T6 ECOSYSTEMS AND ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS

1. The ecosystem and environmental factors

An ecosystem is a system formed by a set of organisms of different species, the environment in
which they live with their physical-chemical characteristics and the interactions established
between them.

1.1 Environmental factors and their influence

Environmental factors are all the components of the ecosystem whose presence or variation
influences the organisms of the biocenosis. Environmental factors determine:

• The distribution and composition of the biocenosis, the type and number of populations that
constitute it.

• The greatest or least abundance of organisms in each population.

• The adaptations that organisms present

1.2 Types of environmental factors

• Abiotic factors: These are the physical-chemical components of the ecosystem whose
variation modifies the life of the organisms of the biocenosis: temperature, light, water ...

• Biotic factors: They are both the presence and any action of a living being that modifies the
life of the other in the community. Biotic factors are the interactions that occur in the
biocenosis, such as the death of individuals in a population caused by a plague, or the greater
efficiency that wolves acquire when hunting in packs.

1.3 Tolerance zone and limiting factor

The interval between the tolerance limits is known as the tolerance zone. There is an optimal
zone, in which this species survives better and has numerous individuals; and a zone of
environmental stress, in which the species survives with difficulty and the number of
individuals is reduced. An environmental factor is limiting for a species when its value
determines its abundance or distribution.

2. Abiotic factors
The main abiotic factors are temperature, the availability of light and water.

• Temperature: Living beings develop their activity at temperatures between 0C and 50C

• The availability of light: Sunlight is essential for autotrophic organisms to carry out
photosynthesis and for them to inhabit a biotope.

• The availability of water: Water is the most abundant component of living beings and an
essential substance for plants to carry out photosynthesis.

2.1 Abiotic factors in the terrestrial environment

Temperature and water availability: Due to the inclination of the Earth, the sun's rays strike
more obliquely as latitude increases. The temperature decreases with increasing latitude,
three major climatic zones: the equatorial, or hot climates; those of middle latitudes, or

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temperate climates, and polar, or cold climates. The atmospheric air heats up at the equator,
which causes convection movements of the air masses that give rise to:

Some strips with high rainfall and, therefore, with high availability of water.

• Some fringes with little rainfall and, therefore, with little water availability, where a large
part of the planet's deserts are generated.

Availability of light: The position of the earth varies with respect to the Sun causing, depending
on the seasons and latitude, variations in the number of daily hours of light.

- Alterations to the general conditions: The conditions described may be altered by local
factors:

• Altitude: Altitude causes the temperature to decrease. Solar radiation is higher in high
mountain areas than at sea level.

• Coastal mountain ranges: They force the masses of humid air that come from the sea to rise
up their slopes, for which they cool down and discharge their humidity, in the form of rain or
snow. When descending from the other side of the mountain, the air descends and heats up,
generating a dry or even desert environment.

2.2 Life in the terrestrial environment

• Climatic conditions determine the distribution of the dominant vegetation in each area of the
planet and the formation of large terrestrial ecosystems or biomes.

• Biodiversity is highest in communal areas with optimal or good temperature and availability
of light and water; and it is minimal in deserts and polar zones, where these factors become
limiting or, at least, unfavorable for many species.

• Organisms present adaptations of the body, behavior or relative to the adequacy of their life
cycle to resist extreme conditions, and the environmental variations that occur in ecosystems
with the passage from day to night or throughout the seasons.

2.3 Some adaptations to the terrestrial environment.

- To the availability of light: Many plants regulate their biological processes according to the
duration of the day and night. Animals also adapt their physiological activity to daylight hours:
many are active during the day, and others are active at night.

- To the availability of water:

• In desert areas, to avoid loss of water, many shrubs have small leaves covered with
impermeable substances. Many of the desert animals have nocturnal habits, or are only active
in the first hours of the day and at dusk when the humidity is higher and the temperature is
lower.

• In rainforests, where there is plenty of water, trees tend to have large leaves with sharp,
prominent edges, in order to remove excess water.

- At temperature:

• To withstand low temperatures, plants go through adverse seasons in seed or bulb form, or
lose their leaves and reduce their activity as much as possible. Animals become lethargic or

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migrate. The organisms best adapted to resist these conditions are endotherms, which also
present insulators.

• Organisms reactivate their life cycles in warm seasons: plants flourish and bear fruit, many
animals reproduce… If temperatures are very high.

