Video transcript
Hi I'm Nathan. In this video we're going to look at how abiotic and biotic factors can affect an organism or population of organisms. By identifying and using the language of abiotic and biotic factors we can get a better understanding of an organism's habitat needs, ecological niche and even their threats.
If we can identify what abiotic and biotic factors are important to a population of species we can also identify what data sources we need to use in order to make better quality management decisions to help preserve that population of organisms.
Let's run the next part of the video as a challenge. I'm going to describe for you the red-crowned toadlet's habitat and ecological niche and what you're going to try and do is identify the abiotic and biotic factors as they come up in the video. To help you we're going to add a few sounds. If you hear this sound *bell clangs* that means we're talking about an abiotic factor. If you hear this sound *spring sound* that means we're talking about a biotic factor. And if you hear this sound *electrical noise* that means we're talking about an interaction between those factors.
For example red-crowned toadlets usually live in forests and woodlands where there's a shrubby understory dominated by a range of plants adapted for dry conditions. Okay so here are some of the factors used in that description. You may want to pause or rewind the video in order to be able to take some good notes.
Okay let's get started with some of the descriptions. The geology of the toadlet's habitat is the upper slopes of ridges where sandstone and clay rocks have been eroded to make loamy soils, benched rock platforms with lots of horizontally weathered cracks.
The toadlets are often found in cracks, under logs, on soil and in thick leaf litter where they forage for the insects that are their food source. However sandstone based soils are often thin and dry out quickly. At the start of a drought or hot dry period red-crowned toadlets seek out clay ridge soils which hold moisture and therefore stay moist and cool for longer. By digging down into these soils they can avoid dehydration.
Toadlets need to move around to breed and find their food. They use the first or second order temporary drainage lines, like this, which drain the ridges, benches, cliffs and rocky slopes. The soil on these drainage lines stays moist for longer and the thicker leaf litter often has a greater abundance of insects species.
The toadlets have a predator defence mechanism in the form of toxin glands that produce a highly toxic poison specific for reptiles and some birds. How'd you go? Some of those factors were mentioned more than once.
I'm going to leave you with a list of the common factors that were used throughout that description. Thanks for watching.
End of transcript.