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The biotic potential is the quantitative expression of the ability of a species to face natural selection in any environment. The main equilibrium of a particular population is described by the equation: Chapman also relates to a "vital index", regarding a ratio to find the rate of surviving members of a species, whereas; Vital Index = (number ...
Natural-resource meaning [:] An actual or potential form of wealth supplied by nature, as coal, oil, water power, timber, arable land, etc. A material source of wealth, such as timber, fresh water, or a mineral deposit, that occurs in a natural state and has economic value. Something, such as a forest, a mineral deposit, or fresh water, that is ...
Definition of size asymmetry. Resource competition can vary from completely symmetric (all individuals receive the same amount of resources, irrespective of their size, known also as scramble competition) to perfectly size symmetric (all individuals exploit the same amount of resource per unit biomass) to absolutely size asymmetric (the largest individuals exploit all the available resource).
Environmental gradient. An environmental gradient, or climate gradient, is a change in abiotic (non-living) factors through space (or time). Environmental gradients can be related to factors such as altitude, depth, temperature, soil humidity and precipitation. Often times, a multitude of biotic (living) factors are closely related to these ...
Ecophysiology (from Greek οἶκος, oikos, "house (hold)"; φύσις, physis, "nature, origin"; and -λογία, -logia ), environmental physiology or physiological ecology is a biological discipline that studies the response of an organism 's physiology to environmental conditions. It is closely related to comparative physiology and ...
Ecological niche. The flightless dung beetle occupies an ecological niche: exploiting animal droppings as a food source. In ecology, a niche is the match of a species to a specific environmental condition. [1] [2] It describes how an organism or population responds to the distribution of resources and competitors (for example, by growing when ...
Ecosystem classifications are specific kinds of ecological classifications that consider all four elements of the definition of ecosystems: a biotic component, an abiotic complex, the interactions between and within them, and the physical space they occupy. Biotic factors of the ecosystem are living things; such as plants, animals, and bacteria ...
Biotic materials in soil include glomalin, Dopplerite and humic acid. Some biotic material may not be considered to be organic matter if it is low in organic compounds, such as a clam's shell, which is an essential component of the living organism, but contains little organic carbon. Examples of the use of biotic materials include: