The
natural environment encompasses all
living and non-living things occurring
naturally on
Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species.
The concept of the
natural environment can be distinguished by components:
Complete
ecological units that function as
natural systems without massive
human intervention, including all
vegetation,
microorganisms,
soil,
rocks,
atmosphere, and
natural phenomena that occur within their boundaries.
Universal
natural resources and
physical phenomena that lack clear-cut boundaries, such as
air,
water, and
climate, as well as
energy,
radiation,
electric charge, and
magnetism, not originating from human activity.
The natural environment is contrasted with the
built environment, which comprises the areas and components that are strongly influenced by humans. A geographical area is regarded as a natural environment.
It is difficult to find
absolutely natural environments, and it is common that the naturalness varies in a continuum, from ideally 100% natural in one extreme to 0% natural in the other. 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 the
mineralogic composition and the
structure 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.
Natural environment is often used as a synonym for
habitat. For instance, when we say that the natural environment of giraffes is the
savanna.