Anthropogenic factors

environments introduced into nature human activity changes affecting organic world(see Ecology). By remaking nature and adapting it to his needs, man changes the habitat of animals and plants, thereby influencing their life. The impact can be indirect and direct. Indirect impact is carried out by changing landscapes - climate, physical condition and the chemistry of the atmosphere and water bodies, the structure of the earth's surface, soils, vegetation and animal populations. Great importance acquires an increase in radioactivity as a result of the development of the nuclear industry and especially the testing of atomic weapons. A person consciously and unconsciously exterminates or displaces some types of plants and animals, spreads others or creates for them favorable conditions. For cultivated plants and pets man created to a large extent new environment, multiplying the productivity of developed lands. But this ruled out the possibility of the existence of many wild species. The increase in the population of the Earth and the development of science and technology have led to the fact that in modern conditions it is very difficult to find areas not affected by human activity (virgin forests, meadows, steppes, etc.). Improper plowing of land and excessive grazing not only led to the death of natural communities, but also increased water and wind erosion of soils and shallowing of rivers. At the same time, the emergence of villages and cities created favorable conditions for the existence of many species of animals and plants (see Synanthropic organisms). The development of industry did not necessarily lead to the impoverishment of wildlife, but often contributed to the emergence of new forms of animals and plants. The development of transport and other means of communication contributed to the spread of both useful and many harmful plant and animal species (see Anthropochory). Direct impact is directed directly at living organisms. For example, unsustainable fishing and hunting have drastically reduced the number of species. The growing strength and the accelerating pace of human change in nature necessitate its protection (see Nature Conservation). Purposeful, conscious transformation of nature by man with penetration into the microworld and space marks, according to V. I. Vernadsky (1944), the formation of the "noosphere" - the shell of the Earth, changed by man.

Lit.: Vernadsky V.I., Biosphere, vol. 1-2, L., 1926; his, Biogeochemical essays (1922-1932), M.-L., 1940; Naumov N. P., Animal Ecology, 2nd ed., M., 1963; Dubinin N. P., Evolution of populations and radiation, M., 1966; Blagosklonov K. N., Inozemtsov A. A., Tikhomirov V. N., Nature Protection, M., 1967.

Great Soviet Encyclopedia. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. 1969-1978 .

See what "Anthropogenic factors" are in other dictionaries:

Factors that owe their origin to human activity. Ecological encyclopedic Dictionary. Chisinau: Main edition of the Moldavian Soviet encyclopedia. I.I. Grandpa. 1989. Anthropogenic factors factors that owe their origin ... ... Ecological dictionary

The totality of environmental factors caused by accidental or intentional human activities during the period of its existence. Types of anthropogenic factors Physical use nuclear energy, travel in trains and planes, ... ... Wikipedia

Anthropogenic factors- * anthrapogenic factors * anthropogenic factors driving forces processes occurring in nature, which by their origin are associated with the activities and influence of man on environment. The summed action of A. f. embodied in... Genetics. encyclopedic Dictionary

Forms of activity human society, which lead to a change in nature as the habitat of the person himself and other species of living beings or directly affect their lives. (Source: "Microbiology: glossary of terms", Firsov N.N. ... Dictionary of microbiology

The result of human impact on the environment in the process of economic and other activities. Anthropogenic factors can be divided into 3 groups: having a direct impact on the environment as a result of a sudden onset, ... ... Biological encyclopedic dictionary

ANTHROPOGENIC FACTORS- factors caused by human activity ... Glossary of botanical terms

ANTHROPOGENIC FACTORS- environments, factors caused by households. human activities and affecting the incoming environment. Their impact can be direct, for example. deterioration of the structure and depletion of soils due to repeated cultivation, or indirectly, for example. terrain changes, ... ... Agricultural Encyclopedic Dictionary

Anthropogenic factors- (gr. - factors arising through the fault of a person) - these are the causes and conditions created (or arising) as a result of human activities that provide Negative influence on the environment and human health. So, the products of some industrial ... ... Fundamentals of spiritual culture (encyclopedic dictionary of a teacher)

anthropogenic factors- environments, factors caused by human economic activity and affecting natural environment. Their impact can be direct, for example, deterioration of the structure and depletion of soils due to repeated processing, or indirect, for example, ... ... Agriculture. Big encyclopedic dictionary

