Abiotic Factors (AQA GCSE Biology)

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

Plants of the same species were grown in tanks with different CO₂ levels. Their height was measured after 3 weeks and an average taken:

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.