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Biotic   [ Ecology ]

Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

     
  Biotic in ecology are all the factors, especially the characteristics of entire populations or ecosystems, caused or produced by living beings in relation whit the environment.  
     
The word Biotic relate of life and living organisms.

Biotic in ecology are all the factors, especially the characteristics of entire populations or ecosystems, caused or produced by living beings in relation whit the environment.

An ecosystem involves interactions between abiotic and biotic factors. The biotic component of an ecosystem are the plants, animals and microorganism that directly, or indirectly, affect the environment.

Biotic Factors:

Characteristics of a species

  • physiological tolerance limits
  • body size, fecundity, longevity

Interactions with other organisms

  • food quantity & food quality
  • plants & herbivores; prey & predators; hosts and parasites
  • diseases
  • competition
     

 


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Holdfast roots  [ Botany  ]

Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

 
     
  Some species of climbing plants develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place.  
     
Climbing plants, like the poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans), Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata), and trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans),  develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place. Usually the Holdfast roots die at the end of the first season, but in some species they are perennial. In the tropics some of the large climbing plants have hold-fast roots by which they attach themselves, and long, cord-like roots that extend downward through the air and may lengthen and branch for several years until they strike the soil and become absorbent roots.

Major references and further lectures:
1) E. N. Transeau “General Botany” Discovery Publishing House, 1994
   

 

 

 

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