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Module 1

The document discusses the critical role of environmental science in understanding the interrelationships between organisms and their environments, emphasizing ecological concepts, natural selection, and the importance of biodiversity. It covers various ecosystems, their characteristics, and the impact of human activities on these environments. Additionally, it addresses environmental ethics and the need for sustainable practices to protect the planet.

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10 views54 pages

Module 1

The document discusses the critical role of environmental science in understanding the interrelationships between organisms and their environments, emphasizing ecological concepts, natural selection, and the importance of biodiversity. It covers various ecosystems, their characteristics, and the impact of human activities on these environments. Additionally, it addresses environmental ethics and the need for sustainable practices to protect the planet.

Uploaded by

shresthamiraj000
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Environmental Science

Institute of Engineering (IOE)


Pulchowk
The Role of Environmental Science In Society
Why “A Study of Interrelationships”?
The Nature of Environmental Science
Interrelatedness Is a Core Concept
Political And Economic Issues
Things To Do To Protect Your Environment
Emerging Global Issues
Environmental Ethics
• The Call for a New Ethic
• Environmental Ethics invite us to consider three key propositions
1. The Earth and its creatures have moral status, in other words, are worthy of
our ethical concern
2. The Earth and its creatures have intrinsic value, meaning that they have
moral value merely because they exist, not only because they meet human
needs
3. Based on the concept of an ecosystem, human beings should consider
“wholes” that include other forms of life and the environment
Environmental Attitudes
Environmental Costs
Example of Environmental Costs
The Life Cycle of a Typical Product
Economics and Sustainable Development
Ecological Concepts
• science of ecology is the study of the ways organisms interact
with each other and with their non-living surroundings.
• A broad field of study that deals with the ways in which
organisms are adapted to their surroundings, how they make
use of these surroundings, and how an area is altered by the
presence and activities of organisms.
• These interactions involve the flow of energy and matter among
organisms. If the flow of energy and matter ceases, the
organisms die.
Levels of Organization in Ecology
Ecological Concepts
• Environment: Everything that affects an organism during its
lifetime is collectively known as its environment.
• Abiotic factors: non-living things that influence an organism. They can be
organized into several broad categories: energy, non-living matter, and the
physical characteristics of the place an organism lives.

• Biotic factors: include all forms of life with which it interacts. Some broad
categories are: plants that carry on photosynthesis; animals that eat other
organisms; bacteria and fungi that cause decay; bacteria, viruses, and other
parasitic organisms that cause disease; and other individuals of the same
species.
Ecological Concepts
• Limiting Factors: A shortage or absence of a specific factor restricts
the success of the species; thus, it is known as a limiting factor.
• Habitat and Niche: The habitat of an organism is the space that the
organism inhabits, the place where it lives and the niche of an
organism is the functional role it has in its surroundings. Address vs
Profession.
The Role of Natural Selection and Evolution
• Genes, Populations, and Species:
• Genes: Distinct pieces of DNA that determine the characteristics an individual
displays.
• Population: all the organisms of the same kind found within a specific
geographical region.
• Species: A population of all the organisms potentially capable or reproducing
naturally among themselves and having offspring that also reproduce.
• Natural Selection: the process that determines which individuals
within a species will reproduce and pass their genes to the next
generation. The changes we see in the genes and characteristics
displayed in successive generations of a population of organisms over
time is known as evolution.
The Role of Natural Selection and Evolution
• Evolutionary Patterns:
• Speciation: the production of new species from previously existing species
• Extinction: the loss of an entire species and is a common feature of the
evolution of organisms.
• Coevolution: the concept that two or more species of organisms can
reciprocally influence the evolutionary direction of the other.
Kinds of Organism Interactions
• Predation: when one organism, known as predator, kills and eats
another, known as prey.
• Competition: when two organisms strive to obtain the same limited
resource.
• Intraspecific competition
• Interspecific competition
• Competition and Natural Selection
Kinds of Organism Interactions
• Symbiotic Relationships: a close, long-lasting, physical relationship
between two different species.
• Parasitism: a relationship in which one organisms, known as the parasite, lives
in or an another organism, known as the host, from which it derives
nourishment.
• Commensalism: a relationship between organisms in which one organism
benefits while the other is not affected.
• Mutualism: a relationship in which both species involved benefit.
• Some Relationships are Difficult to Categorize
Community and Ecosystem Interaction
• A community is an assemblage of all the interacting populations
of different species of organisms in an area.
• Some species play minor roles, while others play major roles,
but all are part of the community.
• Communities consist of interacting populations of different
species, but these species interact with their physical world as
well.
• An ecosystem is a defined space in which interactions take
place between a community, with all its complex interrelation-
ships, and the physical environment.
Major Roles of Organisms in Ecosystems
• Producers: Producers are organisms that are able to use sources of energy
to make complex, organic molecules from the simple inorganic sub-stances
in their environment
• Consumers: Consumers are organisms that require organic matter as a
source of food. They consume organic matter to provide themselves with
energy and the organic molecules necessary to build their own bodies.
• Primary Consumers (or herbivores), are animals that eat producers (plant or
phytoplankton) as a source of food.
• Secondary Consumers (or carnivores), are animals that eat other animals.
• Omnivores and Parasites
• Decomposers: Organisms that use non-living organic matter as a source of
energy and raw materials to build their bodies.
Roles in an Ecosystem
Trophic Levels in an Ecosystem
Energy Flow Through Ecosystems
Trophic Levels in a Food Chain

