What term refers to the total surroundings of an organism or a group of organisms?

The term that best refers to the total surroundings of an organism or a group of organisms is the environment. The environment encompasses not only the physical surroundings, such as water, soil, and climate, but also includes the biotic factors, such as other living organisms that interact with the organism in question. This broad definition helps to illustrate how organisms are affected by and interact with various elements around them, influencing aspects such as their behavior, reproduction, and survival strategies.

In contrast, habitat specifically refers to the natural home or environment where a particular organism lives, which is a more narrow concept than the overall environment. A biome is a larger ecological classification that includes multiple habitats grouped together based on climatic and geographic characteristics, while ecology is the branch of biology that studies the interactions between organisms and their environment. These terms each convey important aspects of biological interactions but do not capture the all-encompassing nature of the surroundings that the term "environment" does.