The Biotic Parts of an Ecosystem

Within an ecosystem, the biotic parts are all the living components and the waste that they generate. Biotic parts are organisms, plants and animals, including humans. An ecosystem is an interdependent relationship between species and their environment that depends on nutrient availability, reproduction and population size. Biotic parts are highly sensitive to changes, such as disruptions in the food chain, pollution, disease and the effects of global warming.

Biotic vs. Abiotic

• An ecosystem is composed of both biotic and abiotic parts. While the biotic factors refer to all the living components, abiotic factors are the nonliving parts of an environment, such as water, air, temperature, soil and energy sources. The health and survival of the biotic parts depend on the availability and quality of abiotic factors. For instance, contaminated water negatively impacts fish species and harms aquatic plant life.

Biotic Organisms

• The smallest but most populous and important part of ecosystems are the biotic organisms, such as plankton, bacteria and viruses. Bacteria plays a vital role in processing the waste of larger biotic factors, and helps to regenerate ecosystems. For example, when trees shed their leaves, bacteria work to break down the cellular structure so that nutrients reenter the soil. Plankton serves as an important source of nutrients for bottom-feeding fish, which are in turn eaten by larger species.

Biotic Relationships

• One of the central features of an ecosystem is the nutrient relationship between biotic factors, known as the food chain. Different species feed directly or indirectly off of other species in arrangements such as parasitic relationships, predator and prey relationships and bacterial biodegradation. In an aquatic ecosystem, for example, plants and plankton feed small fish, small fish feed larger fish, and larger fish feed aquatic birds and mammals. In some environments, these relationships are highly complex, such as in the case of ecosystems that host humans, and the biotic parts evolve in order to maintain a balance of life.

Environmental Disruptions

• Because the biotic parts of an ecosystem depend on the quality of the abiotic parts, they are vulnerable to negative environmental changes. Industrial development and global warming in particular can alter or damage the quality of abiotic components with serious consequences for the biotic parts. The rising temperatures associated with climate change, for instance, have massive implications for the health of ecosystems, as some species have evolved to flourish only in specific climatic conditions.