Anthropogenic factors- a group of factors due to the influence of a person and his economic activity on plants, animals and other natural ingredients … Theoretical aspects and basics environmental problem: interpreter of words and idiomatic expressions

Books

• Forest soils of European Russia. Biotic and anthropogenic factors of formation, M. V. Bobrovsky. The monograph presents the results of an analysis of an extensive actual material on the structure of soils in forest areas European Russia from the forest-steppe to the northern taiga. Considered features...

Anthropogenic factors is a set of influences of human economic activity on the natural environment as a habitat for other species.

Natural ecosystems have considerable resilience and resilience, which helps to endure periodic disturbances and often recover quite well after many periodic anthropogenic disturbances. Ecosystems are naturally adapted to such impacts.

However, chronic (permanent) violations can lead to pronounced and persistent negative consequences, especially in the case of pollution of atmospheric air, natural waters and soils with hazardous chemicals. In such cases, the evolutionary history of adaptation no longer helps organisms and anthropogenic stress can be a major limiting factor for them.

Anthropogenic stress of ecosystems is divided into two groups:

- acute stress , which is characterized by a sudden onset, rapid intensity and short duration of disturbances;

- chronic stress , in which violations of low intensity continue for a long time or often recur, i.e. it is a "constantly disturbing" effect.

Natural ecosystems have a significant capacity to cope with acute stress or recover from it. The degree of stability of ecosystems is different and depends on the severity of the impact and on the effectiveness of internal mechanisms. There are two types of stability:

Resistant stability – the ability to remain stable under load.

Elastic stability - the ability to recover quickly.

Chronic exposure to anthropogenic factors causes significant changes in the structure and functioning of ecosystems, which can have catastrophic consequences. The effects of chronic stress are harder to assess—sometimes it may take years for the effects of stress to show up. Thus, it took years to establish a link between cancer and smoking or chronic, weak ionizing radiation.

If humanity does not make efforts in the coming decades to curb the process of environmental degradation, then pollutants may well become a limiting factor for industrial civilization.

3.4. Ecological Valence of Species and Limiting Factors

The amplitude of the fluctuation of a factor at which organisms can exist is called species ecological valence . Organisms with broad ecological valence are called eurybiont, with a narrow stenobiont.

Figure 2. Comparison of relative tolerance limits of stenothermic and eurythermal organisms

(according to Y. Odum, 1986)

In stenothermic species, the minimum, optimum, and maximum are close (Fig. 2). Stenobiontness and eurybiontness characterize various types of adaptation of organisms for survival. So, in relation to temperature, eury- and stenothermal organisms are distinguished, in relation to the salt content - eury- and stenohaline, in relation to light - eury- and stenophotic, in relation to food - eury- and stenophageous.

The ecological valency of a species is the wider, the more diverse the conditions it lives in. Thus, coastal forms are more eurythermal and euryhaline than marine forms, where the temperature and salinity of the water are more constant.

Thus, organisms can be characterized as ecological minimum , so ecological maximum . The range between these two values ​​is called limit of tolerance .

Any condition approaching or exceeding the tolerance limit is called a limiting condition or limiting factor. A limiting factor is an environmental factor that goes beyond the endurance of the organism. The limiting factor limits any manifestation of the organism's vital activity. With the help of limiting factors, the state of organisms and ecosystems is regulated.

The limiting factor there may be not only a deficiency, but also an excess of some factors, for example, such as heat, light and water. In a stationary state, the limiting substance will be that vital substance, the available quantities of which are closest to the required minimum. This concept is known as « Liebig's Law of the Minimum .

In 1840, the German chemist J. Liebig for the first time concluded that the endurance of the body is determined by the most weak link in his chain environmental needs. This conclusion was made as a result of studying the influence various factors on plant growth. It has been found that plants are often limited not by those nutrients that are required in large quantities (for example, CO 2 and water, which are in excess), but by those that are required in negligible amounts (for example, zinc), but which are also found in the environment. very little.

