The goal here is to triple the lifespan of human beings. We can’t have triple the natural resources, so we need to be more efficient.”

Arvind Gupta, Inventor

What Are Natural Resources?

Natural resources can be defined as that exist independent of human presence or intervention.

There are a variety of natural resources that are crucial for our daily life.

Natural resources can be divided into abiotic, biotic and energy natural resources.

Stop Food Speculation!

In the following, all kinds of natural resources are listed and their purpose for our environmental system is explained.

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Why are Natural Resources important?

Natural resources are important since we would not be able to sustain our living standards without them.

For example, we need oil on a daily basis for the production of fuel to run our cars.

Moreover, several of our belongings are made of natural resources.

Often, even our houses are made out of wood or out of bricks which are also made out of natural resources.

What Countries have the most Natural Resources?

As of 2022, the country with the highest amount of valuable resources was Russia with natural resources worth 78 trillion USD.

The U.S. and Saudi Arabia follow on rank 2 and 3.

List of Natural Resources

Natural energy resources

  1. Biofuels
  2. Fossil gas
  3. Geothermal energy
  4. Hydroelectric power
  5. Nuclear power
  6. Solar power
  7. Wind power

Biofuels

A biofuel is a fuel that is produced through contemporary processes from biomass, rather than a fuel produced by the very slow geological processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels, such as oil.

Since biomass technically can be used as a fuel directly, some people use the terms biomass and biofuel interchangeably.

However, more often than not, the word biomass simply denotes the biological raw material the fuel is made of, or some form of thermally/chemically altered solid end product, like pellets or briquettes.

The word biofuel is usually reserved for liquid or gaseous fuels, used for transportation.

Fossil gas

Fossil gas is a naturally occurring hydrocarbon gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, but commonly including varying amounts of other higher alkanes, and sometimes a small percentage of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide, or helium.

It is formed when layers of decomposing plant and animal matter are exposed to intense heat and pressure under the surface of the Earth over millions of years.

The energy that the plants originally obtained from the sun is stored in the form of chemical bonds in the gas.

Natural gas is a non-renewable hydrocarbon used as a source of energy for heating, cooking, and electricity generation.

It is also used as a fuel for vehicles and as a chemical feedstock in the manufacture of plastics and other commercially important organic chemicals.

Geothermal energy

Geothermal energy is thermal energy generated and stored in the Earth.

Thermal energy is the energy that determines the temperature of matter.

The geothermal energy of the Earth’s crust originates from the original formation of the planet and from radioactive decay of materials.

The geothermal gradient, which is the difference in temperature between the core of the planet and its surface, drives a continuous conduction of thermal energy in the form of heat from the core to the surface.

Hydroelectric power

Hydroelectricity is electricity produced from hydropower.

Hydropower is produced in 150 countries, with the Asia-Pacific region generating 33 percent of global hydropower in 2013.

China is the largest hydroelectricity producer.

The cost of hydroelectricity is relatively low, making it a competitive source of renewable electricity.

The hydro station consumes no water, unlike coal or gas plants.

Once a hydroelectric complex is constructed, the project produces no direct waste, and in many cases, it has a considerably lower output level of greenhouse gases than fossil fuel-powered energy plants.

Nuclear power

Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions that release nuclear energy to generate heat, which most frequently is then used in steam turbines to produce electricity in a nuclear power plant.

Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions.

Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced by nuclear fission of uranium and plutonium.

Generating electricity from fusion power remains at the focus of international research.

Solar power

Solar energy is radiant light and heat from the sun that is harnessed using a range of ever-evolving technologies such as solar heating, photovoltaics, solar thermal energy, solar architecture, molten salt power plants and artificial photosynthesis.

It is an important source of renewable energy and its technologies are broadly characterized as either passive solar or active solar depending on how they capture and distribute solar energy or convert it into solar power.

Wind energy

Wind power or wind energy is the use of wind to provide mechanical power through wind turbines to turn electric generators and traditionally to do other work, like milling or pumping.

Wind power is a sustainable and renewable energy, and has a much smaller impact on the environment compared to burning fossil fuels.

Wind farms consist of many individual wind turbines, which are connected to the electric power transmission network.

