Needs, homes and adaptations

An ecosystem is made of living and nonliving factors that work together. Living factors are called biotic: plants, animals, fungi and bacteria. Nonliving factors are abiotic: sunlight, water, air, soil, temperature and rain. Even a school garden is an ecosystem. Water and light are two key abiotic factors; plants and animals have adaptations for how much of each they get. A desert is a place with very little rain, and Antarctica counts as a desert too, but a cold one: it gets very little snow and rain. An adaptation is a trait that helps survival and it is passed on to offspring. Animals that have the helpful trait survive and have young that also have it. Over many generations the trait becomes common in the species.