Environment & Its Factor

 

(according to http://en.wikipedia.org) 

"The environment is the combined modeling of the physical environment and the biological life forms within the environment, and includes all variables, parameters as well as conditions and modes inside the Earth's biosphere. Environmental science 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, 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 factors that influence all living thing can be grouped under 3 headings:

1. Climatic factors that include the general features such as seasonal variations, light, temperature, rainfall, humidity and wind.
2. Topographic factors that include the general nature of geological strata such as altitude, slope, exposure to sun etc and process like erosion, deposition etc.
3. Edaphic factors that include soil, its physical and chemical constitution, water-content, aeration etc

Climatic factors 

LIGHT: As the form of energy used during photosynthesis, light is considered as the most important factor determining the growth of the plants and the development of vegetation. Light plays the important roles in the following ways:

• It is necessary for the formation of chlorophyll .
• It regulates the stomatal movements.
• It affects transpirational, photosynthetic and growth rates.
• It influences photoperiodism. 

TEMPERATURE: There is no function in a living organism that is not affected by temperatures. All the chemical process of metabolism and many physical process such as diffusion, precipitation etc are conditioned by temperature. Effects of temperature upon plant distribution can also be noticed as one ascends up a mountain. It is common knowledge that as the altitude increases, temperature falls. It is not therefore uncommon for one to encounter typical temperate climate vegetation in the heart of a tropical area, at higher altitudes.