habitat

1) The locality in which a plant or animal naturally grows or lives. It can be either the geographical area over which it extends, or the particular station in which a specimen is found. 2) A physical portion of the environment that is inhabited by an organism or population of organisms. A habitat is characterized by a relative uniformity of the physical environment and fairly close interaction of all the biological species involved. In terms of region, a habitat may comprise a desert, a tropical forest, a prairie field, the Arctic Tundra or the Arctic Ocean. (Source: WRIGHT / GILP)