The biophysical environment is the symbiosis between the physical Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through space-time, as well as all applicable concepts, including energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves environment and the biological Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy life Life is a characteristic that distinguishes objects that have signaling and self-sustaining processes (biology) from those that do not, either because such functions have ceased (death), or else because they lack such functions and are classified as inanimate forms within the environment, and includes all variables that comprise the Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets. It is sometimes referred to as the World, the Blue Planet,[note 6] or by its Latin name, Terra.[note 7]'s biosphere The biosphere is the global sum of all ecosystems. It can also be called the zone of life on Earth. From the broadest biophysiological point of view, the biosphere is the global ecological system integrating all living beings and their relationships, including their interaction with the elements of the lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere. The. The biophysical environment can be divided into two categories: the natural environment and the built environment The phrase built environment refers to the human-made surroundings that provide the setting for human activity, ranging in scale from personal shelter to neighborhoods to the large-scale civic surroundings, with some overlap between the two. Following the industrial revolution The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transport and technology had a profound effect on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions starting in the United Kingdom, then subsequently spreading throughout Europe, North America, and eventually the world. The, the built environment has become an increasingly significant part of the Earth's environment.
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Constituents
The scope of the biophysical environment is all that contained in the biosphere The biosphere is the global sum of all ecosystems. It can also be called the zone of life on Earth. From the broadest biophysiological point of view, the biosphere is the global ecological system integrating all living beings and their relationships, including their interaction with the elements of the lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere. The, which is that part of the Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets. It is sometimes referred to as the World, the Blue Planet,[note 6] or by its Latin name, Terra.[note 7] in which all life occurs. A biophysical environment is the complex of biotic, climatic, and edaphic factors that act upon an organism and determine its form and survival, and morphs itself in the process. Ecosystems An ecosystem consists of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving, physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water, and sunlight. It is all the organisms in a given area, along with the nonliving factors with which they interact; a biological community and its, of which there are numerous types and are a defined part of the biosphere, collectively make up the whole of the biosphere. Within an ecosystem there are habitats A habitat is an ecological or environmental area that is inhabited by a particular species of animal, plant or other type of organism. It is the natural environment in which an organism lives, or the physical environment that surrounds (influences and is utilized by) a species population.[citation needed] in which an organism In biology, an organism is any contiguous living system . In at least some form, all organisms are capable of response to stimuli, reproduction, growth and development, and maintenance of homoeostasis as a stable whole. An organism may either be unicellular (single-celled) or be composed of, as in humans, many trillions of cells grouped into (including human beings) exists. At its most natural state, an environment would lack any effects of human activity, although the scale of this activity is such that all areas of the Earth have had at least some influence by humans. At the other end of the scale is the built environment and in some cases it has the biotic component Biotic factors are the factors in a biome/ecosystem/habitat that include all living things. This can later be broken down into producers, consumers , decomposers, and scavengers. Abiotic factors are the ones that are nonliving. Biotic components are the living things that shape an ecosystem. They are, any living component that affects another that is virtually absent.
The biophysical environment can vary in scale from microscopic Microscopic or Micro is a term used to describe objects smaller than those that can easily be seen by the naked eye and which require a lens or microscope to see them clearly to global in extent. They can also be subdivided according to their attributes. Some examples may be the Marine environment An ocean (from Greek Ωκεανός, Okeanos ) is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface (~3.61 X 1014 m2) is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas, the atmospheric environment An atmosphere is a layer of gases that may surround a material body of sufficient mass, by the gravity of the body, and are retained for a longer duration if gravity is high and the atmosphere's temperature is low. Some planets consist mainly of various gases, but only their outer layer is their atmosphere (see gas giants) and the terrestrial environment An ecoregion , sometimes called a bioregion, is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than an ecozone and larger than an ecosystem. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and contain characteristic, geographically distinct assemblages of natural communities and species. The biodiversity of flora, fauna.[1]
Environmental science
Environmental science Environmental science is an interdisciplinary academic field that integrates physical and biological sciences to the study of the environment, and the solution of environmental problems. Environmental science provides an integrated, quantitative, and interdisciplinary approach to the study of environmental systems is the study of the interactions within the biophysical environment. Part of this scientific discipline is the investigation of the effect of human activity on the environment. Ecology Ecology is the scientific study of the distributions, abundance and relations of organisms and their interactions with the environment. Ecology includes the study of plant and animal populations, plant and animal communities and ecosystems. Ecosystems describe the web or network of relations among organisms at different scales of organization, a sub-discipline of biology and a part of environmental sciences, is often mistaken as a study of human induced effects on the environment. Environmental studies Environmental studies is the academic field which systematically studies human interaction with the environment. It is a broad interdisciplinary field of study that includes the natural environment, built environment, and the sets of relationships between them. While distinct from ecology and environmental science, the discipline encompasses study is a broader academic discipline that is the systematic study of interaction of humans with their environment. It is a broad field of study that includes the natural environment, built environments and social environments The social environment , also known as the milieu, is the identical or similar social positions and social roles as a whole that influence the individuals of a group. The social environment of an individual is the culture that he or she was educated and/or lives in, and the people and institutions with whom the person interacts. A given social.
Environmentalism Environmentalism is a broad philosophy and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the state of the environment. Environmentalism and environmental concerns are often represented by the color green is a broad social and philosophical movement that, in a large part, seeks to minimise or eliminate the effect of human activity on the biophysical environment. The issues This is a list of environmental issues that are due to human activities. These articles relate to the anthropogenic effects on the natural environment of concern for environmentalists usually relate to the natural environment with the more important ones being climate change Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather over periods of time that range from decades to millions of years. It can be a change in the average weather or a change in the distribution of weather events around an average . Climate change may be limited to a specific region, or may occur across the whole Earth, species In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are often used, such as similarity of DNA, morphology or extinction In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or group of taxa. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of that species . Because a species' potential range may be very large, determining this moment is difficult, and is usually done retrospectively. This difficulty leads to phenomena, pollution Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into an environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat, or light. Pollutants, the elements of pollution, can be foreign substances or energies, and old growth forest Old-growth forest is a forest which contains trees which have attained great age (and associated structural features) and so exhibits unique ecological features loss.
See also
- Conservation
- List of conservation topics This is a list of conservation topics. It is a list of articles relating to conservation biology and conservation of the natural environment
- List of environmental issues This is a list of environmental issues that are due to human activities. These articles relate to the anthropogenic effects on the natural environment
- Lists of environmental topics The natural environment, commonly referred to simply as the environment, is all living and non-living things that occur naturally on Earth or some part of it . This includes complete ecological units that function as natural systems without massive human intervention, including all vegetation, animals, microorganisms, rocks, atmosphere and natural
References
- ^ Kemp, David (1998). Environment Dictionary. London, UK: Routledge.
Bibliography
- Miller, G. Tyler (1995). Environmental science. California: Wadsworth. ISBN The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering (SBN) code created by Gordon Foster, now Emeritus Professor of Statistics at Trinity College, Dublin, for the booksellers and stationers W.H. Smith and others in 1966 0-534-21588-2.
Categories: Environment This category is for articles about anthropogenic effects on the natural environment. See environment for other uses of the word | Ecology Ecology is the branch of science that studies the distribution and interactions between living things and the physical environment | Ecosystems
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Mon, 02 Aug 2010 13:01:38 GMT+00:00
MarketWatch (press release) The non-invasive Calmare pain therapy device uses the biophysical "Scrambler Therapy" technology, which was developed in Italy by CTT's client, ...
