AMITY INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL, NOIDA

CLASS X

BIOLOGY

CHAPTER 15: OUR ENVIRONMENT

 Ecology. The study of interaction of living organisms with each other and their surrounding is
called ecology.
 Environment. Everything that surrounds and organism and influences its life.

Biotic components component of environment. The living organisms like plants, animals including
humans, constitutes the biotic component of the environment.

Abiotic component of the environment. The components like water, air, light, temperature, soil
which are non-living, constitutes the abiotic component of the environment.

The biotic and non-biotic components of the environment together constitutes the natural
environment.

Ecosystem. All interacting organisms in an area together with the non-living constitutes of
environment.

Biotic component of environment. It includes producers, consumers and decomposers. The biotic
component of our environment includes all living organisms like microorganisms, plants, animals
and humans. They may be grouped according to the manner in which they obtain their sustenance
from the environment.

(i) Producers. Organisms which can convert inorganic raw material to organic compounds e.g.
plants can produce their own food by the process of photosynthesis. Apart from providing
food for animals, they help in maintaining balance of carbon dioxide and oxygen in nature.
They help in recycling the matter from abiotic components to living world. They can convert
solar energy to chemical energy of food. They are also called autotrophs.
(ii) Consumers. Animals in the environment are called consumers as they cannot manufacture
their own food and depend on plants and other animals for their food. The food of
consumers consist of organic compound produced by other living organisms.
(a) Herbivore or Primary consumers. They animals which feed on green plants, e.g. cow,
buffalo, sheep etc.
(b) Carnivores. The animals which feed on other animals for e.g. tiger, lion. Carnivore or the
secondary consumer is an animal that devours the flesh of herbivore or other animals.
Similarly larger carnivores can be categorized as tertiary consumers and so on.
(iii) Decomposers. They are also heterotrophs. The organisms which convert dead organic
matter to simpler compounds, e.g. bacteria and fungi unlike consumers, the decomposers
do not ingest their food. Instead, they release different enzymes from their body into the
dead and decaying plant and animals remains. The extra cellular digestion of the dead
remains leads to release of simpler inorganic substances which are then utilized by the
producers.

Importance of Decomposers

1. They clean up environment of garbage.

 Some Substances such as plant and animal wastes can be acted upon by decomposers in nature
and broken down easily in simpler substances. These are biodegradable wastes.
 Some other wastes or materials especially the ones produced by man cannot be broken by
decomposers as they do not possess enzymes to do so. They are non biodegradable wastes
such as some pesticide- DDT, detergents, plastics, radioactive wastes, metals, etc. These
substances may be broken down by chemical and physical processes in nature such as rusting of
iron but not by biological process
 Categories of Ecosystems: They may be natural or man- made

(i) Natural Ecosystem- Two major categories of natural ecosystems may be distinguished as

(a) Terrestrial Ecosystem: Forests, Grasslands and Deserts

(b) Aquatic Ecosystem: They can be either freshwater (ponds,lakes,streams) or saltwater ( marine,
estuaries) type.

(ii) Artificial or Man- made ecosystem: Natural ecosystems convert to artificial ecosystems due to
human activities, for example, natural forests have been cut and land converted to tree plantations
or agricultural systems. Eg . Garden, Crop field, spacecrafts and Aquariums.

 All ecosystems are interconnected by flow of energy and transfer of the neighboring ecosystems
or even with distant ecosystems. For example, terrestrial birds diving to catch fish in water
bodies make transfers from aquatic to terrestrial ecosystems.

 Food Chain: Various biotic levels, ie producers and different types of consumers are arranged at
various levels showing interactions in the environment. The process of one organism eating the
other and getting eaten by another organism forms a chain. The chain of who eats whom in
nature is called a food chain.

 A food chain Transfers: Matter in form of food and Energy

 Each step in a food chain through which the flow of energy and matter takes place is referred to
as trophic level.
Food Web: It is a network of food links between populations in community. Different food chains are
often interconnected, e.g., a specific herbivore of one food chain may serve as food of carnivores of
several other food chains. Such interconnected food chain in an ecosystem is called food web.

