The Importance of Environment

1. Author: Janice HoLung
Note: Unless otherwise stated, photos and diagrams were provided by the author, and Sonia McCulloch
and by Lucy Marolyn Gentles.
Author: Janice HoLung
Note: Unless otherwise stated, photos and diagrams were provided by the author, and Sonia McCulloch
and by Lucy Marolyn Gentles.

2. IMPORTANCE OF THE PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT
INTRODUCTION
 In this presentation, you will learn more about
the environment and habitats as well
understand how greatly all living things depend
on their physical environment.
 Many more interactions occur between the
living things and their physical environment,
and each one (living things & the environment)
affects the other.

3. IMPORTANCE OF THE PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT
OBJECTIVES
After viewing this presentation and doing the
activities:
1.You will be able to distinguish between the
following pairs of terms:
Physical and biotic factors
Environment and habitat
Population and community
1.You will be able to discuss the importance of
the physical environment to living organisms.

4. IMPORTANCE OF THE PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT
REVIEW TIME NOW !
 Environment and habitat: Do you remember what
each of these means? (Yes, the environment is
everything around the organism, while the habitat is
the home of an organism)
 Population and community. Do you remember these?
(Yes! Population is the total number of organisms of
ONE species in an area, while the community is the
number of ALL the different species that are in the
area.)
 You are going on very well, so far !! Keep it up !!

5. IMPORTANCE OF THE PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT
What is the picture on the
right showing?
A population of ducks near a
pond
Chec
k

6. IMPORTANCE OF THE PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT
LOOK AT THE PHOTO
 Which of those terms you were reviewing is
shown in the picture below?

7. IMPORTANCE OF THE PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT
WHICH TERM DOES THAT PICTURE ILLUSTRATE?
 If you said “community” you were correct,
because it is a group of different organisms
living in the same area.
 However, you could have also said “habitat”,
because it is illustrating the home of the corals
and the small fish.

8. IMPORTANCE OF THE PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT
WHAT DOES THESE PHOTOS SHOW YOU?
Make a list of the living components in both pictures.
Next, make a list of the non-living components.

9. IMPORTANCE OF THE PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT
LOOK AT THE PHOTOS AGAIN
 Did you notice that there were
many living components?
 Now, change the word ‘living’ to
‘biotic’, and change ‘non-living’
to ‘abiotic’. Physical is another
word for ‘abiotic’.
 These words – biotic and
abiotic are the words biologists
use to describe the two sets of
components or factors of any
habitat.

10. IMPORTANCE OF THE PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT
OBSERVING OTHER HABITATS
 Have a look at some other habitats. See if you
can discover information about them. What are
the different factors or components that are in
each one?
Look at the following slides of other habitats

11. IMPORTANCE OF THE PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT

12. IMPORTANCE OF THE PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT

13. IMPORTANCE OF THE PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT
SOURCE: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2005/images/reef-floridakeys.jpg

14. IMPORTANCE OF THE PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT

15. IMPORTANCE OF THE PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT

16. IMPORTANCE OF THE PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT
DO SOME RESEARCH!
 Try to discover information about each of those
five habitats. Put the information in two
categories: the biotic components and the
abiotic/physical components.
 How do the different abiotic components affect
the biotic components in each habitat?

17. IMPORTANCE OF THE PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT
SOIL
You are now going to examine more closely, SOIL, an
important physical or abiotic component of the
environment.
You have just completed the activity on some characteristics
of two different soils.
Did you notice that their texture and colour are quite
different?
When you poured the water through them, did you notice
that once it all settled, each soil type had different layers
of different widths?
Did this have anything to do with their characteristics?
Look at the photos on the next two slides.

18. IMPORTANCE OF THE PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT

19. IMPORTANCE OF THE PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT

20. IMPORTANCE OF THE PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT
WHAT DID YOU NOTICE?
 Did you notice that the first soil photo was
made up of very fine particles? It looked like
fine sand.
 Did you notice that in the second picture, there
were two different types of soil? There was at
the top soil that looked like crushed limestone,
and at the bottom it looked like a gravel and
sand mixture.

21. IMPORTANCE OF THE PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT
CHECK IF YOU WERE CORRECT !
The first soil photo displayed fine sand…..it came from
our North Coast ! Fine sand is a type of soil !
The second picture was taken at the Palisadoes, where
work is being done to protect the roadway from storm
surges. Therefore, there is gravel and marl (crushed
limestone) deposited on the roadside. Did you notice
that plants have begun to grow on this ‘soil’?

22. IMPORTANCE OF THE PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT

23. IMPORTANCE OF THE PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT
OTHER KINDS OF SOIL
Did you notice that these soils were differently coloured?
What else did you notice about them?
One was from the hills. You might have noticed the red
coloured soil.
The other was from the flat lands. What colour was it?

24. IMPORTANCE OF THE PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT
HOW IMPORTANT IS SOIL TO LIVING THINGS?
Not all living organisms need soil to live. However,
a very large number do need it, because not only
do they obtain special nutrients from it, but they
need the air inside the soil for breathing, and
they need the water inside the soil for all their
body functions.

25. IMPORTANCE OF THE PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT
STRUCTURE OF SOIL
Take a careful look at
the in Figure 1.
Figure 1 Diagram showing
the arrangement of
particles, air and water in
soil.

26. IMPORTANCE OF THE PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT
WHAT DID YOU NOTICE?
 Did you notice that there were several
components in the diagram?
 Can you think of what each component is used
for in living organisms?
 Do some research to discover what kinds of
organisms live inside the soil, and what
components of the soil each one needs most in
order to live a healthy life.

27. IMPORTANCE OF THE PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT
AIR
 Air is another abiotic component in habitats.
How important is AIR to living things?
 What would you do if there were no air to
breathe? Many organisms were specially
adapted to live on dry land, where there is
plentiful air to breathe. They need the oxygen in
the air for respiration, and they need the
nitrogen in the air (after it has been changed to
nitrates) to make protein.

28. IMPORTANCE OF THE PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT
AIR
 But, what about organisms that live inside water?
 These organisms living in water, such as rivers, lakes and
the seas, also need air, or need the components in air.
 Why? Because all living things need oxygen and nitrogen,
which come from air.
 There is a lot of these gases in air dissolved in water of all
kinds. One only has to watch a beaker of water being
boiled to notice how many air bubbles come out of it,
when it is heated up.
 Therefore, the organisms in water do get their gases from
dissolved air in the water.

29. IMPORTANCE OF THE PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT
OTHER ABIOTIC FACTORS
 What other physical or abiotic components are
important?
 Already listed are air, water, and soil.
 Consider this – would we be comfortable living in
areas that are constantly extremely cold or extremely
hot? Humans are not adapted to living in such
climates, although there are other living things that
are adapted and live successfully in these conditions.
Think of penguins ! Think of camels !
 Therefore, another abiotic component of the habitat is
temperature.

30. IMPORTANCE OF THE PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT
ABIOTIC COMPONENTS OR FACTORS
.
 Think of the most important factor to nearly all
living things – isn’t it LIGHT? If there were no
light, there would be no plants, and since
animals depend on plants for food, there would
be no animals !
 Now list two other abiotic components that are
important to living organisms

31. IMPORTANCE OF THE PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT
SUMMARY
 Components in a habitat or an organisms
surroundings (their environment) may be divided into
two kinds: biotic (living things) and abiotic (non-living
factors).
 Abiotic components or factors affect the biotic
components very much.
 There are different kinds of abiotic components: air,
water, light, climate and soil.
 Each abiotic component has a different use or effect
on the biotic components (the living things)
 Hope that you remembered these important facts!