A biological resource is a substance or object required by an organism for normal growth

Developmental biology

Developmental biology is the study of the process by which organisms grow and develop. Modern developmental biology studies the genetic control of cell growth, differentiation and "morphogenesis", which is the process that gives rise to tissues, organs and anatomy.- Related fields of study...

, maintenance

Maintenance of an organism

Maintenance of an organism is the collection of processes to stay alive, excluding production processes.The Dynamic Energy Budget theory delineates two classes...

, and reproduction. Resources can be consumed by one organism and, as a result, become unavailable to another organism. For plants key resources are sunshine, nutrients, water, and place to grow. For animals key resources are food, water, and territory.

Key resources for plants

Terrestrial plants require particular resources for photosynthesis

Photosynthesis

Photosynthesis is a chemical process that converts carbon dioxide into organic compounds, especially sugars, using the energy from sunlight. Photosynthesis occurs in plants, algae, and many species of bacteria, but not in archaea. Photosynthetic organisms are called photoautotrophs, since they can...

 and to complete their life cycle of germination, growth, reproduction, and dispersal:

• Carbon dioxide
  Carbon dioxide
  Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...
  
  
• Microsite (ecology)
  Microsite (ecology)
  A microsite is a term used in ecology to describe a pocket within an environment with unique features, conditions or characteristics. Classifying different microsites may depend on temperature, humidity, sunlight, nutrient availability, soil physical characterictics, vegetation cover, etc....
  
  
• Nutrients
• Photosynthetically active radiation
  Photosynthetically active radiation
  Photosynthetically active radiation, often abbreviated PAR, designates the spectral range of solar radiation from 400 to 700 nanometers that photosynthetic organisms are able to use in the process of photosynthesis. This spectral region corresponds more or less with the range of light visible to...
  
  
• Pollination
  Pollination
  Pollination is the process by which pollen is transferred in plants, thereby enabling fertilisation and sexual reproduction. Pollen grains transport the male gametes to where the female gamete are contained within the carpel; in gymnosperms the pollen is directly applied to the ovule itself...
  
  
• Seed dispersal
  Seed dispersal
  Seed dispersal is the movement or transport of seeds away from the parent plant. Plants have limited mobility and consequently rely upon a variety of dispersal vectors to transport their propagules, including both abiotic and biotic vectors. Seeds can be dispersed away from the parent plant...
  
  
• Soil
  Soil
  Soil is a natural body consisting of layers of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics...
  
  
• Water
  Water
  Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...
  
  

Key resources for animals

Animals resources particular resources for metabolism

Metabolism

Metabolism is the set of chemical reactions that happen in the cells of living organisms to sustain life. These processes allow organisms to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments. Metabolism is usually divided into two categories...

 and to complete their life cycle of gestation, birth, growth, and reproduction:

• Foraging
  Foraging
  - Definitions and significance of foraging behavior :Foraging is the act of searching for and exploiting food resources. It affects an animal's fitness because it plays an important role in an animal's ability to survive and reproduce...
  
  
• Territory
  Territory (animal)
  In ethology the term territory refers to any sociographical area that an animal of a particular species consistently defends against conspecifics...
  
  
• Water
  Water
  Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...
  
  

Resources and ecological processes

Resource availability plays a central role in ecological processes:

• Carrying capacity
  Carrying capacity
  The carrying capacity of a biological species in an environment is the maximum population size of the species that the environment can sustain indefinitely, given the food, habitat, water and other necessities available in the environment...
  
  
• Competition (biology)
  Competition (biology)
  Competition is an interaction between organisms or species, in which the fitness of one is lowered by the presence of another. Limited supply of at least one resource used by both is required. Competition both within and between species is an important topic in ecology, especially community ecology...
  
  
• Liebig's law of the minimum
  Liebig's law of the minimum
  Liebig's Law of the Minimum, often simply called Liebig's Law or the Law of the Minimum, is a principle developed in agricultural science by Carl Sprengel and later popularized by Justus von Liebig...
  
  
• Niche differentiation
  Niche differentiation
  The term niche differentiation , as it applies to the field of ecology, refers to the process by which natural selection drives competing species into different patterns of resource use or different niches...
  
  

See also

• Abiotic component
• Biotic component
  Biotic component
  Biotic components are the living things that shape an ecosystem. A biotic factor is any living component that affects another organism, including animals that consume the organism in question, and the living food that the organism consumes. Each biotic factor needs energy to do work and food for...
  
  
• Community ecology
• Ecology
  Ecology
  Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
  
  
• Population ecology
  Population ecology
  Population ecology is a sub-field of ecology that deals with the dynamics of species populations and how these populations interact with the environment. It is the study of how the population sizes of species living together in groups change over time and space....
  
  
• Plant ecology
  Plant ecology
  Plant ecology is a subdiscipline of ecology which studies the distribution and abundance of plants, the interactions among and between members of plant species, and their interactions with their environment...
  
  
• Resource (disambiguation)