The concept of habitat means for ecology, the environment that a biological population occupies. But it is much more than just that. There are different ways to classify it and it is not the same for ecology and biological sciences as it is for architecture and urban planning. meet here why knowing this concept is so important for life on earth.
Habitat what does it mean?
According to a more encyclopedic definition, the habitat it’s a set of physical and geographical factors that affect the development of an individual, a community, a species or a certain group of these.
For ecology it is about space that or environment that a biological population occupies. It meets the necessary conditions for that species to reside and reproduce. These distinguish it from other habitats in which the same species could not exist or obtain the same resources.
In the biological sciences, at least four definitions of habitat are known. But they all share a common requirement which is its spatial reference and the need for there to be at least one biotic element.
Whether we talk about natural habitat either animal habitat we are referring to different meanings and ways of naming this concept that is the cornerstone of ecology. However, it is not a term free of controversy. Although when we speak, for example, of animal habitat It is widely used to demonstrate the relationship between these and their environment.
Or when we talk about natural habitat we refer to the environmental space that naturally encourages a species to arise and reproduce. Some habitats have natural and artificial components, which are those elements introduced by the hand of human beings. For example, cities have natural elements, but are largely artificial habitats.
if you ask habitat or habitation? You will see that it is true that both words refer to ways of living in an environment. But the correct meaning of the term is habitatsince habitad refers to the conjugation of the verb to inhabit, do not confuse them.
habitat types
A habitat can be found in very diverse geographical environments and this also depends on the complexity of the species or organisms that live and develop in it. For example, bacteria may have a puddle in the patio of a house as their habitat, while a condor needs the mountains and the resources it finds in the Andes Mountains.
The habitat always has a combination of biotic and abiotic factorswhich means that this environment, in order to be conducive to a species or community of species, corresponds to different geographical and climatological characteristics.
There are many types of habitat depending on climatic and geographical conditions. There are marine, inland and terrestrial habitats. Also within the latter we have some sub-classifications, the biomes.
These depend on weather, geographic and environmental conditions. Some of them are: the prairie, the forest, the desert, the mountains, the savannah, the plateau, the creek, the ocean, the reefs, the beach and the swamp. But there may be many more, the limits of the habitats are quite diffuse in that sense.
Why is habitat so important to life on earth?
In human ecology and urbanism, The concept of habitat contemplates the relationship between the human and the environment. So they use the term human habitat to refer to material and institutional elements that condition the life of a certain group of people.
Architecture also uses this term to think of the necessary characteristics of an organized and conditioned environment both for daily life and for different activities.
The human habitat depends on different factors. From the amount of population in that particular area, its cultural traits, to its social and technological development. Access to decent work, health, different types of housing and access to art and entertainment are factors that condition our human habitat.
With which, The habitat is the place where both humans and other species can develop our life and reproduce it. The problem, as always, appears when human beings we carry out actions that drastically affect and modify these environments.
From the different actions of air pollution that lead to climate change, such as deforestation, the extinction of animal species due to the destruction of their natural habitat and poaching, these are just some of the actions of human beings that have been destroying the habitat of the animals.
An example that demonstrates this is the reappearance of endangered species after quarantine. By confining ourselves, many activities ceased or lowered their intensity and the animals took the opportunity to reappear in those spaces. Everywhere we can find images of how some animals took advantage to recover spaces that are invaded by our city models.
It is urgent to learn to coexist with other species avoiding modifying the environments that make their existence possible!
Sources: Wikipedia, Sustainablepedia, Definition.de