Biosphere The zone of contact between land, air and water, where all forms of life, from the microscopic bacteria to huge whales and elephants live, is known as bio­sphere. It is the most unique feature of the planet earth.

Our earth is unique in the solar system because of the biosphere. No other planet has biosphere and therefore, no life exists. Though Mars may have supported life, but there is no evidence.

Biosphere is very important for human life as we get food, shelter, clothing (like cotton, jute) from plants we also obtain medicines, dyes, wood, silk from plants and animals. Different types of trees and animals provide raw materials for many industries like iron for iron and steel industry. Coal and petroleum are the energy fuels and are obtained from the biosphere. Hence, biosphere is essential for the existence of human life on the earth.

Environment The environment is the surroundings from water, air, animals, waste, plants, and other things that surround us. The environment constitutes of many things that is closely intertwined to create a harmonic balance.

The environment means different things to different people. To biologists, it’s all the living things that exist in the biosphere. To scientists it’s the environment comprises of the hydrosphere, atmosphere and lithosphere. With this in mind the environment can thereby be defined as the social, physical, cultural, biological, chemical and economical factors that surround man to protect him

The environment can also be defined from a different angle that defines two types of environment i.e. the natural environment that nature provides for example the oceans, land, seas etc and the environment that man creates for himself such as houses, technology, industries, etc

All the things in the environment interrelate with each other to give man what he needs for survival. The environment is important and we should all aim to protect it by avoiding bad practices such as pollution, cutting down of trees and any other human activities that could lead to the degradation of the environment.

Ecosystem

A species or an organism can never live alone. They are always influencing each other and organizing themselves into communities, besides they have functional relationship with their external environment. This structural and functional system of communities and their environment is called ecosystem. The word ecosystem was coined by Tinsley in 1935. The ‘eco’ means environment. The central theme of ecosystem concept is that at any place where an organism lives, there is a continuous interaction between the living and the non-living components, i.e., between plants, animals and their environment. They continuously produce and exchange materials. This means, that there are mechanisms for continuous absorption of materials by organisms for the purpose of production of organic materials and their conversion back into the inorganic form, much of which is then released back into the environment. The interaction between living and non-living components of an ecosystem involves input, transfer, storage and output of energy and essential materials through the system. Each of these processes is energy-dependent. As a result of these complex interactions, the ecosystem has to adjust to these changes and attains a state of equilibrium. An ecosystem therefore, is a system that is self-regulatory based on feedback information about the population, and the limiting factors which control the living and non-living components. Before we explain, the functioning of the components of the ecosystems let us first talk about a larger unit of natural landscape biosphere.

Population

The rapid growth of population is one of the greatest obstacles in the progress of developing countries. If the population grows fast, poverty cannot be eradicated. Progress made in the fields of agriculture, industry and technology fails to cope with the needs of a rapidly growing population.Thus, over­population leads to poverty and unemployment.

A high rate of birth