Abiotic natural resources

  1. Baryte
  2. Bauxite
  3. Chromite
  4. Coal
  5. Copper
  6. Diamond
  7. Gas
  8. Gravel
  9. Gold
  10. Iron
  11. Lead
  12. Marble
  13. Limestone
  14. Nickel
  15. Platinum
  16. Pumice
  17. Salt
  18. Sand
  19. Silver
  20. Sulfur
  21. Talc
  22. Vanadium
  23. Zinc

Baryte

Baryte is a mineral consisting of barium sulfate. Baryte is generally white or colorless, and is the main source of barium.

The baryte group consists of baryte, celestine, anglesite, and anhydrite.

Bauxite

Bauxite is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminum content.

It is the world’s main source of aluminum.

Bauxite consists mostly of the aluminum minerals gibbsite, boehmite and diaspore, mixed with the two iron oxides goethite and hematite, the aluminum clay mineral kaolinite and small amounts of anatase and ilmenite.

Chromite

Chromite is a mineral that is an iron chromium oxide. It is an oxide mineral belonging to the spinel group.

The element magnesium can substitute for iron in variable amounts as it forms a solid solution with magnesiochromite.

Substitution of the element aluminum can also occur, leading to hercynite.

Chromite today is mined particularly to make stainless steel through the production of ferrochrome, which is an iron-chromium alloy.

Coal

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams.

Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements; chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.

Coal is formed when dead plant matter decays into peat and is converted into coal by the heat and pressure of deep burial over millions of years.

Vast deposits of coal originate in former wetlands—called coal forests—that covered much of the Earth’s tropical land areas during the late Carboniferous and Permian times.

Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.

It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity.

A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orange color.

Copper is used as a conductor of heat and electricity, as a building material, and as a constituent of various metal alloys, such as sterling silver used in jewelry, cupronickel used to make marine hardware and coins, and constantan used in strain gauges and thermocouples for temperature measurement.

Diamond

Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic.

At room temperature and pressure, another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form, but diamond almost never converts to it.

Diamond has the highest hardness and thermal conductivity of any natural material, properties that are utilized in major industrial applications such as cutting and polishing tools.

They are also the reason that diamond anvil cells can subject materials to pressures found deep in the Earth.

Gas

Gas is one of the four fundamental states of matter.

A pure gas may be made up of individual atoms, elemental molecules made from one type of atom, or compound molecules made from a variety of atoms.

A gas mixture, such as air, contains a variety of pure gases.

What distinguishes a gas from liquids and solids is the vast separation of the individual gas particles.

This separation usually makes a colorless gas invisible to the human observer.

The interaction of gas particles in the presence of electric and gravitational fields are considered negligible, as indicated by the constant velocity vectors in the image.

Gravel

Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments.

Gravel is classified by particle size range and includes size classes from granule- to boulder-sized fragments.

In the Udden-Wentworth scale gravel is categorized into granular gravel and pebble gravel.

Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and atomic number 79, making it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally.

In its purest form, it is a bright, slightly reddish yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal.

Chemically, gold is a transition metal and a group 11 element. It is one of the least reactive chemical elements and is solid under standard conditions.

Gold often occurs in free elemental form, as nuggets or grains, in rocks, in veins, and in alluvial deposits.

It occurs in a solid solution series with the native element silver and also naturally alloyed with copper and palladium.

Less commonly, it occurs in minerals as gold compounds, often with tellurium.

Iron

Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted.

The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red.

The iron is usually found in the form of magnetite.

Lead

Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82.

It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point.

When freshly cut, lead is silvery with a hint of blue; it tarnishes to a dull gray color when exposed to air.

Lead has the highest atomic number of any stable element and three of its isotopes are endpoints of major nuclear decay chains of heavier elements.

Marble

Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.

Marble is typically not foliated, although there are exceptions.

In geology, the term “marble” refers to metamorphosed limestone, but its use in stonemasonry more broadly encompasses unmetamorphosed limestone.

Marble is commonly used for sculpture and as a building material.

Limestone

Limestone is a carbonate sedimentary rock that is often composed of the skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral, foraminifera, and mollusks.

Its major materials are the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate.

A closely related rock is dolomite, which contains a high percentage of the mineral dolomite. In old USGS publications, dolomite was referred to as magnesian limestone, a term now reserved for magnesium-deficient dolomites or magnesium-rich limestones.

Nickel

Nickel is a chemical element with the symbol Ni and atomic number 28.

It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge.

