Ecology
Biotic
The living components of an environment—every organism that competes, cooperates, parasitizes, or ignores you. Biotic factors are the players; abiotic factors are the rules of the game.
Used in the Books
This term appears in 1 chapter:
Biological Context
Biotic factors include predation, competition, disease, and symbiosis. They contrast with abiotic factors (non-living) like temperature, rainfall, and soil chemistry. Both biotic and abiotic factors shape ecosystems, but biotic factors are adaptive—they respond to changes in other organisms. A predator-prey relationship creates feedback loops absent from abiotic constraints.