Competition With Other Organisms A Biotic Factor That...

Competition with other organisms increases down the shore, and is a biotic factor that influences where the snakeskin chiton are distributed. The main reason for competition between organisms, is living space on rocks. Despite finding the radiate limpets in many of the same quadrats or zones of the rocky shore as the chiton, they both have different ecological niches meaning they are able to occupy the same zone and are not competing. I also found that the blue-banded periwinkle was located in a completely different zone to the chiton- the splash zone and occasionally the high tide. This means that the chiton is not in competition with that organism, so they do not affect each other, so therefore the chiton is able to thrive within its environment. Gause’s principle of competitive exclusion states that no two species can inhabit the same ecological niche permanently, meaning that one species population will thrive as the other decreases. Predation is another biotic factor th at influences the distribution of the chitons on the rocky shore. Predation from other organisms increases down the shore line, and is a reason why the chitons are found more in the upper intertidal, as the further you move down the shore line, the more predators there are. Organisms such as fish, whelks and sea stars can move up the shore to feed when the tide rises, but this is limited the higher up they go as the exposure to air increases, which these predators are not adapted to. This means that