Biotic and abiotic factors of the forest

Biotic factors or living beings They are all animals, plants, fungi, bacteria and other microorganisms that inhabit an ecosystem, as well as the relationships between them. In forests, the plant or animal species that we can find, depend on the physical-chemical characteristics of the environment, so, in the following sections, we explain how fauna and flora varies according to the different types of forests that exist.

Flora

Attending to the Forest Florathe following plant formations stand out:

• The trees. These plants with woody trunk are very important, on the one hand, due to the large amount of ecosystem services that provide (purification of the atmosphere, erosion control, water purification, climate regulation) and, on the other, due to the supply services that play an important role at the socioeconomic level (they are wooden source, vegetable coal, paper paste, resins, resins, fruits and ornamental flowers or groceries).
• The bushes. They are woody plant formations, they constitute important sources of biodiversity and protect soils.
• Herbaceous plants. Despite not having so much value for society as other plant formations, these grasslands are very important because they increase soil fertility and favor their conservation, in addition to contributing to the pollination process.

In relation to vegetation, there are other biotic factors related to the structure of the forest and its regenerative capacity, such as:

• Spentula banks, consisting of small woody plants that grow only a few centimeters per year and participate in the replacement of trees or other plants of greater altitude, filling eggs or forming new canopies, after large disturbances in the ecosystems, such as fires or deforestation activities.
• Banks or seed sets, on the other hand, we can find them on the ground and are potentially capable of replacing annual plants.

Fauna

Forests are great sources of biodiversity, where animals configure a complex food chain. Taking into account the trophic networks, which are nothing more than the set of these chains, animals occupy trophic levels or others, depending on what they feed, being able to be classified as primary consumers (feed on plants), secondary and decomponeers. Decomponeers can be heterotrophs or transformers (bacteria and fungi) and autotrophs or mineralizing, capable of generating organic matter and freeing inorganic salts in the environment.

Some examples of animals living in forests They are: squirrels, deer, mice, foxes, frogs, trout, eagles, bats, etc. Here you can discover much more about what animals live in the tempered forest.

Relationships between organisms

Considering that, according to the definition provided to the beginning of this section, the interactions that take place between living beings are also part of the biotic factors of an ecosystem, in this case of the forest, it is possible to talk about interspecific and intra -specific relationships.

On the one hand, the interspecific relationships They are those that occur between individuals of different species, being able to be beneficial or harmful, for one or both participating parties. Meaning the symbols (+) benefit, (-) damage and (0) neither benefit nor damage, the interactions between species can be of:

• Predation: The organisms of a species, known as predators, feed on individuals belonging to another species, dams.
• Parasitism (+, -): Symbiotic relationship in which the parasite benefits and lives from the host, the latter resulting in the great injured. If the parasite develops inside or outside, we are facing endoparasitism or ectoparasitism (louse, for example), respectively.
• Commentaryism (+, 0): One of the species benefits while the other neither benefits nor harmed.
• Competition (-,-): Organizations compete for the same resource in a situation in which their abundance is scarce.
• Mutualism (+,+): beneficial relationship for all organisms involved. It can be optional (organisms can live without the other) or obliged (they need each other to live). Example: Mirmecophytes plants.
• Symbiosis (+,+): Mutualist Association in which there is a long -term close relationship between two different species, in order to obtain a mutual benefit for its survival (the most common example is lichen, a symbiosis between algae and fungus).

On the other hand, when interactions take place between individuals that belong to the same species, we talk about intra -specific relationships. Among these, two large groups stand out:

• Competition relationships for food, for reproduction, for social dominance.
• Cooperation relations, where individuals are grouped to increase the probabilities of survival. These associations can be gregarious (bird floods, fish banks), in families, in colonies (polyps, bacteria, corals) or in societies (with castes for the division of labor, as is the case with ants, wasps or bees).

We recommend you expand this knowledge reading these other articles biotic factors: what are, characteristics, classification and examples and trophic relationships of ecosystems.

The abiotic factors of the forest are those components that characterize The physical environment and that, unlike biotic factors, they lack life. These elements that model biotope can be physical or chemical. Among all we distinguish:

• Temperature and moisture of the soil, influence the mineralization processes of organic matter and, therefore, the amount of CO2 in the environment.
• The luminosity or amount of light at the ground level is one of the most important abiotic components of the forest, since it depends on autotrophic photosynthetic organisms and other living beings.
• Soil mineral salts, essential for the development of vegetables. Saline balance is very important to avoid water stress of plants and alterations in edaphic microbial activity.
• Air temperature: Extreme thermal situations can cause frost or desiccation damage, generating stress and altering the growth rates of plant species, in turn influencing directly dependent fauna species.
• The type of soil varies depending on the structure and physical forms it adopts, which conditions or limits the development of vegetation and also the present Edafofauna. For example, according to their structure, we have sandy soils that do not retain water, unlike hummists, so that the life forms present in both types of soil can change these water conditions.
• Atmospheric pressure influences the development of organisms allowing them to life.

Know more about abiotic factors: what are, characteristics and examples reading this other post.

Attending to Forest climate Already the altitudinal conditions, these can be very different. We differentiate several Types of foreststhe main ones are: boreales, temperate, tropical and subtropical.

Boreal forest

Boreal forests, also known as Taigas, are located in the circumpolar region, between 50º and 60º latitude in the northern hemisphere. They constitute a third of the land forest surface and are strongly affected by temperature, which we can consider as a limiting factor for the development of life in these ecosystems.

In terms of biodiversity, perennial leaf plant formations mainly highlight such as coniferous, firs and pines. Although it is also possible to find deciduous plants such as bold, poplars and poplars.

As for the fauna of the boreal forests, the animals that inhabit them present adaptations that allow them to support the temperature conditions. For example, we find endothermic animals, capable of conserving its body temperature. Some of the most characteristic animals are: the brown bear, the boreal lynx, the piquituerto, the milano boreal, the caterpillars of the species Mesopolobus Spermotrophus that feed on conifers, etc.

Tempered forest

Temperate forests are widely extended by the northern hemisphere (Central Europe, the northern United States and Canada, the east and north of Russia, in Japan and China) and, to a lesser extent, by the southern hemisphere (New Zealand and South America), these forests are characterized by presenting cold, wet and snowy winners, and warm summers.

Among the most abundant vegetation is the deciduous trees (beech, oak), conifers, families’ bushes Ericaceae and Rosaceae

As for the fauna, widely threatened by anthropic activities, highlights the presence of foxes, wolves, deer, carpenters, squirrels, etc.

Tropical forest

Located in the tropical area, with warm temperatures and high humidity, the biotic factors of the tropical forest are very diverse, hosting half of the species on our planet.

According to the types of tropical forest that exist, vegetation varies. In the dry tropical forest the grasslands (grasses) stand out, in the rainy the tropical jungles (leafy vegetation), in the monsoon the perennial leaf vegetation abounds (eucalyptus, oak, bamboo) and in the flooding the mangrove.

In terms of fauna, in these forests it is possible to find monkeys, Águilas, carpinchos, crocodiles, vipers, tigers, gorillas, among other animals.

Subtropical forest

Next to tropical areas, in these forests, which can be dry or wet, the vegetation of wide leaves abounds. In addition, the present fauna varies according to the different types of subtropical forests that exist, among which those of pines, pre -male or mountain jungle, the humid and dry subtropical forests stand out.

Discover more about the different types of forests with this other article.

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