better forgotten in the direct analysis of life as such. More generally, the sciences concentrated on lower level explanation are better forgotten when dealing with higher level phenomena.

From the viewpoint of biology, abiotic influences may be classified as light or more generally radiation, temperature, water, the chemical surrounding composed of the terrestrial atmospheric gases, wind as well as soil. The macroscopic climate often influences each of the above. Not to mention pressure and even sound waves if working with marine, or deep underground, biome.

Those underlying factors affect different plants, animals and fungi to different extents. Some plants are mostly water starved, so humidicity plays a larger role in their biology. Archaebacteria require very high temperatures, or pressures, or unusual concentrations of chemical substances such as sulfur, because of their specialization into extreme conditions. Certain fungi have evolved to survive mostly at the temperature, the humidity, the stability, and the (grantedly biological) feed of nutrients present in the human vagina: genus Candida.

Taxonomy

Abiotic components can be split into three main categories: climatic, edaphic and social.

Climatic factors include sunlight, humidity, temperature, atmosphere, and so on.

Edaphic factors are things to do with the nature of the soil and ground, such as the geology of the land and the soil type.

Social factors include land use, water resources, etc.

Atmospheric influence

Oxygen, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen are the most important gases; they are used directly by plants.

Wind, soil, and physiographic conditions can also combine in multiple ways to affect organisms.

References

• Abiotic Components from the Department of Biodiversity and Conservation Biology, University of the Western Cape (Republic of South Africa)

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