Nickel belongs to the transition metals and is hard and ductile.

Pure nickel, powdered to maximize the reactive surface area, shows a significant chemical activity, but larger pieces are slow to react with air under standard conditions because an oxide layer forms on the surface and prevents further corrosion.

Even so, pure native nickel is found in Earth’s crust only in tiny amounts, usually in ultramafic rocks, and in the interiors of larger nickel–iron meteorites that were not exposed to oxygen when outside Earth’s atmosphere.

Platinum

Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78.

It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal.

Its name is derived from the Spanish term platino, meaning “little silver”.

Platinum is a member of the platinum group of elements and group 10 of the periodic table of elements.

It has six naturally occurring isotopes. It is one of the rarer elements in Earth’s crust, with an average abundance of approximately 5 μg/kg.

It occurs in some nickel and copper ores along with some native deposits, mostly in South Africa, which accounts for 80% of the world production.

Because of its scarcity in Earth’s crust, only a few hundred tons are produced annually, and given its important uses, it is highly valuable and is a major precious metal commodity.

Pumice

Pumice, also called pumicite in its powdered or dust form, is a volcanic rock that consists of highly vesicular rough-textured volcanic glass, which may or may not contain crystals.

It is typically light-colored.

Scoria is another vesicular volcanic rock that differs from pumice in having larger vesicles, thicker vesicle walls and being dark colored and denser.

Pumice is created when super-heated, highly pressurized rock is violently ejected from a volcano.

The unusual foamy configuration of pumice happens because of simultaneous rapid cooling and rapid depressurization.

Salt

Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride, a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in its natural form as a crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite.

Salt is present in vast quantities in seawater, where it is the main mineral constituent.

The open ocean has about 35 grams of solids per liter of seawater, a salinity of 3.5%.

Salt is essential for life in general, and saltiness is one of the basic human tastes.

Salt is one of the oldest and most ubiquitous food seasonings, and salting is an important method of food preservation.

Sand

Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.

It is defined by size, being finer than gravel and coarser than silt.

Sand can also refer to a textural class of soil or soil type; i.e., a soil containing more than 85 percent sand-sized particles by mass.

The composition of sand varies, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal settings is silica, usually in the form of quartz.

The second most common type of sand is calcium carbonate.

Sand is a non-renewable resource over human timescales, and sand suitable for making concrete is in high demand.

Desert sand, although plentiful, is not suitable for concrete. 50 billion tons of beach sand and fossil sand is used each year for construction.

Silver

Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag and atomic number 47.

A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal.

The metal is found in the Earth’s crust in the pure, free elemental form, as an alloy with gold and other metals, and in minerals such as argentite and chlorargyrite. Most silver is produced as a byproduct of copper, gold, lead, and zinc refining.

Silver has long been valued as a precious metal.

Silver metal is used in many bullion coins, sometimes alongside gold: while it is more abundant than gold, it is much less abundant as a native metal.

Other than in currency and as an investment medium, silver is used in solar panels, water filtration, jewelry, ornaments, high-value tableware and utensils, in electrical contacts and conductors, in specialized mirrors, window coatings, in catalysis of chemical reactions, as a colorant in stained glass and in specialized confectionery.

Sulfur

Sulfur is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16.

It is abundant, multivalent, and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatonic molecules with a chemical formula S8.

Elemental sulfur is a bright yellow, crystalline solid at room temperature.

Sulfur is the tenth most common element by mass in the universe, and the fifth most common on Earth.

Though sometimes found in pure, native form, sulfur on Earth usually occurs as sulfide and sulfate minerals.

Talc

Talc is a clay mineral composed of hydrated magnesium silicate.

Talc in powdered form, often in combination with corn starch, is widely used as baby powder.

This mineral is used as a thickening agent and lubricant, is an ingredient in ceramics, paint and roofing material, and is also one of the main ingredients in many cosmetic products.

It occurs as foliated to fibrous masses, and in an exceptionally rare crystal form.

It has perfect basal cleavage, uneven flat fracture and it is foliated with a two-dimensional platy form.

Vanadium

Vanadium is a chemical element with the symbol V and atomic number 23. It is a hard, silvery-grey, ductile, malleable transition metal.

The elemental metal is rarely found in nature, but once isolated artificially, the formation of an oxide layer somewhat stabilizes the free metal against further oxidation.

