A biophysical environment is a biotic and

abiotic In biology and ecology, abiotic components or abiotic factors are non-living chemical and physical parts of the environment that affect living organisms and the functioning of ecosystems. Abiotic factors and the phenomena associated with them under ...

surrounding of an

organism In biology, an organism () is any living system that functions as an individual entity. All organisms are composed of cells (cell theory). Organisms are classified by taxonomy into groups such as multicellular animals, plants, and ...

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

. A biophysical environment can vary in scale from

microscopic The microscopic scale () is the scale of objects and events smaller than those that can easily be seen by the naked eye, requiring a lens or microscope to see them clearly. In physics, the microscopic scale is sometimes regarded as the scale be ...

to global in extent. It can also be subdivided according to its attributes. Examples include the

marine environment Marine habitats are habitats that support marine life. Marine life depends in some way on the saltwater that is in the sea (the term ''marine'' comes from the Latin ''mare'', meaning sea or ocean). A habitat is an ecological or environmental ...

, the

atmospheric environment An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A s ...

and the terrestrial environment. The number of biophysical environments is countless, given that each living organism has its own environment. The term '' environment'' can refer to a singular global environment in relation to

human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, cultu ...

ity, or a local biophysical environment, e.g. the UK's Environment Agency.

Life-environment interaction

All life that has survived must have adapted to the conditions of its environment. Temperature, light, humidity, soil nutrients, etc., all influence the species within an environment. However, life in turn modifies, in various forms, its conditions. Some long-term modifications along the history of the planet have been significant, such as the incorporation of oxygen to the atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere. This process consisted of the breakdown of carbon dioxide by anaerobic microorganisms that used the carbon in their metabolism and released the Atmospheric chemistry, oxygen to the atmosphere. This led to the existence of oxygen-based plant and animal life, the great oxygenation event.

Related studies

Environmental science is the study of the interactions within the biophysical environment. Part of this Branches of science, 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 studies is a broader academic discipline that is the systematic study of the interaction of humans with their environment. It is a broad field of study that includes: * The natural environment * Built environments * Social environments Environmentalism is a broad social and philosophical movement that, in a large part, seeks to minimize and compensate for the negative effect of human activity on the biophysical environment. The issues of concern for environmentalists usually relate to the natural environment with the more important ones being climate change, species extinction, pollution, and old growth forest loss. One of the studies related includes employing Geographic Information Science to study the biophysical environment. Biophysics is a multidisciplinary study utilizing systems from physics to study biological phenomena. Its scope ranges from a molecular level up and into populations separated by geographical boundaries.

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Environment (Biophysical) Biology terminology Environmental conservation Ecosystems Habitat Environments, sv:Miljö (omgivning)

Life-environment interaction

Related studies

See also

References