Energy flow model: A simplified representation of energy flow through ecosystem

(a) The sun is the main source of energy on earth . About 1% of incident solar energy is utilized by
plants during photosynthesis.
(b) Producers (plants) convert solar energy to chemical energy of food, and then it is passed on to
the consumers and to decomposers back to soil. This is in accordance with law of conservation
of energy.
(c) The energy flow is unidirectional i.e. it flows from producers through herbivore to carnivores. It
cannot be transferred in the reverse direction.
(d) The amount of energy flow decreases with successive trophic levels.
10% law of Energy flow

The energy available at any trophic level in a food chain is 105 of the previous one. The bulk of energy is
lost as heat. Part of the energy of producers is used for maintenance of their body (respiration) and for
providing food to herbivores. Thus, energy actually used by the herbivore trophic level is only a small
fraction of energy captured at the producer level. The remaining herbivore level energy is either utilized
by the carnivores. Again, only a small fraction (about 10%) of herbivore productivity is used to support
carnivore productivity. Similarly, the energy available at carnivore trophic level is again partitioned,
leaving a very small fraction to support the next trophic level (top carnivore).

Because of this tremendous loss of energy at successive higher trophic levels, the leftover energy is
decreased to such an extent that no further trophic level can be supported. Therefore, the length of
food chains in an ecosystem is generally limited to 3-4 trophic levels.

Environment and Environment Problems:

Some of the problems are pollution, soil erosion leading to floods, salt , sea recedes, desertification ,
landslides, change of river directions, extinction of species, global warming , depletion of natural
resources, deforestation, thinning of ozone layer, etc.

Pollution and Pollutants:

Pollution is any undesirable change in physical, chemical and biological characteristics of air, water, soil,
thereby affecting the living organisms adversely. The agents/ substances which cause such changes are
called pollutants. It is caused because of over-population, industrialization, urbanization, agriculture and
deforestation.

Ozone Holes

O3 or ozone is deadly poison formed from O2, due to the effect of UV rays of the sun.

O2 UV rays O + O

O + O2 O3

Thus, ozone prevents these UV rays from reaching the earth. Some harmful chemicals like CFCs are used
in refrigeration, fire extinguishers and aerosols sprayers. When these items are discarded, the chlorine
and fluorine released by them reacts with ozone and breaks it into oxygen. Depletion of ozone layer due
to release of it will result in UV radiations reaching the earth, causing the skin cancer, damage to eyes
and immune system.

Biological Magnification

Progressive accumulation of non-biodegradable waste at various trophic level of food chain. Pesticides
like DDT are sprayed to kill pests of crops or households. They seep into soil reaching ground water or
run off to water bodies. They are either absorbed by the roots of plants, water plants and animal or
remain sticking to fruits and vegetables. In this manner, they enter the food chains and get accumulated
in our body (bio-accumulation) causing disorders of kidney, brain and circulatory system. Humans are
the worst suffers in this case as we occupy the top position in most of the food chains. Further damage
can be avoided by following organic farming i.e. using bio-degradable chemicals in agriculture like
manures, bio-fertilizers, bio-cities or following techniques like crop rotation.

Garbage Disposal

Soil pollution is unfavorable alteration in physical, chemical and biological properties of soil due to
Chemical Waste – These are industrial waste like compounds of lead, sulphur. Pesticides and fertilizers
which pollutes the soil loses its productivity.

Modes of waste disposal: The scientific methods of disposals are –

(a) Sanitary landfills. Low lying urban areas compacted and covered by layer of soil.
(b) Recycling of waste:
(i) Some solid waste like paper, glass, plastics, metal can be treated in special plants and
recycled.
(ii) Metals can be melted and recycled into solid metal again.
(iii) Molten plastic waste mixed with asphalt can be used to make roads.
(iv) Domestic and animal waste can be decomposed to change into manure called compost
or to make biogas.
(c) Incineration burning. The volume of the waste can be reduced by burning it at very high
temperature in ovens called incinerators.
(d) Biogas. It can produced from biodegradable waste slurry left behind is excellent manure. Biogas
is very cheap and pollution free fuel.
(e) Non-biodegradable wastes like blades, broken glass, nail, iron pieces should not be thrown in
the garbage and disposed off separately.
(f) Replacing non-biodegradable items with bio-degradable for e.g plastic with paper cups,
nitrogenous fertilizers with bio-fertilizers.
(g) Treating sewage and industrial affluent before disposal, avoid excessive use of fertilizers and
pesticides. They should be applied on specific parts of plants in required quantities and correct
timings so that they do not fall on soil or reach the water resources.