Geography chapter 1st environment

Question 1. Answer the following questions briefly. (i) What is an ecosystem? (ii) What do you mean by natural environment? (iii) Which are the major components of the environment? (iv) Give four examples of human-made environment. (v) What is lithosphere? (vi) Which are the two major components of biotic environment? (vii) What is biosphere? Answer: (i) All plants, animals and human beings depend on their immediate surroundings. They are also interdependent on each other. This relation between the living organisms as well as the relation between the organism and their surroundings form an ecosystem. (ii) Natural environment consists of land, water, air, plants and animals. Thus, natural environment refers to both biotic (plants and animals) and abiotic (land) conditions that exist on the earth. (iii) The major components of the environment are—natural (land, air, water, living things), human made (buildings, parks, bridges, roads, industries, monuments, etc.) and human (individual, family, community, religion, educational, economic, etc). (iv) Four examples of human-made environment—buildings, parks, bridges and roads. (v) Lithosphere is the solid crust or the hard top layer of the earth. It is made up of rocks and minerals and covered by a thin layer of soil. It is an irregular surface with various land forms such as mountains, plateaus, plains, valleys, etc. (vi) Plants and animals are the two major components of biotic environment, (vii) Biosphere is a narrow zone of the earth where land, water and air interact with each other to support life. Thus, plant and animal kingdom together make biosphere, ie., the living world.