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Environmental science is an interdisciplinary academic field that integrates physics, biology, meteorology, mathematics and geography (including ecology, chemistry, plant science, zoology, mineralogy, oceanography, limnology, soil science, geology and physical geography, and atmospheric science) to the study of the environment, and the solution of environmental problems.
The concept of the natural environment can be distinguished as components: Complete ecological units that function as natural systems without massive civilized human intervention, including all vegetation, microorganisms , soil , rocks , plateaus, mountains, the atmosphere and natural phenomena that occur within their boundaries and their nature.
Sustainability is regarded as a "normative concept".[5] [22] [23] [2] This means it is based on what people value or find desirable: "The quest for sustainability involves connecting what is known through scientific study to applications in pursuit of what people want for the future."
The process and concept of ecosystem engineering are related to niche construction, but the former relates only to the physical modifications of the habitat whereas the latter also considers the evolutionary implications of physical changes to the environment and the feedback this causes on the process of natural selection. Ecosystem engineers ...
The origin of life on Earth is not well understood, but it is known to have occurred at least 3.5 billion years ago, [65] [66] [67] during the hadean or archean eons on a primordial Earth that had a substantially different environment than is found at present. [68] These life forms possessed the basic traits of self-replication and inheritable ...
Growth" generally ignores the direct effect that the environment may have on social welfare, whereas "development" takes it into account. [53] As early as the 1970s, the concept of sustainability was used to describe an economy "in equilibrium with basic ecological support systems". [54]
Land-use change is fundamental to the operations of the biosphere because alterations in the relative proportions of land dedicated to urbanisation, agriculture, forest, woodland, grassland and pasture have a marked effect on the global water, carbon and nitrogen biogeochemical cycles and this can negatively impact both natural and human ...
Environmental health is the branch of public health concerned with all aspects of the natural and built environment affecting human health. To effectively control factors that may affect health, the requirements that must be met to create a healthy environment must be determined. [1]