Starting from the ancient period of history, man tried to penetrate the principles of building the world around him and find the answer to the question of what the natural system of nature is. He understood - the world is harmonious and arranged according to certain laws. Consider the systems of the organic world that are most significant for biological science and were created during the historical development of human society.
The first natural classification of living organisms
It was proposed by the Greek scientist - the father of biology - Aristotle. Using the method of comparing morphological and anatomical characters, he created a classification of animals and laid the foundation for a future biological discipline - systematics. Aristotle's answer to the question of what is the natural system of nature, sounded as follows: the world around us consists of two kingdoms - inanimate and living nature. The latter, in turn, is structured hierarchically: from plants to animals and then to humans.
Species - Elementary Taxon in Biology
We continue to find answers to the question of what is the natural system of nature. In biology, the definition of this structure of the surrounding world is as follows - this is a chronologically ordered designation of extinct and currently existing living organisms, as well as their distribution according to hierarchically related and subordinate taxa - classification units. The first of these is the view. It serves as the cornerstone of modern systematics.
The Linnaeus system of the organic world
It was formulated in 1735 in the famous work "System of Nature". Karl Linney, confirming the research of D. Ray and Buffon, takes the form for the classification unit. As a creationist, he believes that species are constant and unchanging. The scientist offers a binary nomenclature, according to which each living organism is given a name consisting of two words, for example: a rational person, a skilled person, caustic buttercup, etc. Until now, all biologists use the binary names of biological species, and the natural system of nature is a complex formation whose elements are interconnected, i.e., are subsystems.
The gradation of the organic world proposed by C. Linnaeus was expedient. It included the kingdoms: Plants, Animals and Minerals, which, in turn, were divided into subordinate units - species, genera, orders. For example: the kingdom of Plants was divided into 24 classes, and those into 116 orders according to the structure of the gametophyte and the reproductive organs — Archegonia and Antheridia.
Natural system of nature and catastrophe theory
The outstanding French naturalist J. Cuvier at the beginning of the 19th century was engaged in research in the field of comparative anatomy and paleontology. The obtained facts allowed the scientist to express thoughts that, subsequently, were laid by him as the basis of his own theory, which answers the question "what is the natural system of nature". The short answer will be this - it is a subordinate structure, built on the principle of gradation, consisting of organisms of different structures and life processes.
Fossil remains have served as evidence of the fact that between transitional organisms and modern species there are no transitional forms. Cuvier and his followers considered cyclical geological disasters that shook the Earth to be the cause of the extinction of entire groups of animals, for example, giant beast-toothed dinosaurs. However, scholars of evolutionary views have criticized Cuvier's teaching. Finally, the disagreement between biologists disappeared in connection with the appearance of the works of C. Darwin and A. Walless concerning the origin of biological species.
Lamarck's evolutionary hypothesis
French scientist J.-B. Lamarck at the beginning of the 19th century was the first to contrast the evolutionary approach to creating a natural system of nature, the then prevailing ideas of creationism. He wrote the multi-volume work Flora de France, developed the classification system for invertebrates, which is still in use. He, along with Treviranus, was proposed the term "biology". In the book “Philosophy of Zoology,” Lamarck explains what a natural system of nature is, based on the notion that living organisms acquire useful adaptations as a result of the influence of environmental conditions.
In modern biological language, Lamarck considered non-hereditary - modification variability to be the main driving force of the evolution of nature. Moreover, it was Lamarck who placed man in the evolutionary tree of primates, and he represented the process of development of nature as a complication of the organization of living beings through gradation.
Darwinism - a theory or hypothesis?
The fundamental concept of what is the natural system of nature, the definition of which was interpreted differently by different trends in biology, was given in the work of C. Darwin, “The Origin of Species through Natural Selection”. Since 1859, a new period began in the development of natural sciences. The natural system of nature began to be considered in the form of a classification reflecting the gradual change in species, genera, and entire classes of living organisms under the influence of hereditary variability and natural selection.
Two ideas can be traced in the ideas expressed by C. Darwin: the first is the doctrine of evolutionary material and the second is the doctrine of the driving forces of evolution. Darwin identified three forms of the struggle for existence, which is the basis of natural selection: intraspecific, interspecific, and the struggle with unfavorable abiotic factors. Natural selection ensures the conservation of species that are most adapted to the specific conditions of their habitat. Hereditary variability selectively selects individuals that have received new traits as a result of mutations, giving the species an advantage in survival. Classical Darwinism is currently a complete system of evolutionary views on the development of wildlife.
Synthetic evolutionary hypothesis
Further genetic research conducted in the mid-20th century provided the basis for creating a synthetic hypothesis of evolution, which answered the question of what is the natural system of nature in biology. Its brief content is as follows - the entire diversity of species has a regulated structure based on the principle of subordination (hierarchy) of various taxa: species, genera, families, orders (or orders), classes, departments (or types).
Any organism living on the Earth, consistently belongs to all the above mentioned classification units, formed due to microevolution and macroevolution. The curriculum studies what the natural system of nature in biology is. Grade 9 is devoted to the study of the driving factors of evolution - hereditary variability and natural selection. The synthetic hypothesis of evolution is considered in a biology course of 10th grade, when students are already familiar with the concepts and laws of genetics.
Life organization levels
They are also a natural system of nature, representing 7 hierarchically subordinate levels of building open biosystems. We will call them: molecular, cellular, organo-tissue, organismic, population-specific, biogeocenotic, biospheric.
The study of the phenomenon of life at each level is carried out by various biological disciplines. For example, molecular studies biochemistry and molecular biology. Cellular - cytology, biogeocenotic and biospheric - systematics, comparative anatomy, ecology, etc. All living objects, human, plant, animals, bacteria, without exception, can be considered at every stage, starting from the molecules that make up cellular organelles, and ending with a global structure - the biosphere. It carries out cycles of transformation of substances and energy in open biological systems.