Categories

Breaking News

Examples of Biotic Factors

Biotic factors are the living components of an ecosystem. They are sorted into three groups: producers or autotrophs, consumers or heterotrophs, and decomposers or detritivores.

Producers

Producers, also called autotrophs, convert energy into food, some using photosynthesis. Here are examples of producers:

  • Air plants
  • Apricot mallow
  • Arctic azaleas
  • Arctic moss
  • Arctic poppy
  • Arctic willow
  • Avocado
  • Ball moss
  • Bamboo
  • Banana trees
  • Bear berry
  • Bees – yellow jacket, wasp, honey, carpenter, hornets
  • Big galleta
  • Blue Dicks
  • Bromeliads
  • Bush muhly
  • Caribou moss
  • Cassava
  • Cotton grass
  • Cyanobacteria
  • Desert needle
  • Eel grass
  • Epiphyte
  • Ferns
  • Fluff grass
  • Fremont’s pin cushion
  • Fruit trees – lemon, orange, apple, etc
  • Green algae
  • Green sulfur bacteria
  • Hay
  • Indian rice grass
  • Joshua trees
  • Juniper
  • Lichens
  • Living rocks – Lithops
  • Marsh grass
  • Orchids
  • Owl’s clover
  • Pasque flower
  • Periwinkle
  • Phytoplankton
  • Pines
  • Pinyon pines
  • Purple sulfur bacteria
  • Red algae
  • Red brome
  • Red maids
  • Resurrection fern
  • Rubber trees
  • Shrubs
  • Seaweeds
  • Sedges
  • The corpse lily
  • Turf algae
  • Turfed saxifrage
  • Venus fly traps
  • Vicia cracca
  • Vines
  • White fir
  • Zooxanthellae

Consumers

Consumers, also called heterotrophs, rely upon producers for food. Here are examples of consumers:

  • Acacia ant
  • American alligator
  • Anteater
  • Arctic bumble bees
  • Arctic ground squirrel
  • Arctic hare
  • Arctic peregrine falcon
  • Arctic shrews
  • Arctic wolf
  • Badger
  • Barracuda
  • Bass
  • Bats – most
  • Bears – black, American, Asian, grizzly, Kodiak,sun, Polar
  • Bighorn sheep
  • Bobcats
  • Cactus wrens
  • Canada goose
  • Caribou
  • Catfish
  • Cattle – zebu, taurine, sanga, dwarf lulu, chianina, brown
  • Swiss Cheetah
  • Chimpanzee
  • Chuckwalla
  • Crab
  • Colobus monkey
  • Common kingsnake
  • Cougar
  • Coyote
  • Crocodile
  • Dall sheep
  • Desert tortoise
  • Dingo
  • Dolphins – Chinese River, Amazon River, Baiji, Ganges and Indus River
  • Dunlin flavus
  • Eagles – bald, harpy, golden, crested, white tailed
  • Electric rays
  • Elephants
  • Fox – Arctic, red, crab eating, fennec
  • Giant Pacific octopus
  • Goatfish
  • Golden lion
  • Grass shrimp
  • Green crab
  • Green sea turtle
  • Groupers – white, black, giant, Nassau Harlequin duck
  • Harp seals
  • Herring gull
  • Humans
  • Humming birds
  • Jackrabbits
  • Jaguar
  • Krill
  • Lemmings
  • Lemurs
  • Leopards – clouded, snow, sunda clouded
  • Liver tape worm
  • Lobster
  • Loris
  • Lynx
  • Marlin
  • Marmosets
  • Minnow
  • Mojave rattlesnake
  • Moray eels
  • Mosquitos
  • Mountain lions
  • Mule deer
  • Musk oxen
  • Mussules
  • Opossum
  • Otter
  • Owls – cape eagle, great horned, tawny fish
  • Pacific tree frog
  • Parrotfish
  • Pronuba moth
  • Pygmy
  • Ravens
  • Red-shanked douc
  • Langur
  • Red-spotted toad
  • Red-tailed hawks
  • Roadrunners
  • Sea bass
  • Seals – leopard, baikal,
  • Mediterranean monk
  • Sea lion
  • Sea urchins
  • Scorpions
  • Sharks – great white, tiger, angel, basking, blue, hammerhead
  • Shrimp
  • Sloth
  • Snakes – boa constrictor, rattlesnakes, pythons, anacondas, bushmaster
  • Snappers
  • Snapping turtle
  • Spiders
  • Sponges – yellow, vase, tube, red tree, common sea squirt, painted tunicate
  • Sturgeon
  • Sumatran rhinoceros
  • Surgeonfish
  • Swordfish
  • Tarantula
  • Tarantula hawk
  • Tigers
  • Toco toucan
  • Trout
  • Tuna
  • Vampire bats
  • Walrus wasps
  • Whales – orca, sperm, pilot, right, blue, humpback
  • Wolves – gray, Himalayan, maned, red, Indian
  • Wood bison
  • Wrasses – butterflyfish, filefish, triggerfish, damselfish
  • Zooplankton – copepods or urchins

Decomposers

Decomposers, also called detritivores, break down chemicals from consumers and producers into simpler forms that are used again. Here are examples of decomposers:

  • Bacteria – streptomyces, penicillum, bacillus, aspergillus
  • Beach flies
  • Clams
  • Cockroaches
  • Crabs
  • Earthworms
  • Flat worms
  • Flies
  • Freshwater shrimp
  • Fungi – mushrooms
  • Lobsters
  • Macrofauna
  • Mesofauna
  • Microbes
  • Microfauna
  • Protozoans
  • Shelf fungus
  • Slugs
  • Snails
  • Termites
  • Wasps

By reviewing these examples of biotic factors you can see that they are varied in type and function.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *