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The Biotic component and the Abiotic component
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiotic_component

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biotic_component
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Biotic components are the living things that shape an ecosystem. A biotic factor is any living component that affects another organism, including animals that consume the organism in question, and the living food that the organism consumes. Each biotic factor needs energy to do work and food for proper growth. Biotic factors include human influence.

Biotic components are contrasted to abiotic components, which are non-living components of an organism’s environment, such as temperature, light, moisture, air currents, etc. Biotic components usually include:

• Producers, i.e. autotrophs: e.g. plants, they convert the energy [from photosynthesis (the transfer of sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide into energy), or other sources such as hydrothermal vents] into food.
• Consumers, i.e. heterotrophs: e.g. animals, they depend upon producers (occasionally other consumers) for food.
• Decomposers, i.e. detritivores: e.g. fungi and bacteria, they break down chemicals from producers and consumers (usually dead) into simpler form which can be reused.

In biology and ecology, abiotic components or, abiotic factors, are non-living chemical and physical parts of the environment that affect living organisms and the functioning of ecosystems. Abiotic factors and phenomena associated with them underpin all biology.

An ecosystem’s abiotic factors may be classified via “SWATS” (Soil, Water, Air, Temperature, Sunlight).[citation needed]

In biology and ecology, abiotic components include physical conditions and non-living resources that affect living organisms in terms of growth, maintenance, and reproduction. Resources are distinguished as substances or objects in the environment required by one organism and consumed or otherwise made unavailable for use by other organisms.

Component degradation of a substance by chemical or physical processes, e.g. hydrolysis. All non-living components of an ecosystem is called abiotic components.

Examples:

In biology, abiotic factors can include water, light, radiation, temperature, humidity, atmosphere, and soil. The macroscopic climate often influences each of the above. Pressure and sound waves may also be considered in the context of marine or sub-terrestrial environments.

All of these factors affect different organisms to different extents. If there is little or no sunlight then plants may wither and die from not being able to get enough sunlight to complete the cycle of photosynthesis. Many archaea require very high temperatures, or pressures, or unusual concentrations of chemical substances, such as sulfur, because of their specialization into extreme conditions. Certain fungi have evolved to survive mostly at the temperature, the humidity, and stability of their environment.

For example, there is a significant difference in access to water as well as humidity between temperate rain forests and deserts. This difference in water access causes a diversity in the types of plants and animals that grow in these areas.