Lesson on Biotic and Abiotic
Factors
What factors both
living and non living
will affect my life?
3 minutes To
THINK PAIR
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Factors affecting mouse
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Predators
Food
Shelter
Temperature
Weather
Competitors
• Pathogens
• Parasites
• Clean Water
Would the same factors affect this
flower?
Factors Affecting Plant
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Predators
Food
Shelter
Temperature
Weather
Competitors
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Pollinators
Soil
Nutrients
Wind
Aspect
Daylight
Keywords for today
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Biotic
Abiotic
Climatic
Edaphic
At the end of today’s lesson you will be
able to
• Define biotic, abiotic, climatic and edaphic
• Give examples of each type of factor
Classify the factors in the picture as
either biotic factors or abiotic factors
List the Biotic and Abiotic Factors in
the Image
Decide if Factor is Biotic or Abiotic
Write A if Abiotic
_______ Mouse
_______ Rocks
_______ Water
_______ Fish
_______ Paper
_______ Glass
_______ Aluminum
_______ Wooden Ruler
_______ Sand
_______ Clouds
Write B if Biotic
_______ Corpse
_______ Snail
_______ Vegetation
_______ Bread Mould
_______ Trees
_______ Soil
_______ Plastic
_______ Pipe
_______ Air
_______ Wind
Biotic or Abiotic or Both?
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Fish
Chair
Water
Train
Atom
Plastic
Insects
Wood
Sea Shell
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Dirt
Dog
Worm
Burger
Wheat
T.V.
Broccoli
Pine Tree
Energy
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Flower
Dead animal
Wooden Table
Cotton Shirt
Sunlight
Ice
Hydrogen
Strawberries
Wind
Decide whether these items are Abiotic, Biotic, or can be argued to
be both, then place in the Venn diagram
Abiotic
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Biotic
List the Biotic and Abiotic Factors in
the Image
Abiotic Factors
• Climatic and Edaphic
• Climatic - factors that relate to the weather
• Edaphic – factors that relate to the soil
What climatic factors could we
measure?
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Light Intensity
Humidity
Wind speed
Temperature
Aspect
Slope
What edaphic factors could we
measure?
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Soil pH
Amount of water in soil
Soil Temperature
Soil Air
Soil Texture
Inquiry Approach
• Do humans always adversely affect biodiversity?
Rice fields versus Marsh
Is the weather in Ireland the same?
climatedata.eu
The Deer Population
A field study was conducted to
observe a deer population in a
given region over time.
The deer were counted at different
intervals over a period of 40 years.
During this period of time both
ranching and hunting increased in
the study region.
A summary of the data is
presented in the table.
Questions on Deer Population
• During which 10 year period did the greatest
increase in the deer population occur?
• State one possible action that could have been
used to help maintain a more stable population
of deer in the area.
• Identify an abiotic limiting factor for the deer
populations.
• Identify a biotic limiting factor for the deer
populations.
• List two problems an overpopulation of deer can
cause in the environment.
Abiotic Factors
Biotic Factors