Download How Nature Works in Harmony – NCERT Class 8 Science Chapter 12 PDF from the new NCERT Class 8 Science book Curiosity (2026-27). Read the chapter online or download the free PDF. A habitat is the place that gives an organism the conditions it needs. Its living parts are the biotic components; air, water, soil, sunlight and temperature are the abiotic components.
How Nature Works in Harmony PDF – Chapter 12 of Curiosity
Read the chapter online or download the PDF.
| Chapter | Download | |
|---|---|---|
| Chapter 12 PDF | How Nature Works in Harmony | View PDF |
| Full book | NCERT Class 8 Science – Curiosity | View Book |
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What Is in How Nature Works in Harmony? (Class 8 Science Chapter 12)
- A habitat is the place that gives an organism the conditions it needs. Its living parts are the biotic components; air, water, soil, sunlight and temperature are the abiotic components.
- Organisms of one kind in one place at one time form a population; the different populations sharing a habitat form a community; the community together with the abiotic components it interacts with is an ecosystem.
- Green plants are producers — they alone bring energy into the ecosystem, from sunlight. Consumers pass that energy along, and decomposers break dead matter down and return the nutrients to the soil.
- A food chain shows who eats whom; because most organisms are eaten by more than one kind of animal, chains link up into a food web. An organism’s place in a chain is its trophic level.
- Energy flows one way — in at the producers, out as heat at every step — so numbers shrink upward and a food chain drawn to scale looks like a pyramid. Matter, unlike energy, is recycled: nothing in nature is wasted.
- Competition, mutualism, commensalism and parasitism keep populations in a balance that is dynamic, not fixed. Deforestation, pollution, overuse and monoculture disturb that balance; protected areas and sustainable farming help restore it.
Quick revision – How Nature Works in Harmony
| Term | What it means | Example from the chapter | Where it appears |
|---|---|---|---|
| Habitat | The place that provides an organism the right conditions to live and grow | A pond, a forest, even the bark of a tree | 12.1 |
| Biotic components | The living parts of a habitat | Fish, algae, deer, mushroom, bacteria | 12.1 |
| Abiotic components | The non-living parts of a habitat | Air, sunlight, water, temperature, soil | 12.1 |
| Population | A group of organisms of the same kind in a habitat at a given time | 20 plants of one kind in a 1 m × 1 m plot | 12.2 |
| Community | The different populations that share one habitat | Plants + animals + microorganisms of a pond | 12.2 |
| Ecosystem | A community and the abiotic components it interacts with | Pond, river, lake (aquatic); forest, farm (terrestrial) | 12.4 |
| Producer / autotroph | Makes its own food by photosynthesis (auto = self, troph = food) | Grass, millet, banyan tree | 12.4 |
| Consumer / heterotroph | Cannot make its own food; depends on other organisms | Deer (herbivore), leopard (carnivore), crow (omnivore) | 12.4 |
| Decomposer / saprotroph | Breaks down dead matter into simpler substances (sapro = rotten) | Mushroom, bacteria, beetles on elephant dung | 12.6 |
| Food chain / food web | A sequence of who eats whom / interlinked food chains | Grass → Grasshopper → Frog → Snake → Eagle | 12.5 |
| Trophic level | The position an organism occupies in a food chain | Producers 1st, herbivores 2nd, small carnivores 3rd | 12.5 |
| Mutualism, commensalism, parasitism | Both benefit / one benefits and the other is unaffected / one benefits and the other is harmed | Bee and flower; orchid on a tree; tick on a dog | 12.8 |
Old NCERT vs New – Class 8 Science
This chapter is from Curiosity, the new NCERT Class 8 Science book (NCF-SE 2023, used from 2025-26). It replaced the old book “Science”, so chapter numbers and names differ from older PDFs.
Solutions and All Chapters
Answers to the exercises and the full chapter list of Curiosity:
How Nature Works in Harmony – Overview
| Class | Class 8 |
| Subject | Science |
| Book | Curiosity – new NCERT book |
| Chapter | 12 of 13 – How Nature Works in Harmony |
| Book pages | 190 – 209 |
| Edition | NCERT Reprint 2026-27 |
| Session | 2026-27 |
| Free – read online or download |
Class 8 Science Chapter 12 – FAQs
Where can I download How Nature Works in Harmony Class 8 PDF?
From the download table on this page – the chapter PDF is free, and the full book is linked too.
What is Class 8 Science Chapter 12 about?
A habitat is the place that gives an organism the conditions it needs. Its living parts are the biotic components; air, water, soil, sunlight and temperature are the abiotic components.
Is How Nature Works in Harmony from the new NCERT Class 8 Science book?
Yes. It is chapter 12 of curiosity, the new NCERT Class 8 Science book for 2026-27.
Is this the latest NCERT edition for 2026-27?
Yes – the PDF is NCERT’s latest edition for the 2026-27 session.
Where are the NCERT Solutions for Class 8 Science Chapter 12?
Open the NCERT Solutions link above for answers to the exercise questions.