How does biological diversity relate to the characteristics of the abiotic factors of an ecosystem?
The availability of abiotic factors as light, moisture, mineral salts, heat and carbon dioxide, more or less conditions the biodiversity of an ecosystem. Photosynthesis depends on water and light, and plants also require mineral salts, carbon dioxide and adequate temperature for their cells to work. In environments where these factors are not restrictive the synthesis of organic material (by photosynthesis) is at a maximum, plants and algae can reproduce simpler, the population of these beings enhance, potential ecological niches multiply and new species emerge. The large mass of producers makes viable the appearing of a diversity of consumers of various orders. In environments with restrictive abiotic factors, as deserts, the producers exist in small numbers and less diversity, a feature that therefore extends to consumers and conditions fewer ecological niches to be explored.