Galunggung in 1982, showing a combination of natural events.

A more steady-state view of nature: Hopetoun Falls, Victoria, Australia. Much attention has been given to preserving the flora and other natural characteristics of the view, while allowing ample access for visitors to this popular site.

Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical universe, material world or material universe. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The term generally does not include manufactured objects and human interaction unless qualified in ways such as, e.g., "human nature" or "the whole of nature". Nature is also generally distinguished from the supernatural. It ranges in scale from the subatomic to the galactic.

The word "nature" is derived from the Latin word natura, or "the course of things, natural character."^[1] Natura was a Latin translation of the Greek word physis (φύσις), which originally related to the intrinsic characteristics that plants, animals, and other features of the world develop of their own accord.^[2] This is shown in the first written use of the word φύσις, in connection with a plant.^[3] The concept of nature as a whole, the physical universe, is one of several expansions of the original notion; it began with certain core applications of the word φύσις by pre-Socratic philosophers, and has steadily gained currency ever since. This usage was confirmed during the advent of modern scientific method in the last several centuries.^[4][5]

Within the various uses of the word today, "nature" may refer to the general realm of various types of living plants and animals, and in some cases to the processes associated with inanimate objects – the way that particular types of things exist and change of their own accord, such as the weather and geology of the Earth, and the matter and energy of which all these things are composed. It is often taken to mean the "natural environment" or wilderness – wild animals, rocks, forest, beaches, and in general those things that have not been substantially altered by human intervention, or which persist despite human intervention. This more traditional concept of natural things which can still be found today implies a distinction between the natural and the artificial, with the latter being understood as that which has been brought into being by a human or human-like consciousness or mind.

Earth

View of the home planet, taken in 1972 by the Apollo 17 crew. This image is the only photograph of its kind to date, showing a fully sunlit hemisphere of the Earth.^{[citation needed]}

"continental ecosystems", such as "forest ecosystems", "meadow ecosystems" such as steppes or savannas), or agro-ecosystems,

systems in inland waters, such as lentic ecosystem"s such as lakes or ponds; or lotic ecosystems such as rivers,

oceanic ecosystems.

Another classification can be made by reference to its communities, such as in the case of a human ecosystem. Regional groupings of distinctive plant and animals best adapted to the region's physical natural environment, latitude, altitude, and terrain are known as biomes. The broadest classification, today under wide study and analysis, and also subject to widespread arguments about its nature and validity, is that of the entire sum of life seen as analogous to a self-sustaining organism; a theory studied as earth system science (less formally known as Gaia theory).^[54][55]

Human interrelationship

The secluded valleys along the Na Pali Coast in Hawaii are the residence of tribes that make only small changes in the natural beauty surrounding them.

Although humans currently comprise only about one-half of one percent of the total living biomass on Earth,^[56] the human effect on nature is disproportionately large. Because of the extent of human influence, the boundaries between what we regard as nature and "made environments" is not clear cut except at the extremes. Even at the extremes, the amount of natural environment that is free of discernible human influence is presently diminishing at an increasingly rapid pace, or, according to some, has already disappeared.

The development of technology by the human race has allowed the greater exploitation of natural resources and has helped to alleviate some of the risk from natural hazards. In spite of this progress, however, the fate of human civilization remains closely linked to changes in the environment. There exists a highly complex feedback-loop between the use of advanced technology and changes to the environment that are only slowly becoming understood.^[57] Manmade threats to the Earth's natural environment include pollution, deforestation, and disasters such as oil spills. Humans have contributed to the extinction of many plants and animals.

Humans employ nature for both leisure and economic activities. The acquisition of natural resources for industrial use remains a primary component of the world's economic system. Some activities, such as hunting and fishing, are used for both sustenance and leisure, often by different people. Agriculture was first adopted around the 9th millennium BCE. Ranging from food production to energy, nature influences economic wealth.

