IDNLearn.com offers a comprehensive platform for finding and sharing knowledge. Get the information you need from our experts, who provide reliable and detailed answers to all your questions.
Weather dictates what can live in an ecosystem as well as how it forms.
Living Factors
Weather affects things such as sunshine and precipitation. Living factors like plants depend on sunshine and precipitation for their survival. For this reason, weather changes the type of plants and animals that exist within an ecosystem. For example, cacti, which can survive long periods without water, can be found in the desert. Cacti exist in the desert because it is one of the only plants that can survive the dry weather of the desert.
Animals are also affected by the weather. For example, tree frogs require humid ecosystems to survive. So, tree frogs are only found in ecosystems like the rainforest that have high levels of precipitation.
This shows how weather affects the type of plants and animals that can survive in a specific ecosystem.
Non-Living Factors
Weather can affect non-living factors through erosion. Erosion is when the earth is worn away due to weather. For example, over time high winds will break down soil and displace it. This soil can be deposited in a river, which contaminates water. Additionally, if an area gets a large amount of rain, it can flood the river. This causes silt from the river to be deposited on the soil. Silt can make land more fertile.
Both of these examples show that weather can affect the non-living factors of the ecosystem like the river and soil.