Introduction of Environment
Components of environment: Every organism is affected by many outside influences.These influences include soil, air water, temperature , sunlight, wind and many other things. These influences are commonly referred to as environmental conditions.
The total of all the environmental conditions acting upon and organism, a community or an object is known as environment.
There are many different environments on earth. The mountain environment of the Himalayas is very different from the environment of the Thar desert or the Delta sundarbans.
What is the environment or meaning of environment
In biology and ecology the environment is all of the natural materials and living things, including sunlight. Environment includes the living and nonliving things that an organism interact with or has an effect on it. Trees, plants and animals etc. come under the environment.
Today the only reason for life on Earth is possible with the environment. Everything that we are connect with in our daily life is present in the environment, nature has provided us our clean and pure environment it should always be our endeavour to keep it clean.
Components of environment:
Dimensions of environment
Environment has three dimensions
1)Physical environment:
The physical environment comprises all the abiotic components of environment like the lithosphere, the atmosphere and the hydrosphere. All continents and islands make up the lithosphere; gases and water vapours in the air constitute the atmosphere and oceans , seas, rivers,lakes etc. Comprise the hydrosphere. All these components are abiotic but they support all forms of life on earth. The lithosphere provides the soil and materials; the atmosphere provides the the essential gases and is responsible for all weather phenomena and hydrosphere provides all water on the earth and is the source of all humidity present in air and all life forms.
2) biological environment:
The biological environment comprises the living beings like micro- organism, plants and animals including man. Among these plants are the most important because they produce all the matter that is used by micro-organism, plants themselves and animals including man.
3) social environment:
The social environment consists of man. He is placed at the top because he has the ability to alter the environment. He is the most intelligent of all the living beings of the environment. He has been able to change the face of earth by making building, bridges, agricultural farms, transport lines, machinery etc. it is that who cultivated the slope of mountains where agriculture was not possible. All these components of environment are interdependent. They are very much interlinked and are interacting all the time.
Broadly we can divide the environment into four spheres: The atmosphere, The lithosphere, The hydrosphere, and The biosphere.
Atmosphere
- The earth is a unique planet. Its capacity to support life makes it different from all other planets. The earth is surrounded by an envelope of air which is called the atmosphere.
- The atmosphere extends to about 1000 km from the surface of the earth. But 99% of the total mass of the atmosphere is found within 32 km.
- The atmosphere is held to the earth by the force of gravity and it is made up of a mixture of gas molecules. A molecule is the smallest particle of a substance in a free state. Gas molecule move randomly in all directions.
Usefulness of the atmosphere
- Atmosphere is very useful to living beings on the earth. In fact,atmosphere is one of the necessary components of the biosphere and without air life would not have been possible on our planet.
- The atmosphere acts as a sheet it around the earth and protects the Earth from cosmic rays.
- It also acts as a barrier protecting the earth from the meteors which can cause a lot of damage on the earth. Meteors entering the earth’s atmosphere appear as shooting stars in the night sky and get burnt before they can reach us. A large number of meteors have hit the moon and have left deep scars on the surface of the Moon as the moon does not have its atmosphere.
- Even radio communication on the earth are possible as the the upper layers of the atmosphere top sound waves from escaping into the space.4. All the weather phenomenon are possible because of the presence of atmosphere.
Lithosphere
- The solid crust of rocks forming the surface of the earth is called the lithosphere.
- The word ‘letho’ means rock or stone and sphere means domains so the term lithosphere can be described as ‘Rocksphere’.
- Lithosphere has an average thickness of about 100 kilometre. The average thickness is more in the continents as compared to the ocean. We live on this hard outer shell of the earth.
- All visible landforms which include mountains, plateaus, planes etc. are parts of lithosphere.
- Lithosphere is very important to human being. People not only e build their houses on it, most of the food supply also comes from this sphere only.
Hydrosphere
- The hydrosphere is the the part of the Earth’s surface, covered with water. Rivers ,lakes ,seas and oceans from this sphere.
- More than 70% of the Earth surface is covered with water. Continents are like islands floating in the ocean.
- Water supports all forms of life on the earth and is very crucial for our survival. Besides, water has a moderating effect on climates of regions near coasts.
- Oceans provide us with food and minerals. Even in the sea bed, deposits of minerals, oil and gas are found.
Biosphere
- The three major parts of the earth, the land, the water and the air come in contact in a narrow zone. This narrow contact zone is called the biosphere. All living organism, plants and animals live in this zone.
- The biosphere has a huge variety of organism. They vary in size from the smallest bacteria to the largest of the animals such as The whales and the elephants. The plants also vary in size from fungus to the largest of the trees.
- The organism found in the biosphere are divided into the plant kingdom and The animal kingdom. Human beings are the most important occupants of the biosphere and are a part of the animal kingdom.
- Our Earth is the only planet in the solar system where atmospheric and living condition are suitable for life.
Importance of environment
- Environment plays an important role in healthy living and the existence of life on planet Earth.
- Earth is our home for different living species and we all are dependent on the environment for food water and other needs.
- It is most important for every individual to save and protect our environment.
- Good and clean environment helps us to live better. It is an integral part of the earth.
- The environment not only keeps the climate balanced but all the things that are necessary for life are received by the environment itself.
How do we protect our environment
- To control environment pollution it is most important way to prevent that plant more and more trees because trees provide us fresh and pure Air which is essential for our health.
- Plants consume carbon dioxide and provide us oxygen and maintain the balance of atmosphere.
- Support environmentally sound policies that reduce energy development activities emphasize energy conservation and encourage the use of renewable resources.
- We need to promote recycling of solid and hazardous waste.
- Avoid burning any waste material they increase the amount of carbon dioxide and cause great harm to the environment.
Quick links
• Water Resources: Importance and conservation of water
•What is Deforestation, its causes, effects and strategies to stop deforestation
