Ecology and Environment

The natural environment or natural world encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally meaning in this case not artificial. It consists of living species climate weather and natural resources that affect human survival and economic activity. In its most literal sense ''environment'' simply means ''surroundings'' (environs); hence the environment of an individual object element or system includes all of the other entities with which it is surrounded. However in reality individuals objects elements and systems rarely exist in isolation; instead they tend to interact to varying extents with their surrounding entities. Therefore it is not particularly helpful to conceptualize the ''environment'' without including in that conceptualization some notion of relationship. Individuals objects elements and systems influence - and are in turn influenced by - their surroundings. Indeed the networks of relationships that exist between different entities may in some cases be extensive and highly complex. Thus the ''environment'' may be regarded as a ''space'' or a ''field'' in which networks of relationships interconnections and interactions between entities.