Vanadium occurs naturally in about 65 minerals and in fossil fuel deposits. It is produced in China and Russia from steel smelter slag.

Other countries produce it either from magnetite directly, flue dust of heavy oil, or as a byproduct of uranium mining.

It is mainly used to produce specialty steel alloys such as high-speed tool steels.

The most important industrial vanadium compound, vanadium pentoxide, is used as a catalyst for the production of sulfuric acid.

The vanadium redox battery for energy storage may be an important application in the future.

Zinc

Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30.

Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a blue-silvery appearance when oxidation is removed.

It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is the 24th most abundant element in Earth’s crust and has five stable isotopes.

The most common zinc ore is sphalerite, a zinc sulfide mineral.

The largest workable lodes are in Australia, Asia, and the United States.

Zinc is refined by froth flotation of the ore, roasting, and final extraction using electricity.

Biotic natural resources

  1. Birds
  2. Ferns
  3. Flowering plants
  4. Fruits
  5. Fungi
  6. Insects
  7. Lichens
  8. Mammals
  9. Microorganisms
  10. Mosses
  11. Petroleum
  12. Reptiles
  13. Shrubs
  14. Trees
  15. Worms

Birds

Birds, also known as Aves or avian dinosaurs, are a group of endothermic vertebrates, characterized by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight skeleton.

Birds live worldwide and range in size from the 5 cm bee hummingbird to the 2.75 m ostrich.

They rank as the world’s most numerically successful class of tetrapods, with approximately ten thousand living species, more than half of these being passerine, or “perching” birds.

Ferns

A fern is a member of a group of vascular plants that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers.

They differ from mosses by being vascular, i.e., having specialized tissues that conduct water and nutrients and in having life cycles in which the sporophyte is the dominant phase.

Flowering plants

Flowering plants are the most diverse group of land plants, with 64 orders, 416 families, approximately 13,000 known genera and 300,000 known species.

Like gymnosperms, angiosperms are seed-producing plants.

However, they are distinguished from gymnosperms by characteristics including flowers, endosperm within the seeds, and the production of fruits that contain the seeds.

Fruits

In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate seeds.

Edible fruits, in particular, have propagated with the movements of humans and animals in a symbiotic relationship as a means for seed dispersal and nutrition.

Fungi

A fungus is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms.

These organisms are classified as a kingdom, fungi, which is separate from the other eukaryotic life kingdoms of plants and animals.

A characteristic that places fungi in a different kingdom from plants, bacteria, and some protists is chitin in their cell walls.

Similar to animals, fungi are heterotrophs; they acquire their food by absorbing dissolved molecules, typically by secreting digestive enzymes into their environment.

Fungi do not photosynthesize.

Growth is their means of mobility, except for spores, which may travel through the air or water.

Fungi are the principal decomposers in ecological systems.

Insects

Insects are hexapod invertebrates and the largest group within the arthropod phylum.

Definitions and circumscriptions vary; usually, insects comprise a class within the Arthropoda.

Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body, three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes and one pair of antennae.

Insects are the most diverse group of animals; they include more than a million described species and represent more than half of all known living organisms.

Lichens

A lichen is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.

The combined lichen has properties different from those of its component organisms.

Lichens come in many colors, sizes, and forms.

The properties are sometimes plant-like, but lichens are not plants.

Lichens may have tiny, leafless branches, flat leaf-like structures, flakes that lie on the surface like peeling paint, a powder-like appearance, or other growth forms.

Mammals

Mammals are vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia, and characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females and sometimes males produce milk for feeding their young, a neocortex, fur or hair, and three middle ear bones.

These characteristics distinguish them from reptiles and birds, from which they diverged in the late Triassic, 201–227 million years ago.

There are around 5,450 species of mammals.

The largest orders are rodents, bats and Soricomorpha (shrews and others).

The next three are the Primates (apes, monkeys, and others), the Cetartiodactyla (cetaceans and even-toed ungulates), and the Carnivora (cats, dogs, seals, and others).

Microorganisms

Microorganisms include all unicellular organisms and so are extremely diverse.

Of the three domains of life identified by Carl Woese, all of the Archaea and Bacteria are microorganisms.

These were previously grouped together in the two-domain system as Prokaryotes, the other being the eukaryotes.

The third domain Eukaryota includes all multicellular organisms and many unicellular protists and protozoans.

