Environment: -

Everything that surrounds or affects an organism during its life time is collectively known as
its environment or simply put everything surrounding a living organism like people; place and
things constitute its environment which can be either natural or man-made. The word
environment has been derived from a French word ‘environner’ meaning to encircle or to
surround. In the beginning, environment of early man consisted of only physical aspects of
the planet earth such as land (lithosphere), air (atmosphere) and water (hydrosphere) along with
biotic communities but, with the passage of time and advancement of society man extended his
environment to include his social, economic and political functions too. At the organismic level
it is essentially physiological interaction which tries to understand that how different organisms
are adapted to their environment in terms of not only survival but also reproduction and
propagation of their population. All organisms (from virus to man) are obligatorily dependent
on the environment for various essential needs such as food, shelter, water, oxygen etc. The
surrounding that affects an organism during its lifetime is collectively known as its
environment. In another words “Environment is sum total of water, air and land inter-
relationships among themselves and also with the human being, other living organisms and
material goods”. It comprises all the physical and biological surrounding and their connections.
Environmental studies give an approach towards understanding the environment of our globe
and the impact of human life upon the environment and vice-versa. Thus environment is
actually universal in nature and it is a multidisciplinary subject counting physics, chemistry,
geology, geography, history, economics, physiology, biotechnology, remote sensing,
geophysics, soil science and hydrology etc.

Environment belongs to all the biotic and abiotic components and therefore is, vital for all.
Consequently, everyone is affected by environmental issues like global warming, depletion of
ozone layer, dwindling forest, depleting energy resources, loss of biodiversity etc. Environment
also deals with the analysis of the processes in hydrosphere, atmosphere, lithosphere, and
organisms which leads to pollute biosphere. Environment helps us for setting benchmark for
safe and healthy natural ecosystem.

DEFINITION AND SCOPE: -

The surroundings or settings in which a human being, animal, or plant lives or operates or it
is a set of conditions of a living being all the natural forces which provide settings for
development and growth as well as danger and damage. In a comprehensive form the
environment may be defined as “sum total of living, non-living components; influences and
events, surrounding an organism.” Environment is defined more comprehensively by others ‘as
a holistic view of the world as its functions at any point of time, with a multitude of
spatial elemental and socio-economic systems distinguished by quality and attributes of space
and mode of behaviour of abiotic and biotic forms.’ (K.R. Dikshit, 1984)

Definition of Environment: -

‘The term environment is used to describe, in the aggregate, all the external forces, influences
and conditions, which affect the life, nature behaviour and the growth, development and
maturity of living organisms’ (Douglas and Holland).

‘Environment refers to the sum total of all conditions which surround man at a given point in
space and time’ (C.C.Park)

The entire range of external influence acting on an organism, both the physical and biological,
and other organisms, i.e. forces of nature surrounding an individual. (Encyclopedia
Britannica)

Total environmental system including not only the biosphere, but also his interactions with
his natural and man-made surroundings (US Council on Environmental quality).

Environmental knowledge is a multidisciplinary knowledge whose fundamental aspects have

a direct significance to every segment of the planet. Its main characteristics include:

 Conservation and natural resources.

 Maintenance and management of biological diversity.

 Controlling and managing environmental pollution to permissible limit

 Stabilisation of human population and environment.

 Development of alternate sources of renewable energy systems

 Providing new dimension to nation’s security through conservation, protection,

management and maintenance of environment

It also deals with vital issues like safe and clean drinking water, hygienic living conditions
and pollution free fresh air, fertility of land, healthy food and development of sustainable
 environmental laws, administration, environmental protection, management and environmental
business are coming up as new opportunities for environment protection and managements.
The relationship and interaction between organism and environment are highly complex and
multidimensional. No organism can live alone without interacting with other organisms or other
biotic/abiotic forms. So each organism has other organisms as a part of its environment. Each
and everything with which we interact or which we need for our sustenance forms our
environment. In fact, environment is visualised in different ways with different angles by
different groups of people but it may be safely argued that ‘environment is an inseparable whole
and is constituted by the interacting system of physical, biological and cultural elements which
are interlinked individually as well as collectively in myriad ways. The environment is not
static; rather it’s a very dynamic entity. Various factors (biotic & abiotic) are in a flux and keep
changing the environment continuously.

