You may have seen tall cacti like this in cartoons or in real life. They are interesting plants, storing up water for hot, dry periods and having shallow roots to collect rain. Cacti depend on many parts of their environment to survive. Some of those parts are living. Other parts are nonliving.
Stop and Jot
How does a cactus interact with the living and nonliving parts of its environment?
Factors in Ecosystems
A cactus is an organism, a single, self-contained living thing. There are a variety of organisms in any environment. A variety means many different types of something. Think about what makes up an environment. For example, in a rain forest environment, there are many living things, like plants and animals. But there are also nonliving things, like air, rainfall, soil, and sunlight. If we look at all of the living and nonliving things and their interactions in an area, we are examining an ecosystem.
There are two basic kinds of factors in any ecosystem: those that are living and those that are nonliving. Biotic factors are living things, such as plants, fish, birds, wildflowers, horses, and dogs. Abiotic factors are the nonliving things that affect the ecosystem. This includes sunlight, water, air, soil, and rocks. An ecosystem is healthy if it remains balanced in its interactions between biotic and abiotic factors.
Vocabulary
organism: a single, self-contained, living thing
variety: many different types
ecosystem: all living and nonliving things and all their interactions in an area
biotic factor: a living thing that affects the ecosystem
abiotic factor: a nonliving thing that affects the ecosystem
Stop and Jot
What are the biotic factors in a toucan’s environment? What are the abiotic factors?
Interactions in an Ecosystem
In order to survive, all organisms must be able to meet certain basic needs in their environment. These needs might include food, water, shelter, space, or having a certain temperature. An organism must interact with other living and nonliving things in its environment to meet these needs. A cow, which is biotic, eats grass, which is also biotic, in order to survive. Many biotic factors interact with each other to survive. A bee gets nectar from a flower to get energy. A guinea pig eats carrots to get vitamin C. Some plants need animals to spread their seeds so that they can reproduce.
Animals don’t just rely on plants to meet their needs for survival. Sometimes, animals rely on interactions with other animals to survive in their environment. Many animals eat meat and must consume other animals to stay alive. These predators survive because of interactions with their prey.
Clownfish and anemones both benefit from interacting with each other. The clownfish is not harmed by the stings of anemone tentacles, so it can safely live inside an anemone and use it as a shelter to hide from predators. At the same time, the clownfish keeps parasites from harming the anemone and provides the anemone with helpful nutrients from its waste.
Vocabulary
survive: to continue living and remain in existence
interactions: actions by one thing that have an effect on a different or separate thing
Stop and Jot
What abiotic factors in an elephant’s environment help it survive? How?
Organisms must also interact with abiotic factors in their environment to survive. For example, to be safe, a hermit crab must find a shell to live in. The shell protects it from predators. The shell also keeps the crab safe from objects that could fall on it from above.
The crab interacting with the shell is an example of a biotic factor interacting with an abiotic factor. Let’s think about another biotic factor, like an elephant. It rolls in the mud for several reasons. Mud is an abiotic factor. By rolling in the mud, the elephant keeps itself cool. This is important for the elephant to survive. What other abiotic factors help an elephant survive?
Virtual Field Trip:
The Ants Go Marching
Click or scan the QR code to take a virtual trip and see ants at work. What interactions do you see in the video?
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Plants are other biotic factors in ecosystems. Just like animals, plants must interact with abiotic factors in their ecosystem to survive. Plant roots take in water from the soil. Plant leaves take in sunlight and carbon dioxide from the air. The plant relies on all of these abiotic factors to be able to make the food that it needs to survive.
STEM Career: Park Ranger/Park Naturalist
Bachelor’s degree Median salary: $62,660
Park rangers work at national, state, or local parks and provide programs for those who visit the parks. They discuss the history of the parks and the different elements of science that people can see in the parks. They are in charge of ensuring that people do not harm the parks while they are there. They must be able to communicate with others and feel comfortable giving presentations. They must enjoy being outside in nature and learning about different environments.
Park rangers working outside at a park
The Big Picture
Biotic and abiotic factors make up every ecosystem in the world. Plants, which are biotic, must interact with other biotic factors and abiotic factors to make food and reproduce. All animals must also interact with biotic and abiotic factors in their environment to meet all of their needs for survival in a healthy ecosystem.
Connect It
How does a cactus interact with the living and nonliving parts of its environment?
A cactus interacts with birds by giving them shelter. This is an interaction with another biotic factor. It also interacts with rainfall, sunlight, and soil, all three of which are abiotic factors, to get the water, light, and nutrients that it needs to survive.