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Definition: environment from Philip's Encyclopedia

Physical and biological surroundings of an organism. The environment covers non-living (abiotic) factors such as temperature, soil, atmosphere and radiation, and also living (biotic) organisms such as plants, microorganisms and animals. The study of the relationship of organisms to their environment is called ecology, and protecting the environment involves conservation.


environment

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
In ecology, the sum of conditions affecting a particular organism, including physical surroundings, climate, and influences of other living organisms. Areas affected by environmental issues include the biosphere and habitat . In biology, the environment includes everything outside body cells and fluid surrounding the cells. This means that materials enclosed by part of the body surface that is ‘folded in’ are, in fact, part of the environment and not part of the organism. So the air spaces in human lungs and the contents of the stomach are all part of the environment and not the organism, using these terms correctly. Ecology is the study of the way organisms and their environment interact with each other. Important processes in biology involve the transfer of material between an organism and its environment in exchanges of gases and food, for example during nutrition , photosynthesis , or respiration . In common usage, ‘the environment’ often means the total global environment, without…
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From Cambridge Dictionary of Sociology
Since its emergence as a political and social issue during the 1960s, the environment has been a topic of sociological interest. Owing to its intrinsic complexity and its intimate connection to a nonsocial and nonhuman “natural” realm, the environment has shown itself to be difficult to subject to…
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Full text Article Environment

From Encyclopedia of Women's Health
The effects of the environment on health have long been recognized. In the United States, industrial growth and increasing urban population centers in the mid-19th century resulted in concern about the water supply and sewage management. Furthermore, increasing use of coal-burning furnaces and the…
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From Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology
In common usage, ‘environment’ refers to non-human influences on humanity. Like ‘nature’, it is shorthand for the biophysical context, the ‘natural world’ in which we live. Less obviously it is linked with nature/culture dualism, and is intrinsically anthropocentric in its cosmological image of…
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Full text Article environment

From The Macquarie Dictionary
the aggregate of surrounding things, conditions, or influences. Plural: environments the particular influences on personal development as work conditions, home situation, etc. a child in a good environment will do better at school., environments the biological conditions in which an organism lives, …
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From The Chambers Dictionary
surroundings; external conditions influencing development or growth of people, animals or plants; living or working conditions; a program, set of programs or an operating system that allows a particular application to be employed ( comput ). [Ety as for environ ] /en-vī-ron'iks/ n sing the study of…
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From International Encyclopedia of Human Geography
Deceased. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This article is reproduced from the previous edition, volume 3, pp 505-516, © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. Glossary Commons Originally a piece of land used by local people for access, food, and pasture, especially in the Middle Ages in Europe; more recently, …
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From Key Concepts in Nursing
Examples of how the environment influences health...
DEFINITION Students studying nursing today soon realise that they are tapping into a number of discreet disciplines. These fields of expertise include sociology, psychology, public health and economics, which bring together the specific bodies of knowledge that are the essential components for…
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From The American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language
a. The totality of the natural world, often excluding humans: “Technology, of course, lies at the heart of man's relationship with the environment” (Mark Hertsgaard).The Nile at Mile One b. A subset of the natural world; an ecosystem: the coastal environment. c. The combination of external physical…
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From The Penguin Dictionary of Psychology
The term comes from the Old French and translates roughly as encircle . Hence, the environment is that which surrounds. Clearly, this general meaning is going to invite a wide range of uses. Typically the term has a qualifier appended so that precisely what it is that is being surrounded is made…
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From Keywords for Asian American Studies
Considering the term “environment” in relation to Asian American studies is like staring at one of those optical illusions full of dots that make up a face or figure that one at first cannot discern. In both instances, the modalities of viewing provide one a limited field of vision. In the case of…
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