Some protists are related to animals and some to green plants.

Many of the multicellular organisms are microscopic, namely micro-animals, some fungi and some algae, but these are not discussed here.

They live in almost every habitat from the poles to the equator, deserts, geysers, rocks and the deep sea.

Some are adapted to extremes such as very hot or very cold conditions, others to high pressure and a few such as Deinococcus radiodurans to high radiation environments.

Mosses

Mosses are small flowerless plants that typically form dense green clumps or mats, often in damp or shady locations.

The individual plants are usually composed of simple leaves that are generally only one cell thick, attached to a stem that may be branched or unbranched and has only a limited role in conducting water and nutrients.

Although some species have conducting tissues, these are generally poorly developed and structurally different from similar tissue found in vascular plants.

Petroleum

Petroleum is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid found in geological formations beneath the Earth’s surface. It is commonly refined into various types of fuels.

Components of petroleum are separated using a technique called fractional distillation, i.e. separation of a liquid mixture into fractions differing in boiling point by means of distillation, typically using a fractionating column.

It consists of naturally occurring hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and may contain miscellaneous organic compounds.

A fossil fuel, petroleum is formed when large quantities of dead organisms, mostly zooplankton and algae, are buried underneath sedimentary rock and subjected to both intense heat and pressure.

Reptiles

Reptiles are tetrapod animals in the class Reptilia, comprising today’s turtles, crocodilians, snakes, amphisbaenians, lizards, tuatara, and their extinct relatives.

The study of these traditional reptile orders, historically combined with that of modern amphibians, is called herpetology.

Shrubs

A shrub is a small- to medium-sized perennial woody plant.

Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground.

They are distinguished from trees by their multiple stems and shorter height.

Trees

In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, supporting branches and leaves in most species.

In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are usable as lumber or plants above a specified height.

In wider definitions, the taller palms, tree ferns, bananas, and bamboos are also trees.

Trees are not a taxonomic group but include a variety of plant species that have independently evolved a trunk and branches as a way to tower above other plants to compete for sunlight.

Trees tend to be long-lived, some reaching several thousand years old.

Trees have been in existence for 370 million years. It is estimated that there are just over 3 trillion mature trees in the world.

Worms

Worms are many different distantly related animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body, no limbs, and no eyes.

Various types of worm occupy a small variety of parasitic niches, living inside the bodies of other animals.

Free-living worm species do not live on land, but instead, live in marine or freshwater environments, or underground by burrowing.

Natural resources as crops and plants

  1. Basil
  2. Brussels sprouts
  3. Carrot
  4. Catmint
  5. Cauliflower
  6. Celery
  7. Cotton
  8. Cucurbita
  9. Garlic
  10. Helianthus
  11. Maize
  12. Oat
  13. Okra
  14. Parsley
  15. Peanuts
  16. Peas
  17. Rye
  18. Rice
  19. Sorghum
  20. Sugar cane
  21. Wheat
  22. Zucchini

Basil

Basil is a culinary herb of the family Lamiaceae. Basil is native to tropical regions from central Africa to Southeast Asia.

It is a tender plant, and is used in cuisines worldwide.

Depending on the species and cultivar, the leaves may taste somewhat like anise, with a strong, pungent, often sweet smell.

There are many varieties of basil, as well as several related species or hybrids also called basil.

While most common varieties of basil are treated as annuals, some are perennial in warm, tropical climates, including holy basil and a cultivar known as “African blue basil”.

Brussels sprouts

The Brussels sprout is a member of the Gemmifera Group of cabbages, grown for its edible buds.

The leaf vegetables are typically 1.5–4.0 cm in diameter and look like miniature cabbages.

The Brussels sprout has long been popular in Brussels, Belgium, and may have gained its name there.

Carrot

The carrot is a root vegetable, usually orange in color, though purple, black, red, white, and yellow cultivars exist.

Carrots are a domesticated form of the wild carrot, native to Europe and Southwestern Asia.

The plant probably originated in Persia and was originally cultivated for its leaves and seeds.

The most commonly eaten part of the plant is the taproot, although the stems and leaves are eaten as well.

Catmint

Catmint (also catnip), is a species native to southern and eastern Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, and parts of China.

It is widely naturalized in northern Europe, New Zealand, and North America.