TYPES OF ENVIRONMENT: -

On the basis of basic structure, the environment may be divided into

 Physical/abiotic environment
 Biotic environment
 Cultural environment
PHYSICAL/ABIOTIC ENVIRONMENT: - on the basis of physical characteristics and state,
abiotic or physical environment is subdivided into:
i. Solid i.e. lithosphere (solid earth)
ii. Liquid i.e. hydrosphere (water component)
iii. Gas i.e. atmosphere (gaseous component)
These environments can be termed as lithospheric, hydrosspheic, atmospheric environment
which can be further broken into smaller units based on different spatial scales like
mountain environment, plateau, plain, lake, river maritime, glacier, desert environment etc.
The physical environment may also be viewed in terms of climatic conditions providing
certain suits of habitat for biological communities like tropical, temperate and polar
environment etc.
BIOTIC ENVIRONMENT-: biotic environment consists of flora and fauna including man as
an important factor. Thus the biotic environment may be divided into:
iv. Floral environment
v. Faunal environment
Further all the organisms work to form their social groups and organizations at several levels
and thus is formed social environment, where in, the organisms work to derive matter from the
physical environment for their sustenance and development. This process generates economic
environment. It may be pointed out that of all the organisms man is the most skilled and
 civilize4d and hence his social organization is most systematic. It is significant to note that
three aspects of man, physical, social and economic have different characteristics and functions
in the biotic environment. As ‘physical man’ is one of the organismic populations or biological
community and thus requires basic elements of physical environment (habitat, air, water, food
etc.) like other biological populations and releases wastes into the ecosystem; ‘social man’
establishes social institutions forms social organisations, formulates laws and policies to
safeguard his existence, interest and social welfare and ‘economic man’ derives and utilises
resource from the physical and biotic environments with his skills and technologies. These may
be termed as physical, social and economic functions of man. It is the third function which
makes the man and environmental process because he transports matter and energy from one
component of the ecosystem to the other.

COMPONENTS OF ENVIRONMENT: -

The basic components of the environment are atmosphere or the air, lithosphere or the rocks
and soil, hydrosphere or the water, and the living component of the environment or the
biosphere.

ATMOSPHERE: -

• the thick gaseous layer surrounding the earth.

• It spreads up to 300 km. above the earth’s surface.

• Apart from gases there are water vapor, industrial gases, dust and smoke particles in
suspended state, microorganism etc.

LITHOSPHERE: -

The word lithosphere originated from a Greek word mean "rocky" + "sphere” i.e. the
solid outmost shield of the rocky planet. The Earth is an oblate spheroid. It is
composed of a number of different layers. These layers are:

• The Core which is around 7000 kilometers in diameter (3500 kilometers in radius)
and is situated at the Earth's center.

• The Mantle which environs the core and has a thickness of 2900 kilometers.

• The Crust floats on top of the mantle and is composed of basalt rich oceanic crust and
granitic rich continental crust.
HYDROSPHERE: -

• The hydrosphere includes all water on or near earth surface and includes oceans,
lakes, rivers, wetlands, icecaps, clouds, soils, rock layers beneath surface etc.

• water exist in all three states: solid (ice), liquid (water), and gas (water vapor)

• 71%of planet surface is covered with water

• Freshwater- 2.53%
• Freshwater in glaciers-1.74%

• Water as water vapour in atmosphere-12,900 km3

• living organism contain- 1100 km3

Fig. 1 Components of Environment.

ABIOTIC COMPONENTS (NON-LIVING): - these are the most important determining
factor of where and how well an organism exists in the environment. Although these factors
interact with each other, one single factor can limit the range of an organism thus acting as the
limiting factor. These factors can be categorised into following groups:

PHYSICAL FACTORS: - the major components are temperature, Water (Rainfall), Light
(Energy), Soil, Atmospheric pressure.

TEMPERATURE: - Temperature is the most ecologically germane environmental factor. It’s

a very well-known and an established fact that the average temperature on land varies seasonally,
decreasing progressively from the equator towards the poles and from plains to the top of
mountains ranging from sub-zero levels to >50˚C in polar areas/high altitudes and tropical deserts
in summer respectively. There are, however, unique habitats like thermal springs and deep-sea
hydrothermal vents where average temperatures exceed 100˚C. It iscommonly known fact that
mango trees do not and cannot grow in temperate countries like Canada and Germany, snow
leopards are not found in Kerala forests and tuna fish are rarely caught beyond tropical latitudes
in the ocean. A few organisms can tolerate and thrive in a wide range of temperatures without
having effect on their internal environment (they are called eurythermal), but, a vast majority of
them operate within a narrow range of temperatures (such organisms are called stenothermal).

WATER (RAINFALL): - Subsequent to temperature, water is another most important factor

influencing the life of organisms. In fact, genesis of life on earth is attributed to water without
which life is unsustainable. Its availability is too scarce in deserts. Due to this scarcity only special
adaptations by plants and animals of this region make it possible to survive there in suchan
unusual living conditions. The productivity and distribution of plants is also profoundly
dependent on water. One might believe that organisms living in oceans, lakes, rivers and other
water bodies should not face any water-related problems, but it doesn’t hold true. For aquatic
organisms the quality (chemical composition, pH) of water becomes crucial and one of the most
determining factor for their survival. The saline concentration (measured as salinity in parts per
thousand), is less than 5 % in inland waters, 30-35 % in the sea and >100 % in some hypersaline
lagoons. Some organisms are tolerant to a wide range of salinity

(referred as euryhaline) while others are restricted to a much narrow range of salinity
(referred as stenohaline). Many freshwater animals cannot survive for long in sea water
and vice versa because of the osmotic problems which would subsequently lead to their
death.

