Great Barrier Reef Biotic Factors

The biotic factors and abiotic factors of the Great Barrier Reef, go hand and hand with each other without one the ecosystem could suffer deeply. Plants and bacteria are two of the major biotic components in this ecosystem. Bacteria acts as a decomposer. Some animals also know as detritivores also eat dead or decaying plants or animals. Autotrophs such as phytoplankton, algae and seaweed are some of the major plant life and primary producers in the Great Barrier Reef. These plants convert the sun’s light into energy for food and they are also food for primary consumers. The simplest form of the biotic factors is coral. It consists of polyps. Polyps are very small creatures that reproduce to form colonies that help make up the reefs for the

Some of the other abiotic factors is the Temperature of the water and sunlight are two abiotic factors found in this ecosystem. Since the Great Barrier Reef is an aquatic ecosystem, it has some additional abiotic components in it than a land ecosystem, including buoyancy, viscosity, light penetration, salts, gases and water density. Buoyancy refers to the force that supports the weight of an organism in water. Viscosity is the resistance to the movement of ocean water. These two abiotic factors help with the movement of fish and sea mammals. Light penetrates the ocean surface only about 20 meters, so after 20 meters there is little to none light. There is much more salt in the Great Barrier Reef than in any freshwater ecosystem, and some biotic components that live near estuaries, where freshwater mixes with the salt water, have to deal with changing amounts of salt in the water this is also known as adaptation. Water contains less oxygen than the air, the density of water in the Great Barrier Reef changes with depth, which changes the biotic components that can live in a given