The names catnip and catmint are derived from the intense attraction about two-thirds of cats have towards them.

In addition to its uses with cats, catnip is a popular ingredient in herbal teas and is valued for its sedative and relaxant properties.

Cauliflower

Cauliflower is one of several vegetables and is an annual plant that reproduces by seed.

Typically, only the head is eaten.

Cauliflower heads resemble those in broccoli, which differs in having flower buds as the edible portion.

Celery

Celery is a marshland plant that has been cultivated as a vegetable since antiquity.

Celery has a long fibrous stalk tapering into leaves.

Depending on location and cultivar, either its stalks, leaves or hypocotyl are eaten and used in cooking.

Celery seed is also used as a spice and its extracts have been used in herbal medicine.

Cotton

Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus Gossypium in the mallow family Malvaceae.

The fiber is almost pure cellulose. Under natural conditions, the cotton bolls will increase the dispersal of the seeds.

The plant is a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, Africa, Egypt and India.

The greatest diversity of wild cotton species is found in Mexico, followed by Australia and Africa. Cotton was independently domesticated in the Old and New Worlds.

Cucurbita

Cucurbita is a genus of herbaceous vines in the gourd family.

Five species are grown worldwide for their edible fruit, variously known as squash, pumpkin, or gourd depending on species, variety, and local parlance.

Other kinds of gourd, also called bottle-gourds, are native to Africa and are used as utensils or vessels, and their young fruits are eaten much like those of Cucurbita species.

Garlic

Garlic is a species in the onion genus and its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, and Chinese onion.

Garlic is native to Central Asia and northeastern Iran, and has long been a common seasoning worldwide, with a history of several thousand years of human consumption and use.

It was known to ancient Egyptians, and has been used both as a food flavoring and as traditional medicine.

Helianthus

Helianthus is a genus of plants comprising about 70 species.

The common names “sunflower” and “common sunflower” typically refer to the popular annual species Helianthus annuus, whose round flower heads in combination with the ligules look like the sun.

Maize

Maize is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago.

Maize has become a staple food in many parts of the world, with the total production of maize surpassing that of wheat or rice.

However, little of this maize is consumed directly by humans: most is used for corn ethanol, animal feed and other maize products, such as corn starch and corn syrup.

Oat

Oat is a species of cereal grain grown for its seed.

While oats are suitable for human consumption as oatmeal and rolled oats, one of the most common uses is as livestock feed.

Oats are a nutrient-rich food associated with lower blood cholesterol when consumed regularly.

Okra

Okra is a flowering plant in the mallow family. It is valued for its edible green seed pods.

The geographical origin of okra is disputed, with supporters of West African, Ethiopian, and South Asian origins.

The plant is cultivated in tropical, subtropical and warm temperate regions around the world.

Parsley

Parsley is a species of flowering plant and is native to the central Mediterranean region, but has naturalized elsewhere in Europe, and is widely cultivated as a herb, a spice, and a vegetable.

Parsley is widely used in European, Middle Eastern, and American cuisine. Curly leaf parsley is often used as a garnish. In central Europe, eastern Europe, and southern Europe, as well as in western Asia, many dishes are served with fresh green chopped parsley sprinkled on top.

Peanuts

The peanut is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible seeds.

It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics, being important to both small and large commercial producers.

Atypically among legume crop plants, peanut pods develop underground rather than above ground.

Peanuts are similar in taste and nutritional profile to tree nuts such as walnuts and almonds, and as a culinary nut are often served in similar ways in Western cuisines.

Peas

The pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the pod fruit Pisum sativum.

Each pod contains several peas, which can be green or yellow.

P. sativum is an annual plant, with a life cycle of one year. It is a cool-season crop grown in many parts of the world; planting can take place from winter to early summer depending on location.

These are the basis of pease porridge and pea soup, staples of medieval cuisine; in Europe, consuming fresh immature green peas was an innovation of Early Modern cuisine.

Rice

Rice is a cereal grain and is the most widely consumed staple food for a large part of the world’s human population, especially in Asia.

It is the agricultural commodity with the third-highest worldwide production, after sugarcane and maize.

Since sizable portions of sugarcane and maize crops are used for purposes other than human consumption, rice is the most important grain with regard to human nutrition and caloric intake, providing more than one-fifth of the calories consumed worldwide by humans.

Rye

Rye is a grass grown extensively as a grain, a cover crop and a forage crop.

