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What do you think the common characteristics in the above two habitats?
The answer to this questions is that both habitats have living and non-living
components. These are common to all habitats. However, the kinds of
plants and animals (living beings) are different, and the non-living
components also vary.
The living beings in a habitat are called biotic components , and the non-
living things are called abiotic components .
What is the reason that some organisms live in water and others on land? It
is so because every organism requires specific conditions to survive. From
this activity, you can understand that different habitats provide different
kinds of living conditions.
Let us know about survival of fish in a pond.
In Activity 1, you listed fish as a biotic component of a pond. A pond
supports fish by providing necessary living conditions – food, oxygen,
shelter, and space to grow. Fish get food from small plants and animals, and
oxygen from the water itself.
Many other living beings are also a part of a pond. Some of these are frogs,
freshwater turtles, snakes, dragonflies, mosquitoes, snails, and ducks. Also
plants like algae, diatoms, duckweed, and lotus are found in a pond. All
these organisms interact with one another and with the non- living parts of
the pond.
Science a. Pond habitat Two types of habitats b. Forest habitat
Bytes
Every habitat has its own mix of living (biotic) components and physical
Testimony
Every organism in a (abiotic) conditions such as air, water, sunlight, temperature, and soil.
habitat has its own role. Infact organisms that live in the same habitat may use the available
When even one species
disappears or mul ples resources in different ways.
too fast, the balance of For instance, a forest may be warm during the day and cool at night. A snake
that habitat changes.
Studying popula ons that hunts after dark and a rodent active during the day both live in the
helps us understand how same forest, yet they use it differently. Still, they manage to live in balance
nature keeps itself stable.
within the same environment.
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