What Are Some Environmental Factors?

Water is an environmental factor when rain changes the landscape. Bodies of water like rivers carve out canyons, and oceans create beaches. Wind changes the environment by blowing seeds around, and fire caused by lightning burns the area, giving seeds a place to grow.

The Earth itself is an environmental factor because earthquakes change the landscape and create mountains. The plants and animals of a particular area all work together to do things like helping plants grow and eating dead animals, depositing nutrients back into the soil.

Humans cause environmental factors, most of them negative. They leave trash in their wake, feed human food to native animals and alter their natural habitat. Humans also release carbon dioxide and other harmful chemicals into the atmosphere and dump chemicals into the water. When a non-native species is introduced into the wild, it can have negative effects on the wildlife in the area.