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Invasive species may be plants, animals, fungi, and microbes; some include native species that have invaded human habitats such as farms and landscapes. [5] Some broaden the term to include indigenous or "native" species that have colonized natural areas. [ 4 ]
Human factors engineering is relevant in the design of such things as safe furniture and easy-to-use interfaces to machines and equipment. Proper ergonomic design is necessary to prevent repetitive strain injuries and other musculoskeletal disorders, which can develop over time and can lead to long-term disability.
External factors, also called state factors, control the overall structure of an ecosystem and the way things work within it, but are not themselves influenced by the ecosystem. On broad geographic scales, climate is the factor that "most strongly determines ecosystem processes and structure".
Humidity affects thermoregulation by limiting sweat evaporation and thus heat loss. [6] Humans cannot survive prolonged exposure to a wet-bulb temperature above 35 °C (95 °F). Such a temperature used to be thought not to occur on Earth's surface but has been recorded in some parts of the Indus Valley and Persian Gulf.
Human spaceflight, involving prolonged periods of immobilization and weightlessness is known to result in muscle weakening and atrophy resulting in a loss of as much as 30% of mass in some muscles. [ 90 ] [ 91 ] Such consequences are also noted in some mammals following hibernation .
Human overpopulation (or human population overshoot) is the idea that human populations may become too large to be sustained by their environment or resources in the long term. The topic is usually discussed in the context of world population , though it may concern individual nations, regions, and cities.
The fact that degrading Earth's essential services is obviously possible, and happening in some cases, suggests that 8 billion people may be above Earth's human carrying capacity. But human carrying capacity is always a function of a certain number of people living a certain way.
The phosphorus cycle is the biogeochemical cycle that involves the movement of phosphorus through the lithosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere.Unlike many other biogeochemical cycles, the atmosphere does not play a significant role in the movement of phosphorus, because phosphorus and phosphorus-based materials do not enter the gaseous phase readily, [1] as the main source of gaseous phosphorus ...