The habitat of organisms and its factors

Ecology is the science of the interaction of living organisms with each other and with the environment.

The term “ecology” was coined in 1866 by the German biologist Ernst Haeckel. The word “ecology” is derived from the Greek words oikos – “home”, “dwelling”, and logos – “science” and means “science of the home.”

Habitat – everything that surrounds a living being in nature.

There are four main habitats on Earth, each with its own specific living conditions:

• water environment;
• ground-air environment;
• soil environment;
• the environment formed by the living organisms themselves.

Environmental factors are environmental conditions (bodies and phenomena) with which the body is in a certain relationship.

Environmental factors are divided into three groups: abiotic, biotic and anthropogenic.

Abiotic factors are factors of inanimate nature: climatic (sunlight, temperature, humidity) and local (relief, soil properties, salinity, currents, wind, radiation, etc.).

Biotic factors are different ways of mutual influence of living organisms (for example, the spread of seeds by animals, predation, mycorrhiza, parasitism).

Anthropogenic factors are all types of human activities that affect living organisms.