Environmental Science: An Overview

Environment - The environment means the conditions and circumstances that surround someone. The air water and space surrounds both living and non living organisms. This surrounding is called natural environment.

Environmental Science- All of the biotic and abiotic factors that act on an organism, population, or ecological community and influence its survival and development. Biotic factors include the organisms themselves, their food, and their interactions.

The Abiotic factors include such items as sunlight, soil, air, water, climate, and pollution. Organisms respond to changes in their environment by evolutionary adaptations in form and behavior. {According to American Heritage Science Dictionary}

The Physical environment

It is also known as a-biotic environment and natural environment.

• The meaning of ‘a-biotic’ or ‘physical’ is non living like land water air conditions atmosphere which constitutes of soil. So we can say that physical or a-biotic environment is the environment which includes non living or physical things which are constitutes of soil and affect the living things.
• The physical or a-biotic environment also includes the climatic factors such as sunbeams, rainwater, precipitation, moisture, pressure and wind speed.

The Importance of Physical Environment

• Just think, the most important thing to make house is residential space, and for residential space, we need land area. The land area is included in physical environment. So it is responsible for the residential for living beings.
• The a-biotic environment like soil, water and air are the necessary nutrients element provider for the living beings.
• All of living beings are surrounded by atmosphere; it is the combination of different types of gases. The living beings take oxygen and other gases from the atmosphere.
• The a-biotic environment also controls the climatic factors like weather.
• The physical environment also includes the soil which is responsible for the works and food crops for the living beings. It also provides different types of minerals which are very necessary for growth of life
• Water is one of the most necessary things for living beings. Physical environment also deals with the water factor of the earth.

Biotic environment

• It is also known as biological environment and organic environment.
• In the opposite side of the physical environment, the biotic or biological environment is responsible for the living beings.
• You have already understood that the meaning of ‘biological’ is living things. So, the biological environment is the environment which involves the living part of the earth.
• The importance of biotic environment

• In this type of environment includes the plants, trees, animals, mammals, underwater living beings including human beings and microorganisms like bacteria and fungi.
• There is a concept which is necessary to understand. The living beings are highly dependent to each other. For example humans are highly depend upon plants and trees  for food and oxygen, and plants and trees are also depend upon humans and animals because of CO₂

On the basis of surrounding and species natural environment can be grouped in following two categories-

Living Organisms – Under this comes 1. Animals, 2. Humans, 3. Bacteria and 4. Plants

Non Living Organisms- Under this comes 1. Air, 2. Water and 3. Soil