• Food Chain: A series of organisms occupying


different trophic levels through which energy
passes as a result of one organism consuming
another.
• Detritus: The small bits of non-living organic
material
• Food Web: When several food chains overlap and
intersect
Food Web
Biogeochemical Cycles: Nutrient Cycles in
Ecosystem
• Carbon Cycle
Carbon Sinks and Human Effects
Nitrogen Cycle
Phosphorus Cycle
Biomes of the World
Influence of Precipitation and Temperature on
Vegetation
Major Biomes of the World
Desert
• Found throughout the world where
rainfall is low.
• Climate
• Organism
• Human Impact
Temperate Grassland
• Also known as prairies or steppes, are widely distributed over
temperate parts of the world.
• Climate
• Organisms
• Human Impact
Savanna
• Found in tropical parts of Africa, South America, and Australia and are
characterized by extensive grasslands spotted with occasional trees or
patches of trees.
• Climate
• Organisms
• Human Impact
Mediterranean Shrubland (Chaparral)
• Located near oceans and are dominated by shrubby plants.
• Climate
• Organisms
• Human Impacts
Tropical Dry Forest
• Heavily influenced by seasonal rainfall and are found in parts of
Central and South America, Australia, Africa and Asia (particularly
India and Myanmar)
• Climate
• Organisms
• Human Impact
Tropical Rainforest
• Located near the equator in Central and South America, Africa,
Southeast Asia, and some islands in Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean.
• Climate
• Organisms
• Human Impact
Temperate Deciduous Forest
• Have a winter-summer change of seasons and have trees that lose
their leaves during the winter and replace them the following spring.
• Typical of the eastern half of the United States, parts of south central
and southeastern Canada, southern Africa, and many areas of Europe
and Asia
• Climate
• Organisms
• Human Impact
Temperate Rainforest
• Exist in the coastal areas of northern California, Oregon, Washington,
British Columbia, and Southern Alaska, New Zealand and the
southwest coast of Chile
• Climate
• Organisms
• Human Impact
Taiga, Northern Coniferous Forest, or Boreal
Forest
• Evergreen coniferous forest found throughout the southern half of
northern Europe, and much of Russia.
• Climate
• Organisms
• Human Impact
Tundra
• North of Taiga, an extremely cold region that lacks trees and has
permanently frozen subsurface soil. This frozen soil is known as
permafrost
• Climate
• Organisms
• Human Impact
Major Aquatic Ecosystems
Marine Ecosystems
• Pelagic Marine Ecosystems: Organisms that are not attached to the
bottom are called pelagic organisms, and the ecosystem they are a
part of is called a pelagic ecosystem.
• Plankton/phytoplankton
• Zooplankton
Benthic Marine Ecosystems
• Organisms that live on the ocean bottom, whether attached or not,
are known as benthic organisms, and the ecosystem of which they are
a part is called a benthic ecosystem.
• Coral reef ecosystem
• Mangrove swamp ecosystems
• Abyssal ecosystem
• Estuaries
• Human Impact on Marine Ecosystem
Freshwater Ecosystems
Lakes and Ponds
• Euphotic zone
• Emergent plants
• Submerged plants
• Littoral zone
• Limnetic zone
• Oligotrophic lakes
• Eutrophic lakes
• BOD
Streams and Rivers
• Attached organisms
• Periphyton
• Swamps
• Marshes
• Human Impact on Freshwater Ecosystem

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