It is a member of the wheat tribe and is closely related to barley and wheat.

Rye grain is used for flour, bread, beer, crisp bread, some whiskeys, some vodkas, and animal fodder. It can also be eaten whole, either as boiled rye berries or by being rolled, similar to rolled oats.

Sorghum

Sorghum is a genus of flowering plants in the grass family Poaceae.

Seventeen of the 25 species are native to Australia, with the range of some extending to Africa, Asia, Mesoamerica, and certain islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

Sugar cane

Sugarcane, or sugar cane, or simply cane, are several species of tall perennial true grasses of the genus Saccharum, native to the warm temperate to tropical regions of South Asia, Southeast Asia New Guinea, and South America used for sugar production.

The plant is two to six meters tall. Sugarcane belongs to the grass family Poaceae, an economically important seed plant family that includes maize, wheat, rice, and sorghum, and many forage crops.

Wheat

Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain which is a worldwide staple food.

The archaeological record suggests that wheat was first cultivated in the regions of the Fertile Crescent around 9600 BCE.

Zucchini

The zucchini is a summer squash which can reach nearly 1 m in length.

A zucchini is a thin-skinned cultivar of what in Britain and Ireland is referred to as a marrow.

Along with certain other squashes and pumpkins, the zucchini belongs to the species Cucurbita pepo. It can be dark or light green.

A related hybrid, the golden zucchini, is a deep yellow or orange color.

Natural ocean resources

  1. Dolphins
  2. Fish
  3. Octopi
  4. Seaweed
  5. Shrimp
  6. Whales

Dolphins

Dolphins range in size from the 1.7m long and 50kg heavy Maui’s dolphin to the 9.5m long and 10t heavy killer whale.

Several species exhibit sexual dimorphism, in that the males are larger than females.

Though not quite as flexible as seals, some dolphins can travel at 55.5 km/h.

They have well-developed hearing which is adapted for both air and water and is so well developed that some can survive even if they are blind.

Some species are well adapted for diving to great depths.

They have a layer of fat, or blubber, under the skin to keep warm in the cold water.

Fish

Fish are gill-bearing aquatic craniate animals that lack limbs with digits.

They form a sister group to the tunicates, together forming the olfactores. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups.

Tetrapods emerged within lobe-finned fishes, so cladistically they are fish as well.

However, traditionally fish are rendered paraphyletic by excluding the tetrapods (i.e., the amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals which all descended from within the same ancestry).

Octopi

The octopus is a soft-bodied, eight-limbed mollusk of the order Octopoda.

Around 300 species are recognized, and the order is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlefish, and nautiloids.

Seaweed

Seaweed refers to several species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae.

Seaweed species such as kelps provide essential nursery habitat for fisheries and other marine species and thus protect food sources; other species, such as planktonic algae, play a vital role in capturing carbon, producing up to 90% of Earth’s oxygen.

Shrimp

The term shrimp is used to refer to some decapod crustaceans, although the exact animals covered can vary.

They swim forward by paddling with swimmerets on the underside of their abdomens, although their escape response is typically repeated flicks with the tail driving them backward very quickly.

Crabs and lobsters have strong walking legs, whereas shrimp have thin, fragile legs which they use primarily for perching.

Whales

Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals.

Whales consist of eight extant families: the rorquals, right whales, the pygmy right whale, the grey whale, belugas and narwhals, the sperm whale, the dwarf and pygmy sperm whale and the beaked whales.

Conclusion

Natural resources are crucial for all life on our earth.

There are several types of natural resources.

If we continue to deplete our natural resources, we will come to a point where we get at risk to fully deplete some of our natural resources.

The depletion of natural resources would significantly lower our living standards since we would not be able to sustain our technology-driven life anymore.

Therefore, it is important to save resources whenever possible.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_resource

https://wwf.panda.org/knowledge_hub/teacher_resources/webfieldtrips/natural_resources/

https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/NaturalResources.html

About the author

My name is Andreas and my mission is to educate people of all ages about our environmental problems and how everyone can make a contribution to mitigate these issues.

As I went to university and got my Master’s degree in Economics, I did plenty of research in the field of Development Economics.

After finishing university, I traveled around the world. From this time on, I wanted to make a contribution to ensure a livable future for the next generations in every part of our beautiful planet.

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