Liebig's law of the "minimum" has two auxiliary principle :

1. Restrictive – the law is strictly applicable only under stationary conditions, i.e. when the inflow and outflow of energy and substances are balanced. When the equilibrium is disturbed, the rate of supply of substances changes and the ecosystem also begins to depend on other factors.

2. Interaction of factors - high concentration or availability of one substance or factor can change the rate of consumption of a nutrient contained in a minimum amount. Sometimes an organism is able to replace, at least partially, a deficient element with another chemically close one.

Studying the various limiting effects of environmental factors (such as light, heat, water), the American zoologist Victor Ernest Shelford in 1913 came to the conclusion that not only a deficiency, but also an excess of factors can be a limiting factor. In ecology, the concept of the limiting influence of the maximum along with the minimum is known as "law of tolerance" W. Shelford .

Organisms can have a wide range of tolerance for one factor and a narrow range for another. Organisms with wide range tolerances for all environmental factors are usually the most widespread.

The importance of the concept of limiting factors is that it provides the ecologist with a starting point in his research difficult situations. In the study of ecosystems, the researcher must first of all pay attention to those factors that are functionally most important.

All processes occurring in the biosphere are inextricably linked, and humanity is only a small fraction, or rather, just one species of organic life. Throughout his existence, man has striven and continues to strive not to adapt to the environment, but to use it with maximum benefit for himself. But now comes the realization that the deterioration of the biosphere is dangerous for us. According to statistics, up to 85% of human diseases are associated with negative conditions environment.

Human impact on the environment

Let's start by explaining what anthropogenic factors are. It is a human activity that has an impact on the environment.

Types of anthropogenic factors

1. Chemical - the use of pesticides, mineral fertilizers, as well as pollution earthly shells industrial and transport waste. This category includes alcohol, smoking, drugs.

2. Physical factors environments - travel in airplanes, trains, atomic Energy, noise and vibration.

4. Social anthropogenic factors are associated with society.

Main negative impact

In just a few recent years only in Russia, the birth rate decreased by 30%, and the death rate increased by 15%. Half of the young people of draft age are unfit for military service due to health reasons. Since the 1970s, the frequency of cardiovascular and oncological diseases has increased by 50%. In many regions, the occurrence of allergies occurs in more than half of the children. This is far from full list what anthropogenic factors lead to.

Atmospheric implications

As you know, today around the world there is great amount industrial enterprises which emit pollutants into the atmosphere around the clock. As a result, sanitary violations in many areas exceed all permissible figures by dozens of times. This leads to the fact that in cities the number of patients with bronchitis, allergies, asthma, and ischemia is steadily growing.

Greenhouse effect

If we talk about whether anthropogenic factors affect climate change, we can assure that in such global sense the person doesn't do that. Forests are being cut down, the atmosphere is being polluted, cities are being built up, and so on, but one active big volcano able to fill the air with carbon dioxide in such a large volume, which does not produce all of humanity in five years. We know that the Eyjafjallajokull volcano woke up not so long ago, due to which flights were canceled in many countries. So in this sense, anthropogenic environmental factors play only a small role.

Flora and fauna

Much worse situation is with the animal and plant world. Although, as has been repeatedly shown, old days there was a completely different flora and fauna, but as a result global catastrophes everything changed dramatically and quickly. Of course, now a person is contributing to the destruction of many species, although there is no urgent need for food. Huge tracts of land are polluted by man, so living conditions for animals become unsuitable.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it can be said that more Anthropogenic activity is negative not so much for nature as for man himself. This means that we ourselves create negative conditions for existence for ourselves, slowly destroying each other. Man-made disasters, an increase in the number of diseases, the emergence of new viruses, an excess of mortality and a decrease in the birth rate in developed countries are proof of this.

Conditions of existence

Definition 1

The conditions of existence (Conditions of life) are the totality of elements necessary for organisms, with which they are inextricably linked and without which they cannot exist.

