Final answer:
Both biotic and abiotic factors are essential in determining the abundance and diversity of organisms within a community. Biotic factors include interactions among living organisms, and abiotic factors are the nonliving aspects that shape the conditions of the environment.
Step-by-step explanation:
Biotic and abiotic environmental components play a pivotal role in structuring the abundance and diversity of organisms within a community. Biotic factors, which include all living organisms in the ecosystem, have a direct impact on the abundance of species through interactions such as predation, competition, and symbiosis. For example, the presence of predators can limit the population size of prey species, and plants compete for sunlight, affecting how many can thrive in one area.
Abiotic factors such as sunlight, soil, temperature, and water influence the diversity of life in an ecosystem by shaping the environment's conditions. Temperature and rainfall, for example, largely determine the types of vegetation present in a terrestrial biome, which in turn affects the diversity of animals that can inhabit that area. In aquatic environments, factors like light penetration, water density, and currents dictate the kinds of species that can survive in different zones.
Therefore, the correct answer to the student's question is c) Both biotic and abiotic factors influence abundance and diversity. These factors are interconnected and often shape the structure of communities in significant ways.