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What are some of the several factors which contribute to the distribution and location of animal and plant life?

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- There is more sunlight in the equator than at the poles, for example. The variation within this factor aids in explaining the distribution and location of plant life. For example, photosynthesis is highest at the equator throughout the year and so is life.
- Seasonal variability in abiotic factors is associated with different factors such as aspect and topography (altitude).
- Temperature provides die medium in which chemical reactions and metabolic activities are enacted. Most chemical reactions increase in speed with temperature.
- In plants, too great a temperature affects the breakdown. For each plant species, there is a minimum and a maximum environmental factor below and above which chemical reactions cannot take place. There is also the optimum (or the ideal) level.
- Because physiological processes proceed at different rates under different environmental conditions, an organism has a limited range of conditions in which it survives and thrives best. Within those limits is a further restricted range where the organism may operate at maximum efficiency - this range is called tolerance limit. Within this, we may define yet another narrower, preferred range, and within which the population of a species is highest, called the optimum range. Outside the tolerance -ange is the range of intolerance*-where environmental factors limit performance.
- In any environment, all organisms have tolerance limits beyond which they cannot exist. Thus, each physical environment factor is operative over a gradient;, which affects all organisms present, for example through a range of conditions from low to high.
- Any organism, which is tolerant of a wide range of conditions, is termed eurytopic, and it is said to have a catholic taste or is simply non-selective.
- An organism, which is tolerant of a narrow range of conditions, is referred to as stenotopic or highly selective taste or a limiting physiology.
- All organisms function with maximum efficiency over only part of an environmental gradient. Here at its optimum, the organism is able to exist in large numbers, since its ability to compete is at its greatest. Beyond this limit, it suffers physiological stress, so that its reproductive capacity is impaired and smaller numbers are able to be maintained.
- When the conditions of an organism become unbearable, it may migrate to a more favorable area.

francis1897 answered the question on February 27, 2023 at 11:45

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What are some of the several factors which contribute to the distribution and location of animal and plant life?

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