Environmental chemistry: Environment and its components

The world environment is basically originated from French ‘Environia” that means ‘to surround”. The environment is a surrounding around us where we live and refers to a combination of all the living and non-living things in any physical state. Environment is one of the dynamic and complex components of nature. It is a mixture of materials and forces which interact with living organisms.

Definition:

The world environment can be explained as sum of all the conditions surrounding an organism at a given space and time, including biological, physical and cultural elements.

It can also be illustrated as an organism’s surrounding factors whether living or non-living that interact with it and can affect its development or existence and survival.

There are two main components of the environment given as follows

1.      Biotic components

2.      Abiotic components

1. Biotic components:

All the living entities that can have any kind of impact on the population of an organism or on the environment around that organism are categorized under biotic components. Biotic components are basically a set of interconnected populations of divergent organisms that belong to different species but inhabiting the same environment and affect the existence and survival of each other. These components are divided into three fundamental categories given as follows

1.     Heterotrophic components

2.     Autotrophic components

3.     Saprotrophic components

2. Abiotic components:

Non-living part of the environment that can alter the survival, existence and size of the population of an organism are named as abiotic components of the environment. Physical conditions of an environment as well as the non-living resources are fundamental abiotic components. These components can considerably influence the reproduction rate, growth rate and habitat of organisms. Generally, these components include percentage of moisture, temperature conditions, light, water availability, air flow, soil fertility, and oxygen or carbon dioxide levels in air.         

  

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