Abiotic & Biotic Factors | Biology for Grade 10 PDF Download

Types of Abiotic Factors

• In Biology, ‘abiotic’ means non-living. An abiotic factor is a non-living factor
• Some abiotic factors which can affect a  community are shown in the table below:

Abiotic factors that affect a community

Effect of Abiotic Factors

• You should be able to extract and interpret information from charts, graphs and tables relating to the effect of abiotic factors on organisms within a community

Example exam question

Graph showing the effect of CO₂ concentration on plant height

What conclusion can you draw from this graph about the effect of CO₂ concentration on plant growth rate? Explain your answer.

Example exam answer

As CO₂ concentration increases, average plant height also increases. For example, at 5% CO₂, average plant height was 10cm, but at 30% CO₂, average plant height was 60cm. This shows that the higher the CO₂ concentration, the greater the plant growth rate. This is because CO₂ is used by plants for photosynthesis, which allows the plant to produce glucose for energy to grow.

Exam Tip

When answering questions that refer to a chart, graph or table, remember to reference specific figures from the data to support your answer, as seen in the example above.

Types of Biotic Factors

• In Biology, ‘biotic’ means living. A biotic factor is a living factor

Biotic factors that can affect a community table

Effect of Biotic Factors

• You should be able to extract and interpret information from charts, graphs and tables relating to the effect of biotic factors on organisms within a community

Example exam question

Graph showing the relationship between a grey squirrel population and a red squirrel population over time

What conclusion can you draw from this graph about the effect of introducing grey squirrels to a habitat that is occupied by red squirrels? Explain why this might have occurred.

Example exam answer

As the number of grey squirrels increases, the number of red squirrels decreases. This might have occurred because the two squirrel species are competing for one or more of the same resources. Grey squirrels are better adapted to use these resources and have outcompeted the red squirrels until eventually there are too few red squirrels left to breed successfully and there are none left in the habitat.