The adaptation of organisms to the environment is called adaptation. Adaptability is one of them. the most important properties life, which provides opportunities for its life, reproduction and survival. Adaptations appear in various levels– from cell biochemistry and behavior individual organism to the functioning and structure of the community and ecosystem. Adaptation arises and changes during the evolution of species.

Some elements of the environment or properties that affect the body are called environmental factors. Environmental factors exist a large number of. They have a different nature and specificity of action. All environmental factors are divided into three large groups: biotic, abiotic and anthropogenic

Definition 2

abiotic factor called a set of conditions inorganic environment affecting a living organism indirectly or directly: light, temperature, radiation, air humidity, pressure, salt composition of water, etc.

Definition 3

Biotic factor Environment is a set of influences that are exerted on plants by other organisms. any plant does not live in isolation, but in interconnection with other plants, fungi, microorganisms, animals.

Definition 4

The anthropogenic factor is a combination environmental factors determined by the intentional or accidental activities of mankind and causing a significant impact on the functioning and structure of ecosystems.

Anthropogenic factors

The most important group of factors in our time, which intensively changes the environment, is directly related to the many-sided human activity.

Development and formation of a person on the globe have always been associated with environmental impacts, but currently this process accelerated significantly.

The anthropogenic factor includes any impact (both indirect and direct) of mankind on the environment - biogeocenoses, organisms, the biosphere, landscapes.

modifying nature and adapting it to personal needs, people change the habitat of plants and animals, thereby influencing their existence. Impacts can be direct, indirect and accidental.

Direct impacts are directed directly at living organisms. For example, irrational hunting and fishing have drastically reduced the number of many species. The accelerated pace and the growing force of the modification of nature by mankind awaken the need for its protection.

Indirect impacts are carried out by changing the climate, landscapes, chemistry and the physical state of water bodies and the atmosphere, the structure of soil surfaces, animals and flora. A person unconsciously and consciously displaces or exterminates one type of plant or animal, while spreading another or creating favorable conditions for it. For domestic animals and cultivated plants, humanity has created a new environment to a large extent, increasing the productivity of the developed land a hundredfold. But this made the existence of many wild species impossible.

Remark 1

It should be noted that many species of plants and animals disappeared from planet Earth even without anthropogenic activities person. Like a separate organism, each species has its youth, flowering, old age and death - these are natural process. But under natural conditions, this happens very slowly, and usually the outgoing species has time to be replaced by a new one, more adapted to the living conditions. Mankind, on the other hand, accelerated the processes of extinction to such a pace that evolution gave way to irreversible, revolutionary reorganizations of ecosystems.

The currently most significant group of factors that intensively change the environment is directly related to the versatile human activity.

Human development on the planet has always been associated with environmental impact, but today this process has accelerated significantly.

Anthropogenic factors include any impact (both direct and indirect) of a person on the environment - organisms, biogeocenoses, landscapes,.

By reshaping nature and adapting it to his needs, man changes the habitat of animals and plants, thereby influencing their life. The impact can be direct, indirect and accidental.

Direct impact directed directly at living organisms. For example, unsustainable fishing and hunting have drastically reduced the number of species. The growing strength and accelerated pace of human change in nature necessitate its protection.

Indirect Impact is carried out by changing the landscapes, climate, physical condition and chemistry of the atmosphere and water bodies, the structure of the earth's surface, soils, vegetation and wildlife. A person consciously and unconsciously exterminates or displaces some species of plants and animals, spreads others or creates favorable conditions for them. For cultivated plants and domestic animals, man has created a largely new environment, multiplying the productivity of developed lands. But this ruled out the possibility of the existence of many wild species.

In fairness, it should be said that many species of animals and plants disappeared from the face of the Earth even without human intervention. Each species, like an individual organism, has its own youth, flowering, old age and death - a natural process. But in nature, this happens slowly, and usually leaving species have time to be replaced by new ones, more adapted to living conditions. Man, on the other hand, accelerated the process of extinction to such a pace that evolution gave way to revolutionary, irreversible transformations.