Although early humans gathered uncultivated plant materials for food and employed the medicinal properties of vegetation for healing,^[58] most modern human use of plants is through agriculture. The clearance of large tracts of land for crop growth has led to a significant reduction in the amount available of forestation and wetlands, resulting in the loss of habitat for many plant and animal species as well as increased erosion.^[59]

Wilderness

The Daintree Rainforest, a wilderness area in Queensland, Australia.

Natural history

Natural Philosophy

Natural science

Philosophy:

• Nature (philosophy)
• Mother Nature
• Naturalism (philosophy): any of several philosophical stances, typically those descended from Materialism and Pragmatism that do not distinguish the supernatural from nature. This includes the methodological naturalism of natural science, which makes the methodological assumption that observable events in nature are explained only by natural causes, without assuming either the existence or non-existence of the supernatural.

Media:

• Nature, by Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Nature, a prominent scientific journal
• Natural History, by Pliny the Elder
• Nature (TV series)

Organizations:

• The Nature Conservancy
• Nature Detectives

Notes and references

1. ^ Harper, Douglas. Nature. Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved on September 23, 2006.
2. ^ A useful though somewhat erratically presented account of the pre-Socratic use of the concept of φύσις may be found in Naddaf, Gerard The Greek Concept of Nature, SUNY Press, 2006. The word φύσις, while first used in connection with a plant in Homer (as we have seen), occurs very early in Greek philosophy, and in several senses. Generally, these senses match rather well the current senses in which the English word nature is used, as confirmed by Guthrie, W.K.C. Presocratic Tradition from Parmenides to Democritus (volume 2 of his History of Greek Philosophy), Cambridge UP, 1965.
3. ^ The first known use of physis was by Homer in reference to the intrinsic qualities of a plant: ὣς ἄρα φωνήσας πόρε φάρμακον ἀργεϊφόντης ἐκ γαίης ἐρύσας, καί μοι φύσιν αὐτοῦ ἔδειξε. (So saying, Argeiphontes [=Hermes] gave me the herb, drawing it from the ground, and showed me its nature.) Odyssey 10.302-3 (ed. A.T. Murray). (The word is dealt with thoroughly in Liddell and Scott's Greek Lexicon.) For later but still very early Greek uses of the term, see related below.
4. ^ Isaac Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687), for example, is translated "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy", and reflects the then-current use of the words "natural philosophy", akin to "systematic study of nature"
5. ^ The etymology of the word "physical" shows its use as a synonym for "natural" in about the mid-15th century: Harper, Douglas. Physical. Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved on September 20, 2006.
6. ^ An excellent summary description of global climate can be found at: World Climates. Blue Planet Biomes. Retrieved on September 21, 2006.
7. ^ Calculations favor reducing atmopshere for early Earth. Science Daily (September 11, 2005). Retrieved on 2007-01-06.
8. ^ Past Climate Change. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved on 2007-01-07.
9. ^ Hugh Anderson, Bernard Walter (March, 28 1997). History of Climate Change. NASA. Retrieved on 2007-01-07.
10. ^ Weart, Spencer (June, 2006). The Discovery of Global Warming. American Institute of Physics. Retrieved on 2007-01-07.
11. ^ Margulis, Lynn; Dorian Sagan (1995). What is Life?. New York: Simon & Schuster. . 
12. ^ Dalrymple, G. Brent (1991). The Age of the Earth. Stanford: Stanford University Press. . 
13. ^ Morbidelli, A.; et al. (2000). "Source Regions and Time Scales for the Delivery of Water to Earth". Meteoritics & Planetary Science 35 (6): pp. 1309-1320. 
14. ^ "Earth's Oldest Mineral Grains Suggest an Early Start for Life", NASA Astrobilogy Institute, 2001-12-24. 
