"The combination of external... conditions that affect and influence the growth, development, and [living action] of organisms."¹

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Elaboration

Each organism exists in a specific environment. For example, as I write this, my daughter, Aliana, lays napping on a bed. An organism's capacities "and its efforts to satisfy its needs" exist in relationship to potentials within its environment. Aliana's capacity to nap exists in relationship to the bed's potential to support her comfortably while she sleeps.

Note

¹"environment." The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000. www.bartleby.com/61/. [June 24 2005]