We live in a temperate forest environment, as we are surronded mainly in West Virginia by trees that go through leaf changes throughout the seasons, an example being losing them in the winter. As biotic characteristics describe the living organisms in a biome, these would be things such as the trees, plants, animals and obviously humans. All living things within our biome here are biotic factors. Abiotic characteristics include the non-living things within our environment as well as our temperature and its changes throughout seasons.  Streams of running water, rocks, nd soil are just a few examples of the abiotic factors in our biome. All these things, both abiotic and biotic alike, do indeed reflect our actual surroundings, as it is very likely to step outside of your house and find any of these things in your yard.