15. ^ Murphy, J.B.; R.D. Nance (2004). "How do supercontinents assemble?". American Scientist 92 (4): pp. 324-333. doi:10.1511/2004.4.324. 
16. ^ Colebrook, Michael. Chronology of Earth History. Cosmology and The Universe Story. Retrieved on September 21, 2006.
17. ^ Stanley, Steven M. (1999). Earth System History. New York: W.H. Freeman. . 
18. ^ Kirschvink, J.L. (1992). "Late Proterozoic Low-Latitude Global Glaciation: The Snowball Earth", in J.W. Schopf, C. Klein eds.: The Proterozoic Biosphere. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 51-52. . 
19. ^ Raup, David M.; J. John Sepkoski Jr. (March 1982). "Mass extinctions in the marine fossil record". Science 215 (4539): pp. 1501–1503. doi:10.1126/science.215.4539.1501. 
20. ^ Margulis, Lynn; Dorian Sagan (1995). What is Life?. New York: Simon & Schuster, p. 145. . 
21. ^ Margulis, Lynn; Dorian Sagan (1995). What is Life?. New York: Simon & Schuster. . 
22. ^ Diamond J (1989). "The present, past and future of human-caused extinctions". Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 325 (1228): 469-76; discussion 476-7. PMID 2574887. 
23. ^ Novacek M, Cleland E (2001). "The current biodiversity extinction event: scenarios for mitigation and recovery". Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 98 (10): 5466-70. PMID 11344295. 
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26. ^ Ideal Gases under Constant Volume, Constant Pressure, Constant Temperature, & Adiabatic Conditions. NASA. Retrieved on 2007-01-07.
27. ^ Pelletier, Jon D. (2002). "Natural variability of atmospheric temperatures and geomagnetic intensity over a wide range of time scales". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 99: 2546-2553. Retrieved on 2007-01-07. 
28. ^ "Tropical Ocean Warming Drives Recent Northern Hemisphere Climate Change", Science Daily, April 6, 2001. Retrieved on 2006-05-24. 
29. ^ Definition of Life. California Academy of Sciences (2006). Retrieved on 2007-01-07.
30. ^ The figure "about one-half of one percent" takes into account the following (See, e.g., Leckie, Stephen (1999). "How Meat-centred Eating Patterns Affect Food Security and the Environment", For hunger-proof cities : sustainable urban food systems. Ottawa: International Development Research Centre. . , which takes global average weight as 60 kg.), the total human biomass is the average weight multiplied by the current human population of approximately 6.5 billion (see, e.g., World Population Information. U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved on September 28, 2006.): Assuming 60–70 kg to be the average human mass (approximately 130–150 lb on the average), an approximation of total global human mass of between 390 billion (390×10⁹) and 455 billion kg (between 845 billion and 975 billion lb, or about 423 million-488 million short tons). The total biomass of all kinds on earth is estimated to be in excess of 6.8 x 10¹³ kg (75 billion short tons). By these calculations, the portion of total biomass accounted for by humans would be very roughly 0.6%.
31. ^ Sengbusch, Peter V.. The Flow of Energy in Ecosystems - Productivity, Food Chain, and Trophic Level. Botany online. University of Hamburg Department of Biology. Retrieved on September 23, 2006.
32. ^ Pidwirny, Michael (2006). Introduction to the Biosphere: Species Diversity and Biodiversity. Fundamentals of Physical Geography (2nd Edition). Retrieved on September 23, 2006.
33. ^ How Many Species are There?. Extinction Web Page Class Notes. Retrieved on September 23, 2006.
34. ^ "Animal." World Book Encyclopedia. 16 vols. Chicago: World Book, 2003. This source gives an estimate of from 2-50 million.
35. ^ Just How Many Species Are There, Anyway?. Science Daily (May 2003). Retrieved on September 26, 2006.
