What is ecology? Explain the major abiotic factors in any ecosystem.

Explanation

(a) Ecology is the branch which deals with the study of interactions among organisms and between the organism and its physical abiotic) environment.
(b) The major abiotic factors are light, temperature, water and soil.
(c) Sunlight: It is used by plants for their photosynthetic activity. Many plants are also dependent on sunlight to meet their photoperiodic requirement for flowering. For many animals too, light is important in that they use the diurnal and seasonal variations in light intensity and duration as cues for timing their foraging, reproductive and migratory activities.
(d) Temperature : An optimum temperature is required for all the organisms as it affects the kinetics of enzymes and through it the basal metabolism activity and other physiological functions of the organism. Eurythermal are the organisms which can tolerate and thrive in a wide range of temperatures and steno thermals are the organisms which are restricted to a narrow range of temperatures.
(e) Water : Water influences the productivity and distribution of plants. For aquatic organisms the chemical composition and pH of water becomes important. Salt concentration (salinity) is less than 5 parts per thousand in inland waters, 30-35 in sea and >100 parts per thousand in hyper saline lagoons.
(f) Soil : Various characteristics of soil such as composition, grain size and aggregation determine the percolation and water holding capacity of the soils These characteristics along with parameters such as pH, mineral composition and topography determine to a large extent the vegetation in any area.