Agriculture

Abiotic Factors

Non-living factors that influence ecosystems, including temperature, light, water, and soil.

Temperature Importance

Key factors include the length of the thermal growing season, impact on biochemical reactions, frost-free period, evapotranspiration, and thermoregulation.

Light Importance

Influences photosynthesis rate, photoperiodism in livestock, and plant growth and development through photoperiodism.

Water Importance

Affects gas exchange, nutrient absorption, physiological functions, and acts as a transport medium in plants.

Soil Fertility

Measure of soil's ability to support plant growth, influenced by nutrients, water, aeration, texture, and structure.

Nutrient Availability

Natural processes like nitrogen-fixing bacteria in legumes, crop rotation, and fertilizers enhance nutrient availability.

Hydroponics

Growing crops in a nutrient solution, maximizing productivity by controlling limiting factors, with advantages like optimal nutrient supply and no soil-borne pathogens.

Aeration Importance

Uncompacted soil enhances aeration, crucial for aerobic soil processes like root respiration and decomposition.

Soil Salinity

Excessive salt can harm plants, and methods to avoid soil salinity include careful irrigation practices.

Soil pH

pH affects nutrient solubility and plant growth, with methods like adding lime or sulphur to adjust pH levels.

Terracing

Changing an area of steep gradient into a series of flat fields to retain irrigation water and reduce soil erosion.

Relief

The altitude of an area impacting crop species grown, influencing factors like temperature and atmospheric pressure.

Livestock Adaptation

Some species like goats, sheep, and llamas are adapted to high altitudes, surviving lower temperatures and low atmospheric pressures.

High Altitude Disease

A condition in cattle at high altitudes where low atmospheric pressure causes thickening of pulmonary arteries.

Crops at High Altitudes

Colder temperatures and increased evaporation rates due to low atmospheric pressure affecting crop growth.

Wind Velocity Effects

Increased evaporation rates, soil drying, crop damage like lodging of cereal crops, and soil erosion, especially in dry areas.