36. ^ Withers, Mark A.; et al. (1998). Changing Patterns in the Number of Species in North American Floras. Land Use History of North America. Retrieved on September 26, 2006. Website based on the contents of the book: (1998) in Sisk, T.D., ed.: Perspectives on the land use history of North America: a context for understanding our changing environment, Revised September 1999, U.S. Geological Survey, Biological Resources Division. USGS/BRD/BSR-1998-0003. 
37. ^ Tropical Scientists Find Fewer Species Than Expected. Science Daily (April 2002). Retrieved on September 27, 2006.
38. ^ Bunker, Daniel E.; et al. (November 2005). "Species Loss and Aboveground Carbon Storage in a Tropical Forest". Science 310 (5750): pp. 1029-31. doi:10.1126/science.1117682. 
39. ^ Wilcox, Bruce A. (March 2006). "Amphibian Decline: More Support for Biocomplexity as a Research Paradigm". EcoHealth 3 (1): pp.1-2. doi:10.1007/s10393-005-0013-5. 
40. ^ (2002) "Decline and loss of species", in Clarke, Robin, Robert Lamb, Dilys Roe Ward eds.: Global environment outlook 3 : past, present and future perspectives. London; Sterling, VA: Nairobi, Kenya : UNEP. . 
41. ^ ^{a b} Line M (2002). "The enigma of the origin of life and its timing". Microbiology 148 (Pt 1): 21-7. PMID 11782495. 
42. ^ Berkner, L. V.; L. C. Marshall (May 1965). "On the Origin and Rise of Oxygen Concentration in the Earth's Atmosphere". Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences 22 (3): pp. 225–261. 
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46. ^ Horneck G (1981). "Survival of microorganisms in space: a review.". Adv Space Res 1 (14): 39-48. PMID 11541716. 
47. ^ flora. Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved on September 27, 2006.
48. ^ (1998) "Glossary", Status and Trends of the Nation's Biological Resources. Reston, VA: Department of the Interior, Geological Survey. SuDocs No. I 19.202:ST 1/V.1-2. 
49. ^ Adams, C.E. (1994). "The fish community of Loch Lomond, Scotland : its history and rapidly changing status". Hydrobiologia 290 (1-3): 91-102. 
50. ^ Pidwirny, Michael (2006). Introduction to the Biosphere: Introduction to the Ecosystem Concept. Fundamentals of Physical Geography (2nd Edition). Retrieved on September 28, 2006.
51. ^ Pidwirny, Michael (2006). Introduction to the Biosphere: Organization of Life. Fundamentals of Physical Geography (2nd Edition). Retrieved on September 28, 2006.
52. ^ Pidwirny, Michael (2006). Introduction to the Biosphere: Abiotic Factors and the Distribution of Species. Fundamentals of Physical Geography (2nd Edition). Retrieved on September 28, 2006. esp. section on "Abiotic Factors and Tolerance Limits."
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54. ^ Lawton, John (2001). "Earth System Science". Science 292 (5524): 1965. 
55. ^ Harding, Stephan (2006). Earth System Science and Gaian Science. Schumacher College. Retrieved on 2007-01-07.
56. ^ For an example of a range of opinions, see: On the Beauty of Nature. The Wilderness Society. Retrieved on September 29, 2006. and Ralph Waldo Emerson's analysis of the subject: Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1849). "Beauty", Nature; Addresses and Lectures. 
57. ^ "Feedback Loops In Global Climate Change Point To A Very Hot 21st Century", Science Daily, May 22, 2006. Retrieved on 2007-01-07. 
58. ^ Plant Conservation Alliance - Medicinal Plant Working Groups Green Medicine (English). US National Park Services. Retrieved on September 23, 2006.
59. ^ Oosthoek, Jan (1999). Environmental history: between science & philosophy. Environmental History Resources. Retrieved on 2006-12-01.
60. ^ "Wilderness", in The Collins English Dictionary (2000)
61. ^ Chinese brush painting Asia-art.net Accessed: May 20, 2006.
62. ^ History of Conservation BC Spaces for Nature. Accessed: May 20, 2006.
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66. ^ Some Theories Win, Some Lose. WMAP Mission: First Year Results. NASA. Retrieved on 29, 2006.
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70. ^ Malik, Tariq (2005-03-08). Hunt for Mars life should go underground (English). The Brown University News Bureau. Retrieved on September 4, 2006.
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