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OUR ENVIRONMENT_Notes

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4 views

OUR ENVIRONMENT_Notes

Uploaded by

rajendersharma086
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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OUR ENVIRONMENT

Introduction

 Everything that surrounds us is environment. It includes both living (biotic) and


non-living (abiotic) components.
 Interaction between these biotic and abiotic components form an ecosystem.
 In an ecosystem living components depend on each other for their food which
give rise to food chains and food webs in nature.
 Human activities lead to environmental problems such as depletion of ozone
layer and production of huge amount of garbage.

Ecosystem
→ All the interacting organisms in an area together with the non-living constituents of
the environment form an ecosystem. E.g., forest, pond etc.

Types of ecosystem: It is of two types


(i) Natural ecosystem: The ecosystem which exist in nature on its own.
Example: forest, lake, ocean.

(ii) Artifical ecosystem: Man-made ecosystems are called artificial ecosystem.


Example: crop field, aquarium, garden.

Components of Ecosystem:
(i) Abiotic Components: All the non-living components such as air, water, land, light,
temperature etc. form the abiotic components.

(ii) Biotic Components: All the living components such as plants, animals, bacteria,
fungi etc. form the biotic components.

• On the basis of nutrition biotic components are further divided into:


→ Producers: All green plants and blue-green algae can produce their own food
using abiotic components (photosynthesis), hence called producers.
→ Consumers: Include all animals which depend on producers directly or indirectly
for their food.
Division of Consumers
(i) Herbivores: Plant eaters. Example: goat, deer.

(ii) Carnivores: Flash eaters. Example: tiger, crocodile.

(iii) Omnivores: Eats both plants and animals. Example: human.

(iv) Parasites: Live on the body of host and take food from it. Example: lice, cascuta.

Decomposers: Include organisms which decompose the dead plants and animals.
Example: bacteria, fungi. These help in the replenishment of natural resources.
Pyramid of Trophic Levels
 Is a graphical representation.
 Can be the pyramid of numbers, the pyramid of biomass or the pyramid of
energy.
 Start with producers.
a) Pyramid of numbers: gives the number of organisms present at each trophic level.
It can be upright or inverted.
b) Pyramid of biomass: gives the biomass of each trophic level and could be upright
or inverted.
c) Pyramid of energy: is always upright as it shows the flow of energy from one
trophic level to the next trophic level.
Law of Conservation of Energy
 Energy can neither be created nor destroyed; rather, it transforms from one
form to another.
 In biological systems, it gets passed from one organism to another across
trophic levels.
Energy Flow
 Transfer of energy from one trophic level to another depicting its direction and
amount.
 Represented by the pyramid of energy.
 In any food chain, only 10% of the energy is transferred from one trophic level
to another.

Food Chain
A series of organisms, each dependent on the next as a source of food.

Food Web
Is formed by interconnections of different food chains.
Is a graphical representation of ‘Who eats Whom’ in an ecosystem.
Environmental problems: Changes in the environment affect us and our activities
change the environment around us. Human activities leads to pollution, deforestation
etc.

Ozone layer
Ozone layer is a protective blanket around the earth which absorbs most of the
harmful UV (ultraviolet) radiations of the sunlight, thus protecting living beings from
many health hazards such as skin cancer, cataract, destruction of plants etc.
→ Ozone (O3) layer is present at higher levels of atmosphere (i.e. stratosphere). It is a
deadly poison at ground level.

Formation of ozone molecule


(i) The high energy UV radiations break down the O2 molecules into free oxygen (O)
atoms.
O2 →(UV) O + O (atoms)
(ii) These oxygen atoms then combine with oxygen (O2) molecule to form the ozone
molecule.
O2 + O → O3 (ozone)
Depletion of ozone layer
→ The decrease in the thickness of ozone layer over Antarctica was first observed in
1985 and was termed as ozone hole.
→ This decrease was linked to excessive use of synthetic chemicals like
chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) which are used in refrigerators, ACs, fire-extinguishers,
aerosols sprays etc.
→ United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) succeeded in forging an
agreement to stop CFC production at 1986 levels (KYOTO PROTOCOL) by all
countries.
Garbage disposal
Improvements in lifestyle have resulted in accumulation of large amounts of waste
materials.
Types of materials in Garbage
(i) Biodegradable: Substances which can be decomposed by the action of micro-
organisms are called biodegradable wastes.
Example: fruit and vegetable peels, cotton, jute, dung, paper, etc.

(ii) Non-biodegradable wastes: Substances which cannot be decomposed by the


action of micro-organisms are called non-biodegradable wastes.
Example: plastic, polythenes, metals, synthetic fibres, radioactive wastes, pesticides
etc. Micro-organisms release enzymes which decompose the materials but these
enzymes are specific in their action that’s why enzymes cannot decompose all the
materials.
Methods of waste disposal
(i) Biogas plant: Biodegradable waste can be used in biogas plant to produce biogas
and manure.
(ii) Sewage treatment plant: The drain water can be cleaned in sewage treatment
plant before adding it to rivers.
(iii) Land fillings: The wastes are buried in low lying areas and are compacted by
rolling with bulldozers.
(iv) Composting: Organic wastes are filled in a compost pit and covered with a layer
of soil, after about three months garbage changes to manure.
(v) Recycling: Non-biodegradable wastes are recycled to make new items.
(vi) Reuse: It is a conventional technique to use an item again. Example: newspaper
for making envelops.

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