Abiotic vs.

Biotic Factors Worksheet

Useful Website - Bioninja Biotic & Abiotic Factors

1. What is an abiotic factor?

2. What is a biotic factor?

The following list is to be entered into a Venn diagram, where the circles are labelled
ABIOTIC and BIOTIC. Do not enter any list items into the intersection at this point.
LIST:
● Whale ● Clouds ● Finger Nails
● Clock ● Corpse ● Pipe
● Water ● Snail ● Cotton Fabric
● Fish ● Steak ● Wool
● Paper ● Pork ● Gold
● Glass Chops ● Plastic
● Aluminium ● Salad ● Grapes
● Wooden ● Bread ● Air
Ruler ● Plant
● Sand ● Hair

Biotic Abiotic
List the abiotic and the biotic factors in the following image.

Abiotic Factors Biotic Factors

Law of Tolerance
The law of tolerance was proposed by an American zoologist – Victor Ernest
Shelford – in 1911

■ According to the law of tolerance, populations have optimal survival conditions

within critical ____________ and ____________thresholds
■ As a population is exposed to the extremes of a particular limiting factor, the
rates of survival begin to _________

The distribution of a species in response to a limiting factor can be represented as a

bell-shaped curve with 3 distinct regions:
 ■ Optimal zone – Central portion of curve which has conditions that favour
maximal ____________success and survivability
■ Zones of stress – Regions flanking the optimal zone, where organisms can
____________but with reduced reproductive success
■ Zones of intolerance – Outermost regions in which organisms cannot survive
(represents _____________ of the limiting factor)

Keywords 1

minimal survive reproductive drop maximal extremes

Plant Example
Part 2

Rise Extract Bleaching Freshwater Farming Salinity Temperatures

Plant growth varies greatly in response to concentrations of salt within the soil
(salinity levels)

■ Plant species that are not particularly salt tolerant are called glycophytes –
these plants are easily damaged by high _________
 ■ Plant species that are salt tolerant are called halophytes – these plants may
become stressed in ____________ environments

Most plant species are considered to be glycophytes – relatively few plant species
are halophytes (~ less than 2%)

■ Cultivation of land for agriculture (e.g. irrigation or grazing) causes the water
table to ________ and concentrates salt at the roots
■ This makes it harder for glycophytes to _________ water from the soil (also,
the uptake of salt can be toxic to the plant)
■ Understanding salt tolerance for different plant species is therefore critically
important to effective crop _________

Animal Example
Coral species form connected reefs that are greatly impacted by changes in oceanic
temperature

■ Coral polyps receive nutrition from photosynthetic zooxanthellae (an algae)

that lives within the polyp’s endodermis
■ The zooxanthellae cannot survive in lower ocean ____________ (i.e. < 18ºC)
Increases in ocean temperature cause zooxanthellae to leave the coral tissue,
leading to coral ______________ (i.e. > 35ºC)
Reef-building coral species therefore have a typical optimal growth range in
temperate waters between 20 – 30ºC

■ This correlates to the tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world (i.e. near
the equator)

Questions

1) What is the overall trend shown with the data above?

2) What abiotic factor is causing the bleaching? Why is this abiotic factor changing?
3) How does the trend show the interaction between abiotic and biotic factors?

The graph above shows the relative shoot mass of two plants in increasing
concentrations of Salt (NaCl). Sea blite (Suada maritima) is represented by the
green line and salt water cress (Eutrema halophilium) is represented by the red line.

4) From the graph suggest the optimum range of NaCl concentration for both plants.

5) The starting value for the lower zone of stress.

6) Explain why it is difficult to determine the limits of tolerance for the two plant
species from the data given.