Climatic Factors

Climatic factors are the class of abiotic factors that arise from the atmosphere and weather, and they are among the most powerful natural controls on plant life anywhere on Earth. The textbook groups five specific climatic factors under this heading: light (drives photosynthesis and several regulatory responses), temperature (sets the pace of metabolism and defines tolerance limits), water (essential for every physiological process and the ultimate limiting factor in dry regions), wind (moves air, gases, pollen and seeds, and can also cause physical damage), and fire (an occasional but powerful disturbance that can reset vegetation entirely). Because these five factors interact constantly — for instance, wind increases the rate at which a plant loses water, and temperature and light together decide how much water a plant needs to begin with — cl …