Any characteristic, whether a physical trait, a behaviour, a physiological adaptation etc can make an organism more or less likely to survive in a particular environment.
A dark colour could help a rabbit survive if it lives in a dark forest, because predators can't see it so well, but it would be less likely to survive in the arctic, where the environment is all white and it would show up.
In terms of the characteristics, think about: does it help the organism get food? Does it help protect the organism from predators? If it does, that organism is more likely to survive, and pass the characteristic on to it's offspring. If a bacterium has a characteristic of not being killed by antibiotics, this will help it to survive and breed.
The key difference between energy flow and matter cycling is that energy flow shows the energy transmission from one trophic level to next trophic level in food chains while matter cycling shows the flow or cycling of elements through the living and nonliving parts of ecosystems
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