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What is Environment ?

 Environment has different meaning for different people. Most definitions include the physical, chemical and biological components that influence the life of an organism. All the external factors, conditions and influences that effect an organism or a biological community i.e. known as environment. The term environment etymologically means surroundings. The place, where an organisms lives - habitat, indeed presents a particular set of environmental conditions - the environmental complex. Thus, environment is a complex of so many things i.e. light, air, soil, water, temperature etc have been variously called as environmental factors, ecological factors or may be living i.e biotic factors (plants, animals, microorganisms etc.) and non-living i.e. abiotic factors.  

Daubenmire (1959) classified the factors into seven coordinate headings as i. soil, ii. water, iii. temperature, iv. light, v. atmosphere, vi. fire and vii. biotic factor . Most of the ecologists, however, prefer to recognise four categories of  ecological factors, which are as follows :

A. Climatic or aerial factors these include - i. Light, ii. Temperature of air (atmospheric temperature), iii. Rainfall (precipitation), iv. Humidity of air, v. Atmosphere (gases and wind), vi. Fire .

B. Topographic or physiographic factors these are the factors related with physical geography of earth, and include- i. Altitude, ii. Direction of mountain chains and valleys, iii. Steepness and exposure of slopes . 

C. Edaphic factors these deal with the formation of soil, its physical and chemical properties and details of related aspects.

D. Biotic factors these are all kinds of interactions between different forms of life, i.e. plants, animals, microorganisms etc.

Location: Farakka, West Bengal, India

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