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Experiments show that RNA-like polymers can be synthesized in wet-dry cycling and UV light exposure. These polymers were encapsulated in vesicles after condensation. [ 256 ] Potential sources of organics at hot springs might have been transport by interplanetary dust particles, extraterrestrial projectiles, or atmospheric or geochemical synthesis.
Ecology – scientific study of the distribution and abundance of living organisms and how the distribution and abundance are affected by interactions between the organisms and their environment. The environment of an organism includes both physical properties, which can be described as the sum of local abiotic factors such as solar insolation ...
Abiotic components include physical conditions and non-living resources that affect living organisms in terms of growth, maintenance, and reproduction. Resources are distinguished as substances or objects in the environment required by one organism and consumed or otherwise made unavailable for use by other organisms.
Random distribution is rare in nature as biotic factors, such as the interactions with neighboring individuals, and abiotic factors, such as climate or soil conditions, generally cause organisms to be either clustered or spread. Random distribution usually occurs in habitats where environmental conditions and resources are consistent.
Abiotic and biotic factors may work together in determining the range of a species. An example might be some obligate seeder plants where the distribution is limited by the presence of wildfires, which are needed to allow their seed bank to germinate, and also use dispersal of their seeds mediated by ants.
Realized niche width is a phrase relating to ecology, is defined by the actual space that an organism inhabits and the resources it can access as a result of limiting pressures from other species (e.g. superior competitors).
The abiotic factors that environmental gradients consist of can have a direct ramifications on organismal survival. Generally, organismal distribution is tied to those abiotic factors, but even an environmental gradient of one abiotic factor yields insight into how a species distribution might look.
He was a corresponding member of the Australian Academy of Science, [12] a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, [13] and a Guggenheim fellow, [14] and has received the Eminent Ecologist Award from the Ecological Society of America. [15] He was a professor emeritus at the University of California Santa Barbara until his death in ...