Student blog Post Assignment #4- Jenny

       There is an abundance of abiotic factors that affect our plants. An abiotic factor is a non-living thing that affects the experiment. Some of the factors that we experienced were the sun, rain, soil, air quality, and many more. The weather affects our plants because they cannot grow very well in pouring rain or extreme heat (drought). The soil also has an affect on our plants because they if the soil is very dry or too damp, the platens won't grow.There are also many biotic factors that affect our plants. A few of these are predators, competitors, prey, and humans. Predation has a very large affect on our plants, because today we found that almost all of our leaves have been eaten by some animal. Competition is also present in the environment around our plants, because we also saw many different plants growing around ours. All in all, there are many factors that affect our plants growth.
       As said before, our plants participate in competition. The weeds and plants that grow around our plants compete for resources. These resources are soil, water, food, and others. The weeds and other plants want the same resources that our plants want, so they try to grow in the same area. We can tell that competition is present in the environment around our plants, because there are weeds growing around our plants in the space that our plants need to grow.
     The "winners" and "losers" are determined in this competition by whoever survives. At the end of the day, which ever plant is still standing and surviving, that is the "winner." The "winner" in this competition is usually the plant that is taller, because it while get more sunlight and nutrients. This competition is sometimes difficult, because sometimes both plants have similar qualities and have a very intense competition. When the competition is difficult, it means that both plants are at similar heights and strengths.
       There are many other interactions that our plants participate in. Some of these interactions are predation, mutualism, and parasitism. The predation that is taking place occurs when our plant is being eaten and when our plants are taking nutrients from the Earth. Mutualism is when one both organisms benefit from the interaction. Parasitism is when one organism is hurt or killed by the interaction. Both of these interactions take place occur in our plant's environment.
       In the garden, there isn't really any signs of succession. The only signs the are there are little seedlings beginning to grow on a bare patch of dirt. This type of succession is called secondary succession. Secondary succession starts out with dirt, whereas primary succession starts without it. The little seedlings that have started to grow, mean that soon there will be a bunch of plants growing there in a year or so (maybe even less time).