Previous Year Question

Plants and animals that live primarily on land are called terrestrial organisms or terrestrial inhabitants.

A Terrestrial habitat is a habitat occurring in a land environment. It may include forests, grasslands, deserts, mountains and many other land-based ecosystems.

Terrestrial organisms must develop different adaptations according to their particular land environment.

For example:

Desert organisms require adaptations for water scarcity and extreme temperatures.

Mountain organisms may need adaptations for low temperatures, steep terrain and, in many situations, lower oxygen availability.

Forest organisms may require adaptations to ecological conditions such as dense vegetation, competition for light, food and shelter.

Thus, the term terrestrial does not indicate only one particular climate or ecosystem; in a broad sense, it refers to land-based life.

Now consider the other options:

Abiotic → refers to the non-living components of an ecosystem, such as water, air, soil, temperature and minerals. Plants and animals are not abiotic.

Aquatic inhabitants → organisms that live primarily in water, such as fishes, many aquatic plants and numerous aquatic invertebrates.

Biotic → collectively refers to all living components of an ecosystem. It may include both terrestrial and aquatic organisms.

An important distinction is:

Terrestrial → Land-based
Aquatic → Water-based
Biotic → All living components
Abiotic → Non-living components