Environmental Science

1. What are the differences between Biotic and Abiotic?

Biotic

- living component of an ecosystem

Ex: autotrophs, heterotrophs, fungi, bacteria

Abiotic

- non-living chemical and physical factors in the environment which affects

ecosystem
Ex: water, light, humidity, minerals, gases

2. What are the different abiotic components or factors of the ecosystem?

a. Abiotic components can be classified into two

categories: CONDITIONS and RESOURCES. Where RESOURCES are classified to
as RENEWABLE and NON-RENEWABLE. Define these terms.

Conditions (Abiotic Factors)

- Physiochemical features of the environment that may be altered by the activities

of living organisms but not consumed
Ex: temperature, relative humidity, pH, Salinity, current velocity, soil structure,
pollutant concentration

Resources

- Quantities of something that can be reduced by the activities of a living organism

during its growth and development
- Made less available or unavailable to other organisms
Ex: solar radiation, inorganic materials (CO2, H2O, O2, mineral nutrients), food,
space

Renewable
o Replenished naturally and in relatively short periods of time
Ex: solar, wind, water, biomass, geothermal

Non-Renewable
o Available in limited supplies
o Takes a long time to be replenished
 Ex: coal, nuclear oil, natural gas

b. Abiotic components can also be classified into three categories: CLIMATIC, EDAPHIC,

and TOPOGRAPHIC. Define these terms.

Climatic

- These are related to the aerial environment of the organisms

Ex: light, precipitation, temperature, atmospheric humidity, wind

Edaphic

- They include the factors related to the soil

Ex: soil composition, organic matter, soil water, soil air, soil organisms

Topographic

- Physical features of the earth

Ex: land elevation, slope, terrain, mountain ranges, bodies of water

3. There are interactions among abiotic factors. Site examples.

Air, water, wind, soil, temperature, sunlight

4. Why do abiotic factors act as selective forces?

Carrying Capacity
When populations increase in size, there is a greater demand for resources which
increases competition. Natural selection comes into play and the individuals who are the
most capable of competing will survive while other die out.

5. Why abiotic factors considered LIMITING FACTORS and influence life?

These abiotic limiting factors such as temperature, wind, climate, sunlight, rainfall, soil
composition, natural disasters, and pollution that restrict the size, growth, and
distribution of a population. For example, if there is not enough space in a pond for the
fish to reproduce, the space would become a limiting factor.

Limiting Factors are Subdivided into:

Density-Dependent Factors
 Some abiotic limiting factors affect the members of the population because of the
population density. More individuals mean increased competition and/or predation for
the food and supplies.

Density-Independent Factors

Other limiting factors affect populations regardless of its density such as drought, fires,
earthquakes, pesticides. DIF are often abrupt and can kill small members of the
population.

6. Can we separate biotic components and abiotic components of the ecosystem? Why?

No, biotic and abiotic components are interdependent of each other. The O2-CO2 cycle
and the NO2 cycle are main examples how every component of the ecosystem is
beneficial to each other. In the NO2 cycle, plants take in nitrogen compounds from the
soil for plant proteins and enters the food web through consumption of producers
transforming into animal proteins. When the animals die, the nitrogen in the organic
matter are released back to nourish the soil through decomposers, and eventually
returning to the cycle.

7. Living organisms respond to abiotic factors or the physical environment. There are three
laws that describe the response of living organisms to the physical environment. Which
are the LAW OF MINIMUM, LAW OF LIMITING FACTOR and LAW OF
TOLERANCE. Define these terms and state the significance of these laws. Site examples.

Law of Minimum

- The success of an organism is determined by the crucial ingredient that is in short

supply.
- A system may be limited by the absence or minimum amount of any required factor
- Significance: Rarest requirement of an organism will be the limiting factor to its
performance
Ex: A crop’s yield is restricted by the lack of an element. For instance, the soil is low in
nitrogen, and the addition of phosphorus would not compensate for the loss of
nitrogen so the plant cannot yield crops.

