Turn your head to the nearest window and take a moment to analyze the movement of the leaves or the creatures that fly by. As it happens, yourself and everything you see are part of a Living Environment. The Living Environment can be seen as biotic and the Physical Environment, as abiotic. They both are interlinked.
- Here, we’ll talk about living environment topics.
- First, we’ll see what is the living environment definition and some examples.
- Then, we’ll determine the living environment’s functions.
- We’ll also learn how the living environment came to be.
- We’ll continue with the relation between the living environment and health.
- We’ll finish describing the living environment standards.
Definition of the living environment
The living environment is represented by the space in which organisms (biota) live and interact with each other or with the non-living environment (the abiota).
Plants, animals, protozoa, and other organisms are known as biota. In order to survive, they interact with non-living elements that support life, known as the abiota, such as air, water, and soil. The living environment can be broken down into smaller ecosystems or environments.
Fig. 1: The living environment. A coral reef is a marine ecosystem where the living organisms correspond to the biosphere, the aquatic medium is part of the hydrosphere and the ocean crust and sediments correspond to the lithosphere (although the atmosphere is not visible here, it is interlinked to the other spheres, for example interchanging gases with the water)
Living environment examples
Some living environment examples are (Fig. 1):
Soils, rocks, etc., as the lithosphere.
Seas, groundwater, etc., as the hydrosphere.
Air, as the atmosphere.
Animals, plants, etc., as the biosphere.
Glaciers, ice caps, etc., as the cryosphere.
Grasslands, deserts, artificial floating islands, etc., which combine any or all of the above.
These components mix and interact in different types of ecosystems.
Our living environments have been separated into these main spheres:
- The Atmosphere: the gas mixture surrounding the planet
- The Lithosphere: the crust and upper mantle, thus, the rocky layer of the planet
- The Hydrosphere: the water present on our planet in all its forms, including the Cryosphere (frozen water)
- The Biosphere: all living things.
The living environment's role and function
The roles and functions of our living environment are multifaceted. The presence of life on Earth has not only brought modifications to the climate but has also enabled our evolution.
It is essential to conserve natural areas and encourage biodiversity to ensure continued habitation for all organisms on Earth.
| Functions of the living environment | Examples |
| Unique resources | Timber (pinewood), fuel (biological oils), food (edible mushrooms), fibres (wool), medicine (peppermint). |
| Ecosystem services | Planetary homeostasis through the mediation of biogeochemical cycles, freshwater filtration through soil and sediments, interspecies relationships such as pollination and seed dispersal. |
| Life-enabling | Our planet’s living environment is the only one that we know can harbour life, for now. |
| Cultural, spiritual, recreational | New methods of intra-species communication, such as speech and writing inspired by other species. |
Table 1: Some of the functions of the living environment with examples.
Planetary homeostasis refers to the regulation of a planet's environment by its natural systems. This includes the moderation of a planet's temperature, keeping its atmosphere in balance, and helping renew its resources.
How the living environment came to be
Several hypotheses have been used to explain the origins of life.
According to the panspermia hypothesis, life may have been caused by extraterrestrial microscopic life carried onto Earth by falling space debris and meteorites.
Another theory is that life originated exclusively from the chemical reactions during the primordial exhalation of the Earth, which led to the production of amino acids and other organic compounds (abiogenesis).
There is no universally accepted theory for how life on Earth first appeared. It is possible that both panspermia and abiogenesis led to life on Earth. Space itself (interplanetary, interstellar, etc.) is an environment. Some people believe it is a yet undiscovered living environment, but it would be one of the most extreme we know of.
The lithosphere as a living environment
Let's start with the Big Rock - the Earth's humble beginnings. Some 5 billion years ago, the earth began accumulating stellar materials and debris in its orbit.
Skip to 0.5 billion years later and the intense surface heat cause heavy metals to melt and aggregate into a core, which nowadays also sustains the magnetosphere.
We think that the Earth remained abiotic for another 0.7 billion years, until the first signs of life appeared in the form of bacterial communities. These communities were discovered in 3.7 billion-year-old rocks. At this point, the key was turned: Earth had become a living environment.
Future discoveries could change our definition and perception of what constitutes life and a living environment, and how we can identify them.
We learned about the first signs of life on Earth (biosignatures) through the use of sophisticated technology (spectroscopy instruments) that interpreted a type of carbon molecule species (isotope) left by living matter (cyanobacteria) in rock formations (stromatolites).
The atmosphere as a living environment
Up to about 2.2 billion years ago, the major atmospheric gases were carbon dioxide (CO2), water vapour, and nitrogen (N2). The first two were produced by volcanoes and evaporation from the oceans with the help of solar radiation (insolation). At the same time, water was maintained liquid by the atmospheric pressure of around 1 bar. This is about the same as on Earth today, which is approximately 1.013 bar.
As life developed, photosynthetic bacteria, followed by algae and plants, started to consume CO2, sequestered or locked it in their cells, and then released oxygen (O2) as a by-product1.
In the past few centuries, the biggest gas-emitting sources have come from anthropogenic activities, especially from the utilization and burning of fuels. These fuels predominantly release CO2, CH4, and nitrous oxides (NOx) into the atmosphere, as well as particulate matter (PM).
Several flying species may exploit the atmosphere and its air currents more than others. Some spend most of their life in mid-air, such as the common swift (lat. Apus apus). Others, such as Rüppell's griffon vulture (lat. Gyps rueppelli), have been seen flying in the lower stratosphere.
The hydrosphere as a living environment
Meteorites are often formed of or contain ice, and it is believed that they have brought significant amounts of water to Earth.
The Earth's orbital sphere is just the right distance from the sun to allow for liquid water, which is essential for all known life forms. Water on Earth also absorbs vast quantities of heat and heat-trapping gases like CO2, helping keep global temperatures in check.
