Environment

Living things Nonliving things

 Environment
The environment literally means the surrounding which
includes the atmosphere, hydrosphere and
lithosphere.
 The environment is the aggregate of all those things
and set of conditions which directly or indirectly
influence not only the development or growth and
quality of life of individual organisms but also the
communities at a particular place.
 In another sense the complex of physical, chemical,
and biotic factors that act upon an organism or an
ecological community and ultimately determine its
form and survival.
 Communities
Also called Biological Community,
in biology, an interacting group of
various species in a common location
or habitat.
 Habitat

The natural place where organisms or

communities of organisms live is
called habitat.
 Environmental Factors

A. Climatic factors
B. Edaphic factors
C. Physiographic factors
D. Biotic factors
 A. Climatic Factors
i) Light
ii) Temperature
iii) Precipitation and Atmospheric
humidity
iv) Air and atmosphere
 i) Light
 Light is an
electromagnetic
radiation that can
be detected by the
human eye.
 A beam of light is
pictured as a
shower of particles
called “Photons”.
 Each photon
carries a certain
amount of energy
called “Quantum.”
The solar radiations
which penetrate
earth’s atmosphere
consist of a band of
visible light and a
small proportion of
Visible light
UV and Infrared
radiations. UV

IF ray
 ii) Temperature
Measure of hotness or coldness
expressed in terms of any of several
arbitrary scales and indicating the
direction in which heat energy will
spontaneously flow, i.e., from a
hotter body (one at a higher
temperature) to a colder body (one
at a lower temperature).
 Temperature affects the vegetation and the life forms
Directly appears in two ways:
1. It affects the physiological
processes of plants and animals,
consequently their growth and size.

2. It determines which species (eg.

plants and animals) can survive in a
particular region. The different
species of plants and animals show
a wide variation as regards their
tolerance to temperature range and
fluctuation.
Plant of Desert
When you imagine a
desert, what do
you think of first?
Maybe it's sand,
heat, or low
monsters, but
most likely it's
cactus. Cacti are
probably the most
memorable
characteristic of
the desert.
Animal of rain
forest
The King Cobra's
biome is the
Southeast Asian
rainforest. The
climate that the
King Cobra lives in
is rainy and
humid. The
average
temperature is
usually 95°F.
Animal of Tundra
The polar bear has a
thick layer of blubber
around 4.5 inches
thick. That and the
hollow shafts of their
hair provides them
with excellent
insulation. This
allows them to
handle temperature
of -34°F.
 Temperature fluctuation in environment
 Temperature in any locality is governed by
the brightness of the sun. It may vary
from sunlight to shade and from daylight
to dark.
 Latitudes also affect the temperature
cycles. With the increase of every 150
meter altitude the temperature decreases
by 1ºC.
 Different habitats such as fresh water,
marine an terrestrial environments show
varying response to fluctuating
temperature.
 iii) Precipitation and Atmospheric humidity
Water is one of the most important climatic
factors. It affects the vital processes of all
the living beings.

The quantity of water retained in the

atmosphere depends on temperature and
wind. Vapor increases in the atmosphere if
the temperature rises and pressure
decrease. At certain temperature and
pressure, the maximum water-laden air is
called saturated atmosphere. At saturation
point if the temperature is lowered the water
holding capacity of atmosphere is reduced
which causes the condensation of water
vapor in the form of rain drop, dew, frost,
sleet, snow, etc. This is precipitation.
 Classes of humidity
Absolute humidity: The water vapor
present in unit volume of air is
called absolute humidity.

Relative humidity: The amount of

water vapor required to saturate
the same unit volume of air under
constant physical conditions is
called relative humidity.
Penck using precipitation-evaporation
ratio, has classified the climate as
follows:
• Arid: it is characterized by the
condition in which evaporation is
greater than precipitation.
• Arid-humid: When evaporation is
more or less equal to precipitation.
• Humid: When evaporation is lesser
than precipitation.
The total rainfall, especially the
distribution of rainfall throughout the
year is one of the leading features of
climate.
 iv) Atmosphere and Air
Structure of Atmosphere
There are seven concentric layers within the
atmosphere which can be distinguished
on the basis of temperature. These are
as follows:
3. Troposphere
4. Ozonosphere
5. Stratosphere
6. Mesosphere
7. Ionosphere
8. Thermosphere and
9. Exosphere
 B. Edaphic Factors
The soil is one of the most important ecological
factors called edaphic factors. This factors
affect the vegetation are as follows:
• Soil moisture
• Soil reactions
• Soil nutrients
• Soil temperature
• Soil atmosphere and
• Biotic components of the soil.
 1. Soil moisture
Water held in the soil is found in the following forms
a) Gravitational water: It is free water which percolates
downwardly through the pore spaces between soil
particles and is accumulated in the pore spaces in
the form of ground water.
b) Capillary water: The amount of water present around
the soil particles and held by surface tension and
attraction force of water molecules.
c) Hygroscopic water: Water which is adsorbed on the
soil particles and held on the surface of particles by
forces of attraction and cohesion of its molecules.
d) Water vapor: The soil atmosphere, like external
atmosphere, also contains moisture in the form of
water vapor.
e) Combined water: Water of chemical compound is
called combined water.
 2. Soil reaction
The soil may show acidic, alkaline , or neutral
reactions. The growth and productivity of
many species of plants are critically related to
soil acidity.
e.g. Most of the field crops, such as barley,
maize, soybeans, tomato flourish in slightly
acidic soils. Many ferns and beech trees thrive
best in slightly alkaline soils.
 3. Soil nutrients
The nature and availability of soil
solutes are fundamentally important
from the standpoint of plant
nutrition. Normally, inorganic solutes
are absorbed by the plants in the
ionic forms.
e.g. Halophytes (salt loving plants).
 3. Soil Temperature
 Soil temperature in combination with other
edaphic factors influences the properties
of soil itself and plants as well .
 Low temperature reduces the rate of water
and solute absorption by roots. Root injury
due to low temperature in the winter in
more common in sandy soil.
 Soil temperature plays important role in
determining the geographical distribution
of plants on the sunlight, the angles at
which sun rays strike on the surface of
soil, daily duration of sunlight, the amount
of soil moisture and many other factors.
 4. Soil atmosphere
 In the soil, the spaces contain air. Soil air
contains slightly lower proportion of oxygen
and higher one of carbon dioxide than
atmospheric air contains.
 Water logged soil are deficient in oxygen.
 Normally, plenty of oxygen in the soil is
necessary for the life of micro-organisms and
other soil inhabitants.
 Oxygen content of the soil is also an important
factor in seed germination.
 5. Soil organisms
 The plants, animals and microbes inhibition
the soils show marked effects on the soil
fertility. Decomposing agents, such as
bacteria, fungi and many others convert dead
organic matters into humus, free organic
compounds and organic ions and thus make
the nutrients available to plants.
 Some soil organisms secrete essential or
beneficial substances including growth
hormones and some of them secrete toxic
substances in the soil which show marked
effects on the growth and distribution of
plants.
 C. Physiographic Factors
Physiographic factors are those which
are introduced by the structure,
conformity and behavior of the
earth’s surface, by topographic
features such as elevation and
slopes, by the geodynamic
processes, such as silting and
erosion and consequently by local
geology.
 D. Biotic Factors
The biotic factors influence of living
organisms, both plants and animals
upon the vegetation. Any activity of
the living organism which may
cause marked effects upon
vegetation in any way is referred to
as biotic effect.
Thank you