Thenatural environment ornatural world encompasses allbiotic andabiotic things occurringnaturally, meaning in this case notartificial. The term is most often applied toEarth or some parts of Earth. This environment encompasses the interaction of all livingspecies,climate, weather and natural resources that affect human survival and economic activity.The concept of thenatural environment can be distinguished as components:
Completeecological units that function as natural systems without massive civilized human intervention, including all vegetation,microorganisms,soil,rocks, plateaus, mountains, theatmosphere andnatural phenomena that occur within their boundaries and their nature.
In contrast to the natural environment is thebuilt environment. Built environments are where humans have fundamentally transformed landscapes such as urban settings and agriculturalland conversion, the natural environment is greatly changed into a simplified human environment. Even acts which seem less extreme, such as building a mudhut or aphotovoltaic system in thedesert, the modified environment becomes an artificial one. Though many animals build things to provide a better environment for themselves, they are not human, hencebeaver dams and the works ofmound-building termites are thought of as natural.
There are noabsolutely natural environments on Earth. Naturalness usually varies in a continuum, from 100% natural in one extreme to 0% natural in the other. The massive environmental changes of humanity in theAnthropocene have fundamentally affected all natural environments including:climate change,biodiversity loss andpollution from plastic andother chemicals in theair andwater. More precisely, we can consider the different aspects or components of an environment, and see that their degree of naturalness is not uniform. If, for instance, we take an agricultural field, and consider themineralogic composition and thestructure of its soil, we will find that whereas the first is quite similar to that of an undisturbed forest soil, the structure is quite different. (Full article...)
δ18O, a proxy for temperature, for the last 600,000 years (an average from several deep sea sediment carbonate samples)
The100,000-year problem (also100 ky problem or100 ka problem) of theMilankovitch theory oforbital forcing refers to a discrepancy between the reconstructedgeologic temperature record and the reconstructed amount of incoming solar radiation, orinsolation over the past 800,000 years. Due to variations in the Earth's orbit, the amount of insolation varies with periods of around 21,000, 40,000, 100,000, and 400,000 years. Variations in the amount of incident solar energy drive changes in theclimate of the Earth, and are recognised as a key factor in the timing of initiation and termination ofglaciations.
While there is a Milankovitch cycle in the range of 100,000 years, related to Earth'sorbital eccentricity, its contribution to variation in insolation is much smaller than those ofprecession andobliquity. The 100,000-year problem refers to the lack of an obvious explanation for the periodicity ofice ages at roughly 100,000 years for the past million years, but not before, when the dominant periodicity corresponded to 41,000 years.The unexplained transition between the two periodicity regimes is known as theMid-Pleistocene Transition, dated to some 800,000 years ago. (Full article...)
Radioactive contamination is the uncontrolled distribution ofradioactive material in a given environment. It is typically the result of a spill or accident during the production or use ofradionuclides (radioisotopes). Contamination may occur from radioactive gases, liquids or particles. For example, if a radionuclide used innuclear medicine is accidentally spilled, the material could be spread by people as they walk around. Radioactive contamination may also be an inevitable result of certain processes, such as the release of radioactivexenon innuclear fuel reprocessing.
TheEuropean Centre for Nature Conservation (ECNC) was a Dutchnon-profit foundation which was active in the field of European nature and biodiversity policy between 1993 and 2017. It was set up as a network of university departments, expert centres and government agencies and operated as a Europeanbiodiversity expertise centre. The organization promoted sustainable management of natural resources and biodiversity, and aimed to stimulate interaction between science, society and policy.
Image 5Biodiversity of a coral reef. Corals adapt and modify their environment by formingcalcium carbonate skeletons. This provides growing conditions for future generations and forms a habitat for many other species. (fromEnvironmental science)
Image 12Loch Lomond inScotland forms a relatively isolated ecosystem. The fish community of this lake has remained stable over a long period until a number ofintroductions in the 1970s restructured itsfood web. (fromEcosystem)
Image 16Aerial view of stormwater treatment areas in the northern Everglades bordered by sugarcane fields on the right (fromRestoration of the Everglades)
Image 22Climbingferns overtakecypress trees in the Everglades. The ferns act as "fire ladders" that can destroy trees that would otherwise survive fires. (fromRestoration of the Everglades)
Image 34Sequence of a decomposing pig carcass over time (fromEcosystem)
Image 35Compartments established by C&SF projects that separated the historic Everglades into Water Conservation Areas and the Everglades Agricultural Area. One-fourth of the original Everglades is preserved inEverglades National Park. (fromRestoration of the Everglades)
Image 41Global oceanic and terrestrial phototroph abundance, from September 1997 to August 2000. As an estimate ofautotroph biomass, it is only a rough indicator of primary production potential and not an actual estimate of it. (fromEcosystem)
Image 43Few creatures make theice shelves ofAntarctica their habitat, but water beneath the ice can provide habitat for multiple species. Animals such as penguins have adapted to live in very cold conditions. (fromHabitat)
Image 45A false color composite of the greater Boston area, created using remote sensing technology, reveals otherwise not visible characteristics about the land cover and the health of the surrounding ecosystems. (fromEnvironmental science)
Image 46The Paris Agreement (formerly the Kyoto Protocol) is adopted in 2016. Nearly every country in the United Nations has signed the treaty, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (fromEnvironmental science)
Image 47Proportion of forest area by forest area density class and global ecological zone, 2015, fromFood and Agriculture Organization publication The State of the World's Forests 2020. Forests, biodiversity and people – In brief (fromEcoregion)
Image 50Blue Marble composite images generated by NASA in 2001 (left) and 2002 (right) (fromEnvironmental science)
Image 51A team of British researchers found a hole in the ozone layer forming over Antarctica, the discovery of which would later influence theMontreal Protocol in 1987. (fromEnvironmental science)
Image 54Cattails indicate the presence ofphosphorus in the water. Cattails are an invasive species; they crowd outsawgrass and grow too thick to allow nesting for birds and alligators. (fromRestoration of the Everglades)
Image 55View of Earth, taken in 1972 by theApollo 17 crew. Approximately 71% ofEarth's surface (an area of some 361 million square kilometers) consists ofocean (fromEcoregion)
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