The hydrosphere can be defined by water acidity (pH), temperature, and cyclicity, and is also affected by anthropogenic activities such as introduced species, deliberate eradication or chemical runoff.
Water is abundant but uneven across the globe. This makes water resources highly valuable to industry (paint and coating manufacturers), agriculture (irrigation), domestic life (washing water) as well as wildlife (potable sources).
Coral polyps are long-lived invertebrate organisms that remain sensitive to climate change. A colony of black coral (Leiopathes annosa) found in Hawaii was estimated to be about 4265 years old2. Even small but definite changes in water pH and turbidity can cause deep-sea coral colonies to die in a few months when on average they could live up to a few hundred years.
Living environment and health
The living environmental and its organisms health are linked because chemical energy flows constantly between producers (e.g. plants), consumers (e.g. plant-eaters) and decomposers. This is called a food chain, system, or web.
Fig. 2: Organisms organize in food chains or webs according to their diets. Just as nutrients move through the chain or web, chemicals and toxins do too.
Sometimes, chemicals can accumulate in nature, through processes known as:
Mercury is a toxic metal, known to bioaccumulate and biomagnify in marine organisms. The problem of mercury bioaccumulation in fish has also been the target of human medical research.
Humans recognize the negative aspects of these processes, and institute laws to protect fauna, flora, fungi, etc. from harmful human activities or natural disasters.
Conservation and management: IUCN Red List, The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981
Climate change adaptation: The Great Green Wall of Sahel3, Climate Adaptation Scilly4
Climate change mitigation: Biodiversity Net Gain UK 20215, the phasing-out of fossil fuel vehicles.
As well as:
All of this can be a lot to take in! Why not test your knowledge on some of the questions below:
If you were to go to a forest or woodland and pick up a rotting piece of wood, how many biotic and abiotic elements would you be able to identify?
You may be surprised to know that in the UK, a single rotting oak log can accommodate more than 900 individual invertebrates from forty different species
6. And that’s without counting lichens, mosses, fungi, amphibians or other organisms!
The quality of our food, water, and air, all have a direct impact on our health and quality of life. Our food supply depends on healthy ecosystems. Our built environment has the capacity to influence life. Let’s see if you can answer the following question:
Would you be able to create a list of the effects that a hydroelectric dam can have on the living environment?
The commissioning and placement of a hydroelectric dam on a river can influence the following abiotic factors in a living environment: alluvial deposits quantity, soil compaction degree, the volume and speed of river water flowing, usually expressed in cubic meters per second (m3/s). The living environment’s biota influenced by this type of construction can consist of migratory fish species, crustacean diversity, or humans living downstream from the hydro central.
In its geologic history, both rapid and slow changes have occurred in the living environment. Rapid changes are typically correlated with extinction events, as they occur at rates faster than species can adapt. Species affected by such events can be grouped into:
Keystone species: their disappearance affects the whole food web of a region, e.g. European rabbit O. cuniculus.
Endemic species: found only in specific geographical areas, e.g. red grouse L. lagopus scotica.
Highly distinct species or of commercial interest: often needing strong regulations to avoid over-exploitation, e.g. South African abalone H. midae.
Living environment standards
How or why would species be affected by a changing living environment and climate, one might ask?
There are certain environmental standards that need to be met for the biota to at least reach sexual maturity and reproduce, thus ensuring species continuation, and for the Earth's systems to maintain certain temperature, atmospheric, pressure, or humidity thresholds, or bring a cyclical quality to them. Some of the most important standards for life on Earth are:
- Water quality and availability (ex, impacted by human drainage)
- Light levels (ex. impacted by vegetation clearance)
- Gas levels, especially of oxygen and carbon dioxide (ex. impacted by eutrophication)
- Nutrient availability (ex. impacted by agricultural practices)
- Temperature (ex. impacted by concrete-covered ground)
- Natural disaster occurrence (ex. volcanism)
Living Environment and Biology
Biology is the science that studies living organisms, thus it deals with the biotic component of the living environment. Biology focuses on living beings typically at the organism level, while ecology and environmental science focus usually on levels above the organism level (as species, populations, interaction with other organisms and abiotic factors, etc).
This area of study falls under Environmental Science and touches upon Ecology. It looks at the interaction of living organisms as well as how an understanding of this informs how we as humans can be more sustainable.
Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of the living environment and why it is so important for us to manage it with care!Living Environment - Key takeaways
- Highly specific intra- and extraplanetary conditions in the formative stages of Earth's development allowed life to develop and survive.
- Physical and chemical exchanges between the major earth systems which are the land, water and atmosphere sustain the living environment.
- Human interactions with their environment are significant enough to produce measurable changes in Earth's systems.
- Research, critique, data collection, spatial analysis, observations and knowledge progress allow for measures to be taken to conserve, protect or enhance the living environment's characteristics.
- We are part of a distinct global ecosystem that constantly tries to achieve homeostasis.
References
- Smithsonian, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Early Life on Earth – Animal Origins, 2020. Accessed 26.05.2022
- Roark E. Brendan, et al., Radiocarbon-Based Ages and Growth Rates of Hawaiian Deep-Sea Corals, 2006. Accessed 27 May 2022.
- Goffner D. et al., The Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative as an opportunity to enhance resilience in Sahelian landscapes and livelihoods, 2019. Accessed 27.05.2022
- Scilly Gov, Climate Adaptation Scilly, 2022. Accessed 27.05.2022
- UK Gov, Biodiversity Net Gain, 2021. Accessed 27.05.2022
- Fager Edward W., The Community of Invertebrates in Decaying Oak Wood, 1968. Accessed 27 May 2022.
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