Which group of factors includes biological interactions among living organisms?

Biotic factors refer to all the living components of an environment, which include interactions among organisms such as competition, predation, symbiosis, and mutualism. These factors are crucial for understanding ecosystems, as they help to determine how species interact with one another and how these interactions influence population dynamics, community structure, and overall biodiversity. For example, the presence of predators can control the population sizes of prey species, while mutualistic relationships, like those between pollinators and flowering plants, can enhance reproductive success and species distribution.

In contrast, abiotic factors encompass the non-living aspects of an ecosystem, such as temperature, water, soil, and atmospheric conditions. Climate factors are a subset of abiotic factors specifically related to long-term weather patterns and conditions. Environmental metrics typically refer to measurements or indicators used to assess various environmental aspects, which may include both biotic and abiotic influences but do not directly highlight the interactions among living organisms. Thus, biotic factors are the appropriate group that focuses explicitly on biological interactions.