Question

Explanation of Our Environment​

Answer 1

Our Environment Introduction

Environment is the sum total of everything around an organism including both living and non living components. The living and nonliving factors influence the environment.

components of environment

Components of environment

Abiotic: They are the nonliving factors that affect the environment. They include the following-

1) Climatic factors like wind, water, light and temperature.

2) Physiographic factors like height, slope.

3) Edaphic factors like minerals, soil, texture, soil organism, ph of the soil, etc.

Biotic : These are the living factors that affect the environment. They include the following-

1) Grazing animals

2) Insects

3) Lichens

4) Humans

5) Parasites

Waste

We come across many waste things around us like garbage,kitchen waste, etc. They are simply defined as the useless or discarded materials.They may be gaseous, liquid or solid in nature. Their disposal is a big problem and on the basis of degradation, they are classified in the following ways:

Biodegradable waste: It is the waste that is broken down by biological processes, like by the saprophytes. For example: kitchen waste, sewage, cotton, cloth, etc.

Non biodegradable waste:These are those wastes which can not be broken down by the biological processes. For example: plastics, polythene bags, etc. This non-biodegradable waste creates environmental pollution.

Environmental pollution

As you have seen many times that the resources around us are not clean and pure enough like air is not free of harmful gases,smoke, etc, water does not seem to be clear and transparent. They are actually polluted and have certain substances that make them look like they are polluted. Thus, we can define pollution as an undesirable change in the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of air, water and soil. This pollution has lead to several health related problems like asthma ,bronchitis ,ecological imbalance, etc.

Ecosystem

It is a structural and functional unit of the biosphere comprising of living organisms and their interaction with food chain and biogeochemical cycles. For example a garden has many different plants in it such as grasses, trees, flowering and non flowering plants, animals like frogs, insects, etc. These organisms interact with each other and they are also affected by abiotic factors that affect their growth, reproduction and other activities. There are two types of ecosystem :

Natural Ecosystem like the lakes, ponds, forests, etc.

Artificial Ecosystem like the garden, crop field, aquarium, etc.

There are many organisms in the ecosystem which are categorized into different groups:

Producers :The organisms that can make their food by themselves by utilising solar energy like very small aquatic green plants called phytoplanktons.

Consumers: The organisms that depend upon producers for their nutritional requirement.They can be herbivores, carnivores and omnivores.

Herbivores: They are those that feed on green plants for their food.They are also called primary consumers.

Carnivores: The animals which depend on animals for their food requirement.

Omnivores :They are those animals that feed on plants. as well as on animals.

Parasites:They are those that live on other organisms body (host) either on or inside the food and fulfill its nutritional requirement.

Decomposers:They are those organisms that feed on dead and decaying organic matter.Example: Microorganisms, etc.

Answer 2

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An Environment is everything that is around us, which includes both living and nonliving things such as soil, water, animals and plants, which adapt themselves to their surroundings.