Organisms and the Environment Summary

Ecology concerns with the associations and interactions of the organisms and the environment in general. The living place or dwelling place of an organism is called habitat. Within a given habitat there exists variations or micro habitats. In a given habitat we can observe physical (abiotic) environment and living organisms (biotic). There is an interdependence between organisms of a habitat.

The major habitats are the aquatic, terrestrial and arboreal. The organisms influence the physical environment and also the physical environment influences the organisms and their distribution in different habitats.

The abiotic components of an ecosystem are of 2 types. Climatic, including temperature, light, wind, gases, humidity, rain and water which includes wave action and water currents and edpahic factors including soil, substratum, topography, background minerals and pH.

The adaptations shown by organisms living in a given habitat i.e., aquatic, xeric or mesic are unique and enable the organisms to live in that particular physical environment. Each and every organism has a role to perform called niche.