4.    Which of the following would NOT be included in the abiotic category?

        a. inches of rainfall per year                                b. intensity of sunlight on the forest floor
        c. amount of phosphorus in the soil                     d. size of the producer community

Producers belong to the biotic component of an ecosystem.  Rainfall, sunlight, and the mineral phosphorus are not living; hence they are abiotic factors.

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Emma Erdahl, Associate Professor of Biology
Northern Virginia Community College
Revised 8/23/00