Components of Ecosystem - LifeScienceDirect

Components of Ecosystem:

An ecosystem comprises of two components –

Abiotic components:

Abiotic components of an ecosystem consist of non-living factors. These factors are of two types- Climatic and Edaphic. The climatic factors contain temperature, light, wind, humidity, rainfall, and water whereas the edaphic factors include soil, typography, etc.

i. Temperature: Temperature is such an important abiotic factor that, it has a great influence on the distribution of organisms and their metabolism. Most organisms can survive in a temperature range of 10-50 c.

ii. Light: It is another important abiotic factor, The intensity, quality, and duration of light have a great impact on the living world. light provides energy to the producers for photosynthesis. The energy stored in the synthesized food by green plants is the source of energy for all types of consumers directly or indirectly.

iii. Water: Water is the most important factor and is very much essential for life. Earth’s surface consists of 71% water. Water is one of the main raw materials of photosynthesis which is the source of food for the living world.

iv. Air: The gases present in the atmosphere, mainly oxygen, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen have a great impact on living organisms. Oxygen is too much necessary for respiration. Carbon dioxide is used as a raw material for photosynthesis. Nitrogen is needed for synthesizing protein.

v. Soil: It is the Surface layer of land as well as it is an important edaphic factor of the ecosystem. Distribution of plants like halophytes, lithophytes, oxalophytes, psammophytes etc. is mainly influeneced by soil. Soil is the source of all the macro and microelements essential for living organisms.

vi. Topography: The distribution of plants and animals is influenced by different types of habitats like plains, hills, slopes, etc. Temperature decreases with altitude, so topography plays a major role in the distribution of plants and animals.

vii. Minerals: The distribution of microbes, plants, and animals depends upon the availability and concentration of minerals, which has an important role in the growth and development of the organisms.

Biotic components:

The living organisms of an ecosystem form the biotic components. The biotic components of an ecosystem are of three types, such as producers, consumers, and decomposers.

i. Producers: Producers are the self-nourishing, generally, chlorophyll-containing organisms, which can synthesize their own food with the help of simple inorganic substances like CO₂, H₂O by entrapping solar energy. This process is called photosynthesis.

ii. Consumers: Organisms, mostly animals that take food, synthesized by producers directly or indirectly are called consumers or phagotrophs.

iii. Decomposers: The heterotrophic organisms consisting mostly of bacteria and fungi, which produce simple basic elements as their food from dead and decomposed organic matter are called decomposers or saprotrophs.