Blog Post #4

           Blog Post #4

Abiotic factors are non-living elements found within an ecosystem. There are six abiotic factors that affect plant growth: air, water, space, temperature, light and soil (nutrients). These are the basic requirements that plants need to grow. Some abiotic factors that affect my plant are soil, sunlight, and water. The soil is important because of the fact that it provides nutrients for my plant. Sunlight also provides nutrients. So my plant gets its nutrients from the sun and the soil. Biotic factors are the non-living factors that affect organisms. Biotic factors include the availability of food. When food is in short supply, plants struggle to survive. They are therefore less likely to grow. New pathogens and parasites is another factor. Organisms have no resistance to new pathogens. This can reduce the healthiness, or even wipe out the plant. A third factor is new predators arriving. As with parasites and pathogens, organisms may have no defense against new predators, and may be wiped out. The last factor is interspecific communities which is like competition between species. Competition may result in the numbers of one species getting so low that they are unable to grow successfully. I think there were biotic factors that affected the growth of my plants. Since I found a weed like plant growing instead of my plant I think interspecific communities may have been a factor for my plant. Haley and I are also a biotic factor that affect our plant. We are responsible for watering our plant every so often so that our plant gets the nutrients it needs to grow. Water is also a very important abiotic factor for my plant. Another biotic factor affecting my plant is animals. If an animal comes into the garden, it could eat the plant. 

My plant is competing against the other plants in the garden. It's are competing for water, space, and sunlight. It’s not exactly clear cut who “wins” and “loses” because gardening is not a competition. But if it was, the winners would be the plants that grew the most and were the most healthy. The losers would be the plants that did not grow as much and are not as healthy. 

No organism exists in isolation. Individual organisms live together in an ecosystem and depend on one another.  They have many different types of interactions with each other, and many of these interactions are critical for their survival. One interaction is how a plant obtain its food. Some can make their own food and others have to get their food by eating other organisms. An organism that must obtain their nutrients by eating other organisms is called a consumer, or a heterotroph. They then use the energy and materials in that food to grow, reproduce and carry out all of their life activities.

Succession is a series of progressive changes in the composition of an ecological community over time.Primary succession is the series of community changes which occur on an entirely new habitat which has never been colonized before. Secondary succession is the series of community changes which take place on a previously colonized, but disturbed or damaged habitat. Our garden has had other plants in it before so I would say since we've seen weeds coming up we are seeing secondary succession.