Ecological Sustainability: Factors, Patterns, and Corporate Social Responsibility

Running head: ECOLOGICAL SUSTAINABILITY
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Ecological Sustainability
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ECOLOGICAL SUSTAINABILITY
Introduction
The history of ecological knowledge has many centuries. Already primitive people
needed to have a certain knowledge about plants and animals, their way of life, relationships
with each other and with the environment. Within the general development of natural
sciences, the accumulation of knowledge now belonging to the field of environmental science
took place.
As an independent disciplined discipline, ecology emerged in the 19th century
(Borland, et al,2016).. the formation of a systematic approach and the development of the
biosphere theory, which is a vast field of knowledge, including a multitude of scientific
directions of both the natural and humanitarian cycles, including the general ecology, have
caused the spread of ecosystem views in the environment. The main object for studying in
ecology is the ecosystem. An ecosystem is a collection of living organisms interacting with
each other and with their environment through the exchange of matter, energy and
information in such a way that this unified system remains stable for a long time.
The ever-increasing human impact on the environment required again to expand the
boundaries of environmental knowledge (Fath, 2015). Scientific and technological progress
has entailed a number of problems that have received the status of global, thus, in the field of
ecology, the issues of comparative analysis of natural and man-made systems and the search
for ways of their harmonious coexistence and development have clearly emerged.
Environmental factors, their classification, types of effects on organisms
Any organism in nature is affected by the most diverse components of the environment. Any
properties or components of the environment that affect organisms are called environmental
factors (Fritz & Koch, 2014)..

ECOLOGICAL SUSTAINABILITY
Classification of environmental factors. Factors of the environment (environmental factors)
are diverse, have a different nature and specificity of the action. The following groups of
environmental factors stand out (Gast, et al,2017).:
1. Abiotic (factors of inanimate nature):
a) climatic conditions - conditions of illumination, temperature regime, etc .;
b) edaphic (local) - water supply, soil type, terrain;
c) orographic - air (wind) and water currents.
Types of environmental factors affecting organisms. Environmental factors have different
kinds of impact on living organisms. They can be:
General patterns of environmental factors:
Due to the extreme variety of environmental factors, different kinds of organisms,
experiencing their influence, respond to it in different ways, nevertheless, it is possible to
identify a number of general laws (regularities) of the action of environmental factors. The
regularities of the action of environmental factors on living organisms.
Ecological factors and their classification.
All organisms are potentially capable of unlimited reproduction and dispersal: even
species that lead an attached way of life have at least one phase of development, on which
they are capable of active or passive spreading. But at the same time the species composition
of organisms living in different climatic zones is not mixed: for each of them, a certain set of

ECOLOGICAL SUSTAINABILITY
species of animals, plants, and fungi is inherent (García-Llorente, et al, 2016). This is due to
the limitation of excessive reproduction and dispersal of organisms by certain geographical
barriers (seas, mountain ranges, deserts, etc.), climatic factors (temperature, humidity, etc.),
and also by interrelations between individual species. Depending on the nature and
characteristics of the action, environmental factors are divided into abiotic, biotic and
anthropogenic (anthropic) factors. Most of them have a variable intensity (temperature,
humidity, etc.).
The degree of variability of each of the environmental factors depends on the characteristics
of the habitat of organisms. For example, the temperature on the surface of the soil can vary
significantly depending on the season or day, weather, etc., whereas in water bodies at depths
of more than several meters, there are almost no temperature differences (Leslie,et al,(2015).
The changes in environmental factors can be: - Periodic, in depending on the time of the day,
the time of the year, the position of the moon relative to the Earth, etc. - non-periodic, for
example, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, hurricanes, etc. - directed over significant
historical time intervals, living organisms are constantly adapting to the full range of
environmental factors, that is, to the environment, regulating the life processes in accordance
with the changes in these factors. The habitat is a set of conditions in which certain
individuals, populations, groups of organisms live.
The regularities of the influence of environmental factors on living organisms.
Despite the fact that environmental factors are very diverse and different in nature, they note
some patterns of their influence on living organisms, as well as the reactions of organisms to
the action of these factors.
The value of the intensity of the environmental factor, by which the existence of
organisms becomes impossible, is called the upper and lower endurance limits (critical points