Law of Limiting Factor

- A limiting factor is a resource or environmental condition which limits the growth,

distribution or abundance of an organism or population within an ecosystem.
- These can be either physical or biological factors which can be identified through a
response of increased or decreased growth, abundance, or distribution of a
population, when the factor is changed and when the other factors necessary to life
are not.
 - Significance: growth is not controlled by the total amount of resources available, but
by the scarcest resource

Ex: temperature, water, moisture, soil nutrients (Terrestrial Ecosystem); salinity,

temperature, sunlight, dissolved oxygen (Marine Ecosystem)

Law of Tolerance

- Shelford's law of tolerance states that an organism’s success is based on a complex

set of conditions and that each organism has a certain minimum, maximum, and
optimum environmental factor or combination of factors that determine success.
- According to the law of tolerance, populations have optimal survival conditions
within critical minimal and maximal thresholds.
- As population is exposed to the extremes of a particular limiting factor, the rates of
survival begin to drop.
- Significance: No organism can live anywhere. The absence of an organism can be
limited by the qualitative or quantitative insufficiency from the various environmental
factors which may come up to the limits of tolerance for that organism.

Ex: Polar bears survive very well in low temperatures, but would die from overheating
in the tropics

8. What is the relationship between law of limiting factor and law of tolerance? How will
organisms survive based on their relationship?

The range of tolerance is the range within which an organism can survive a particular
environmental factor. What organisms are or are not tolerant of are the limiting factors.

For example, green beans cannot survive soil salinity above about 4000 ppm, while some
salt-tolerant plants can survive up to 13,000 ppm. Soil salinity is a limiting factor for crop
growth and crop yield.

9. There are two kinds of organisms based on range of tolerance. These are
the eurytopic and stenotopic. Define these terms.  [You can actually replace the term
topic to other examples of abiotic factors. If you use it for temperature, it will
be eurothermic and stenothermic.

Eurytopic – a plant or animal that is found in wide range of environments, and thus is
widely distributed.

Stenotopic – able to tolerate or adapt to only a small range of environmental

conditions.

Eurythermal - can tolerate wide ranges of temperatures

 Stenothermal – can tolerate a narrow range of temperatures; may be

Thermophilic – can only survive at high temperatures

Cryophilic - can only survive in regions with low temperatures

10. Organisms address and tolerate limiting factors by regulations and maintaining

homeostasis. Define these terms and explain with examples.      

Regulations

Thermoregulation – the homeostatic control of the body’s temperature

Ex: If the body temperature drops, muscles begin twitch and body will shiver to generate
heat.

Osmoregulation – the homeostatic control of the body’s water and ion balance

Ex: If you eat salty foods, you will feel thirst so that you will drink more water to
compensate for water loss and to excrete excess salts.

Glucoregulation – the homeostatic control of the body’s sugar level

Ex: Insulin is released when blood glucose levels are high – the liver stores excess glucose
as glycogen

Maintaining Homeostasis – regulation and maintenance of a constant environment in

the body. It is an organism’s ability to keep a constant internal environment through
adjustment of conditions inside and outside the cell.

Ex: If the external temperature is high, the body tries to keep cool by producing sweat. Also,
blood vessels near the skin surface dilate. This helps in decreasing body temperature.
Conversely, if the external temperature is cold, the blood vessels constrict and retain body
heat. Thus, the skin maintains homeostasis.

11. Organisms respond to limiting factors in a way to overcome those factors. There are
different types of responses: behavioral, physiological,
evolutionary, and developmental. Define these terms and site examples.

Behavioral Adaptation – Behavioral adaptations are the things organisms do to survive

in stressful conditions. The extent of the impact is dependent upon the type and
duration of the stress, as well as the animal's past experiences. Behavioral responses to
prolonged stress can also be transferred across generations.

Ex: bears hibernate in winter to escape the cold temperatures and preserve energy
Physiological Adaptation -  Internal and/or cellular features of an organism that enable
them to survive in their environment

Ex: snakes produce poisonous venom to ward off predators and to capture prey

Evolutionary Adaptation - Natural selection reflects a species' decision to pass down

favorable genes and how well a species can use its traits to survive its environment. 

Ex: The evolution of the long neck of the giraffe is so they could reach leaves in taller
trees, drink from a pool of water, and for male spars

Developmental Adaptation - the ability of an organism to modify its phenotype in

response to environmental exposures over the course of growth and development.

Ex: The Andean natives attained an enlarged residual lung volume that contributes to the
successful cardiovascular adaptation to their high-altitude environment.
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