3. Biotic factors
Biotic relationships or interactions are those established between individuals in the community
or biocenosis and can be intraspecific or interspecific.

3.1 Intraspecific interactions

Intraspecific interactions are those that occur in the biocenosis between organisms of the
same species. The main ones are competition and intraspecific associations.

- Intraspecific competition: it is manifested in various actions of the organisms, such as the

fight for a territory and the hierarchy.

• The struggles to obtain a territory or space in which the animal locates its food, mates, takes
refuge ... These are confrontations in which individuals fight and the winner obtains as a
trophy the right to <<use>> of the territory for the that is competing.

• The establishment of dominance hierarchies among the individuals in the group. It is a

system by which the order of use of resources is determined.

- Associations: the organisms of a population obtain benefits from living in a group, and form
associations that can be family, gregarious, colonial or state.

• Family associations: They are composed of individuals related to each other. They can be
parental, if the two parents and the offspring are present; matriarchal, made up of the mother
and the young; or subsidiaries, if only the offspring are associated.

• Gregarious associations: They are those in which individuals, not necessarily related to each
other, are grouped for a specific purpose such as defending themselves or looking for food.
The herds, flocks or banks.

• Colonial associations: They are made up of individuals who reproduce asexually and remain
united to their parent throughout life. Polyps and jellyfish, your goal is to get food more easily.

• State associations: These are those in which there is a division of tasks. Individuals are
hierarchical and present anatomical and physiological differences between them.

3.2 Interspecific interactions

Interspecific interactions are those that occur in the biocenosis between organisms of different
species. They can be due to interspecific competition or be non-competitive. The intersection
benefits you (+), if it hurts you (-) or if it is indifferent (0).

- Interspecific competition (-, -): occurs when two species use the same limited resource, so
both are harmed.

The ecological niche of a species is the set of features that characterize it, that make it suitable
to integrate into the ecosystem and define its function in it.

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- Non-competitive interspecific interactions: The main non-competitive interspecific
interactions are:

• Predation (+, -): It is an interaction in which one organism, the predator (+), captures and kills
another, the prey (-), to feed.

• Parasitism (+, -): It is an interaction in which one species, the parasite (+), lives at the expense
of another, the host (-), on which it feeds without causing death, at least in a immediate.

• Commensalism (+, 0): It is an interaction in which one species, the commensal, benefits from
the surplus food or secretions of another, the host, without causing any effect.

• Mutualism (+, +): It is an association of two organisms of different species in which both
obtain benefits.

4.The ecological balance

Ecosystems tend to build up and naturally reach a state of equilibrium. An ecosystem is in
equilibrium if it maintains a stable community of living beings adapted to the prevailing
environmental factors.

4.1 Equilibrium and its sequences

An ecological succession is the process of incorporation and progressive substitution of species
in the biocenosis of an ecosystem until it reaches its state of maturity or equilibrium.
Succession is a slow and gradual process. During a succession, the communities of living beings
more sensitive to sudden changes undergo modifications in their composition or in their size
until stable relationships are established between the species and between them and the
physical environment.

- Primary successions: They develop in a biotope initially devoid of life, such as a recently
formed volcanic island. The stages of a primary sequence are:

• The pioneer species colonize the initial biotope.

• New towns are installed.

• Increases the complexity of the biocenosis.

• The climax stage is reached.

- Secondary successions: These successions begin on a pre-existing succession that has

suffered significant disturbances. After the disturbance, unless it has irreversibly altered
environmental conditions, the ecosystem begins to reorganize its structure and, over time,
reaches a new climax stage.

4.2 Ecosystem disturbances

Ecosystems, even if they are mature and in the climax stage, are subject to permanent changes
that may be due to natural causes or human intervention. When a change is capable of causing
an ecosystem to lose its state of equilibrium, it is because:

• It greatly alters the value of some abiotic factor.

• Limits or destroys the resources organisms need to survive.

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- Self-regulation: When an ecosystem undergoes a change, it can be kept in a dynamic
equilibrium thanks to self-regulation mechanisms, which counteract the alterations and return
the balance of the ecosystem. Homeostasis refers to the set of self-regulation mechanisms
that allow maintaining the balance of the ecosystem.

• Migrations are the displacement of entire populations in the face of an environmental

change that creates unfavorable conditions. They avoid mass deaths that would unbalance the
changing ecosystem and, in addition, they achieve efficient use of resources.

• Feedback is a self-tuning of processes that are related.

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