∞ generated and posted on 2023.05.18 ∞
The things that an organism interacts with, which can be differentiated into biotic and abiotic components.
| Though we will typically think of Environments as being the natural environment, in actuality, in biology, environment can be defined more broadly such as to include the laboratory environment in vitro or even artificially constructed environments found solely within the confines of your computer (the latter now typically described as in silico). |
Note that environments are not just places, though location nonetheless is an important defining characteristic that helps to differentiate one environment from another. Environments instead are physical, chemical, biological, and even sociological phenomena, which also happen to be found in specific locations.
Figure legend: Environments can be distinguished into biotic as well as abiotic components, both of which can be further subdivided or, indeed, conceptually recombined into ecosystems.
The scientific discipline of ecology is the study of the interaction of organisms with their environments.