Environment is everything that is external to a living thing. A human being’s environment includes such factors as temperature, food supply, and other people. A plant’s environment includes soil, sunlight, and animals that may eat the plant. Nonliving environmental factors, such as temperature and sunlight, make up the abiotic environment. Living or recently living things, such as seaweed and fallen leaves, make up the biotic environment. The abiotic and biotic environments interact to make up the environment of a living thing. Ecology is the study of the relationships between organisms (living things) and their environment.
Abiotic environment
includes such factors as soil, water, atmosphere, and radiation. The abiotic environment is made up of many objects and forces that influence one another and living things. For example, a river’s current, temperature, clearness, and chemical composition influence what kinds of organisms are found there and how they live.
One important group of abiotic environmental factors make up what is called the weather. Living and nonliving things are influenced by rain, snow, hot or cold temperature, evaporation of water, humidity (amount of water vapor in the air), wind, and numerous other weather conditions. Many plants and animals die each year because of weather conditions. Human beings build homes and wear clothes to protect themselves from harsh weather.
Other abiotic factors include the amount of living space and nutrients (nourishing substances) available to an organism. All organisms need a certain amount of space in which to live. They also must have nutrients, such as phosphorus, to grow and live.
Biotic environment
includes plants, animals, and other organisms and their interactions with one another. For example, animals must feed on plants or on animals that eat plants. Thus, the kinds of plants that grow in an area strongly influence which animals can live there. Similarly, a person’s well-being depends in part on the quality and variety of foods available, such as fruit and vegetables from plants and meat from animals. Organisms also have associations apart from feeding relationships. For example, a human being houses trillions of bacteria in the digestive tract. These bacteria help a person to digest foods.
Some living things are able to control their environment to some degree. For example, beavers cut down trees to make dams. These dams cause ponds to form, which influences the kinds of plants and animals that grow there. In this way, beavers help shape both their abiotic environment and their biotic environment. Human beings have advanced beyond any other animal in controlling their environment. They have greatly changed many natural environments, such as by cutting down forests to plant crops. People also can create artificial environments. For example, spacecraft provide the environment people need to survive in the harsh conditions of outer space.
