Abiotic & Biotic Factors Flashcards

All 6 cards in this deck

What is an abiotic factor?

A non-living factor that affects organisms in a habitat.
e.g. temperature, light intensity, water availability, pollutants

What is a biotic factor?

A living factor that affects organisms in a habitat.
e.g. competition, predation, disease

What do plants in a community compete with each other for?

Light, water, space and mineral ions in the soil.

How does a fall in light intensity affect the number of small plants growing in a woodland?

The number of plants decreases, because they cannot photosynthesise enough to grow.

What happens to a prey population when the predator population increases?

The prey population falls; the predators then have less food, so their numbers fall too.

True or false? Pollutants are biotic factors.

False. Pollutants are abiotic factors, and they can reduce the size of a population or change where a species is found.