LIGHT (ENERGY): - One can quickly and easily understand the importance of
 light/energy for living organisms, particularly autotrophs since they
produce/manufacture food through photosynthesis, a specialised process which is only
possible with the availability of sunlight as a source of energy. Many plants are also
dependent on sunlight to meet their photoperiodic requirement for flowering. For
many animals too, light is essential as they use the diurnal and seasonal variations in
light intensity and duration (photoperiod) as cues for timing their searching food,
reproductive and migratory activities. The availability of light on land is in close
association with that of temperature since the sun is the source for both. But, deep
(>500m) in the oceans, the environment is perpetually dark and its inhabitants are
unaware of the existence of a celestial source of energy called Sun.

SOIL: - The nature and properties of soil in various places vary to a great extent
depending upon the climate which includes temperature and humidity, the weathering
process, whether soil is transported or sedimentary and how soil development occurred.
Various physical characteristics of the soil such as soil composition, grain size and
aggregation determine the percolation and water holding capacity of the soil. These
features along with chemical parameters such as pH, mineral composition and also
topography determine to a large extent the vegetation in any area. This in turn indicates
or rather determines the type of animals that can be supported on a particular soil area.
Similarly, in an aquatic environment, the sediment-characteristics often determine the
type of benthic animals that can thrive there optimally.

INORGANIC AND ORGANIC SUBSTANCES: - Water, Oxygen, Carbon,

Nitrogen, Sulphur, Nitrates, Phosphates and ions of various metals etc. are inorganic
substances essential for organisms to survive while proteins, Carbohydrates, Lipids etc.
are essentialOrganic substances:

BIOTIC COMPONENTS (LIVING): - It consists of the living parts of the environment,

including the association of a lot of interrelated populations that belong to different species
inhabiting a common environment. The populations are those of the animal community, the
plant community and the microbial community.
 Fig. 2 Components of biotic community.

The biotic community is divided into:

a. Autotrophs,

b. Saprotrophs, and

c. Heterotrophs

AUTOTROPHS (derive from Greek word: auto - self, trophos - feeder) are called producers,
transducers or convertors, as well. Those are photosynthetic plants, normally chlorophyll
bearing, which synthesize a high-energy complex organic compound (food) from the inorganic
raw materials utilizing the aid of the sun, and this process is called photosynthesis. Autotrophs
form the core of all biotic systems. In terrestrial ecosystems, autotrophs are usually rooted
plants. In the aquatic ecosystems, the floating plants referred to as phytoplankton and the
shallow waterrooted plants – macrophytes - are the main producers.

HETEROTROPHS (from Greek: heteros - other; trophs - feeder) are the consumers, normally
animals that feed on the other organisms. Consumers are also referred to as phagotrophs (phago
- to swallow or ingest) while macroconsumers are normally herbivores and carnivores.
Herbivores are called First order or primary consumers, for they feed directly on green plants.
For example, Terrestrial ecosystem consumers are cattle, deer, grass hopper, rabbit, etc.
Aquatic ecosystem consumers are protozoans, crustaceans, etc.

Carnivores are animals that prey or feed on other animals. Second order consumers or Primary
carnivores include those animals that feed on herbivorous animals. For example, fox, frog,
smaller fishes, predatory birds, snakes, etc.
Third order consumers or Secondary carnivores are the animals that feed on primary carnivores.
For example, wolf, owl, peacock, etc. Some larger carnivores prey on Secondary carnivores.
Quaternary consumers or Tertiary carnivores include those animals which feed upon secondary
carnivores. For example, the lion, the tiger, etc. Those are not eated by any other animal. The
larger carnivores which cannot be preyed on further are also called the top carnivores.

SAPROTROPHS (from Greek again: sapros - rotten; trophos - feeder) are called the reducers
or decomposers or osmotrophs. They break the complex organic compounds in dead matter
down (dead plants and animals). Decomposers don’t ingest the food. Instead they secrete a
digestive enzyme into the dead, decaying plant or animal remains and digest this organic
material. The enzymes act on the complex organic compounds in the dead matter. Decomposers
absorb a bit of the decomposition products to provide themselves with nourishment. The
remaining substance is added as minerals in the process of mineralisation to the substratum.
Released minerals are utilised or reused as nutrients by plants - theproducers.