Biotic and abiotic components
Also called: Biotic, Abiotic · Topic: Environment and Sustainable Development · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 7 "Environment and Sustainable Development"
Meaning
The environment has two kinds of parts. Biotic components are the living parts: birds, animals, plants, forests and fisheries. Abiotic components are the non-living parts: air, water, land, rocks and sunlight. The two constantly act on each other. So studying the environment means studying how living things and their non-living surroundings interact.
Example
A fishery shows both at once. The fish are biotic. The river water, sunlight and riverbed are abiotic. If factory waste pollutes the water (abiotic), the fish stock (biotic) falls.
Don't confuse with
- Renewable and non-renewable resources: this is a different way to sort the same things. It asks whether a resource regenerates, not whether it is alive. Groundwater is abiotic but renewable. Fossil fuels formed from ancient living matter, yet they are non-renewable.
Related concepts
- Environment
- Functions of the environment
- Renewable resources
- Non-renewable resources
- Reserves-to-production life
- Hotelling rule
- Carrying capacity
- Absorptive capacity
- Environmental crisis
- Supply-demand reversal of environmental resources