The basic components of the environment are atmosphere or the air, lithosphere or the rocks and soil, hydrosphere or the water, and the living component of the environment or the biosphere.
- BIOTIC COMPONENTS (LIVING): It consists of the living parts of the environment, including the association of a lot of interrelated populations that belong to different species inhabiting a common environment. The populations are those of the animal community, the plant community and the microbial community. BIOTIC COMPONENTS (LIVING) consists of the living parts of the environment, including the association of a lot of interrelated populations that belong to different species inhabiting a common environment.
The biotic community is divided into:
- Autotrophs,
- Saprotrophs, and
- Heterotrophs
- ABIOTIC COMPONENTS (NON-LIVING): these are the most important determining factor of where and how well an organism exists in the environment. Although these factors interact with each other, one single factor can limit the range of an organism thus acting as the limiting factor.
These factors can be categorized into following groups:
PHYSICAL FACTORS: the major components are temperature, Water (Rainfall), Light (Energy), Soil, Atmospheric pressure.
INORGANIC AND ORGANIC SUBSTANCES: – Water, Oxygen, Carbon, Nitrogen, Sulphur, Nitrates, Phosphates and ions of various metals etc. are inorganic substances essential
