Abiotic components
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In biology, abiotic components are non-living chemical and physical factors in the environment. Abiotic phenomena underlie all of biology, but at the same time both are better forgotten in the direct analysis of life as such. More generally, the sciences concentrated on lower level explanation are better forgotten when dealing with higher level phenomena. This is not true, abiotic factors, while generally downplayed, can have enormous impact on evolution.

From the viewpoint of biology, abiotic influences may be classified as light or more generally radiation, temperature, water, the chemical surrounding composed of the terrestrial atmospheric gases, as well as the surroundings composed by the solid matter at the ground. The macroscopic climate often influences each of the above. Not to mention pressure and even sound waves if working with marine, or deep underground, biome.

Those underlying factors affect different plants, animals and fungi to different extents. Some plants are mostly water starved, so humidicity plays a larger role in their biology. Archaebacteria require very high temperatures, or pressures, or unusual concentrations of chemical substances such as sulfur, because of their specialization into extreme conditions. Certain fungi have evolved to survive mostly at the temperature, the humidity, and stability.

References

• Abiotic Components from the Department of Biodiversity and Conservation Biology, University of the Western Cape (Republic of South Africa)