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Multidisciplinary Nature of
Environmental Studies
Lecture 1:
Environmental study (EVS): It is multidisciplinary subject that includes and/or integrates
Biology, Geology, Chemistry, Physics, Engineering, Sociology, Health, Anthropology,
Economics, Statistics, Computers, Philosophy, to the study of the environment and the solution
of environmental problems. It deals with every issue that affects living organisms.
Environment: A complex system that includes physical, chemical, biological, social, and
cultural elements. These elements are inter-linked to each other in a complicated manner. Any
disturbance of any of these elements will threaten the structure of the environment.
Broadly Environment is classified in to two types:(a) Natural Environment: In a natural environment there is no interference of human beings. It
is a self regulated mechanism referred to as Homeostasis means any change in natural
ecosystem is brought about by natural processes and it is counter balanced by natural changes in
other components of environment.
(b) Manmade / Anthropogenic Environment: The changes in environment are due to
interference of human activities, particularly due to the wide use enhanced technologies,
increased population etc.
Importance:
Questions:
1) Discuss the importance of the Environmental Study.
2) Explain various modes needed for public awareness to protect environmental
degradation?
Lecture 2:
1.3 Depleting Nature of Environmental Resources
Depleting Nature of Forest:
The problem of depletion and destruction of forests cause imbalances and enhance
threatening the survival of the human species. In the past 100 years the world has lost
almost half its forest area. And, as indicated by reports of the FAO (Food and
Agriculture) the Earth is losing on net every year 11.2 million hectares of virgin
forest.
Over the years, the area under forest cover has decreased steadily, as forests have been
cleared for agriculture, industry, housing, mining and other development activities
like the construction of roads, railways, and hydroelectric plants.
This decline of forests, particularly serious in the case of tropical forests not only
increases the greenhouse effect by reducing the absorption of carbon dioxide but also
aggravated the decline of water resources.
As the dwindling forest cover, logically increases rainfall runoff, which favours
floods, soil erosion and reduces the amount that seeps into the ground to recharge
aquifers.
Since the beginning of civilization, as seen from the Indus Valley Civilization, people
have been clearing land for agriculture to meet the food needs of the ever- growing
population. Most forest communities follow a method of slash and burn or shifting
cultivation, known as Jhum in the Indian subcontinent. They clear a patch of forest,
cultivate crops on it, and abandon it the following season. Then they move on to a
new area and follow the same pattern. They often return to the same area after a few
years. This method is more common in the hilly regions.
It is now believed that Jhum was a good method of cultivation as the land was left
uncultivated for a long period. This allowed the forest to regenerate and the soil to
stabilize. Once the trees are felled, the soil becomes less fertile as it removes the
nutrient-giving vegetation layer. This also leads to severe soil erosion. If the land is
left to regenerate, the forest re-grows and the soil becomes stable.
Today, though, this method of cultivation causes extensive damage to the area. Due to
the increase in population, people are compelled to cultivate on the same plot of land
more frequently as there is very little forest area available. Forests are also being
converted to permanent settlements. Thus, forests cannot regenerate, and, in some
cases, forest areas have become wasteland within a few years due to frequent
cultivation.
Forest conservation measures:
Soil conservation is a combination of all methods of management and land use that
safeguard the soil against depletion or deterioration by natural or man-induced factors.
Planting cover crops such as grasses, on uncultivated land. Trees should be planted
along hill slopes.
Adoption of correct farming techniques such as contour ploughing, terracing and strip
cropping.
Construction of check dams on steep slopes which prevent gully erosion and spread
gullies.
Creation of wind breaks by planting lines of trees, hedges or fences which obstruct the
path of wind thereby reducing its speed and hence reducing soil erosion.
Controlling grazing of pastures.
Suspending cultivation for one season and more, so as to help the soil recover its
fertility.
Water covers more than two-thirds of the Earth's surface. But fresh water represents
less than 0.5% of the total water on Earth. The rest is either in the form of seawater or
locked up in icecaps or the soil, which is why one often hears of water scarcity in
many areas.
Worldwide, the consumption of water is doubling every 20 years - more than twice
the rate of increase in population.
Though depletion of water resources is not a problem for everyone, the United
Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) notes that 1.2 billion people,
almost 20 percent of the Earth's population, are experiencing water scarcity. Another
500 million come perilously close to that threshold.
A large amount of water is wasted in agriculture, industry, and urban areas.
Excessive extraction for irrigation where groundwater is slowly renewed is the main
cause of the depletion, and climate change has the potential to exacerbate the problem
in some regions.
It has been estimated that with available technologies and better operational practices,
agricultural water demand could be cut by about 50% and that in urban areas by about
33% without affecting the quality or economics of life.
But most governments do not have adequate laws or regulations to protect their water
systems.
Due to the increase in population there has been a rise in the demand for food, space
for housing, consumer products, etc., which has in turn resulted in increased
industrialization, urbanization, and demands in agriculture thereby leading to both
river and groundwater contamination.
Drought and changes in routine weather patterns are responsible for water depletion in
some areas.
Mining and recovery of mineral resources has been with us for a long time.
Human wealth basically comes from agriculture, manufacturing, and mineral
resources.
Our complex modern society is built around the exploitation and use of mineral
resources.
Since the future of humanity depends on mineral resources, we must understand that
these resources have limits; our known supply of minerals will be used up early in the
third millennium of our calendar.
Furthermore, modern agriculture and the ability to feed an overpopulated world are
dependent on mineral resources to construct the machines that till the soil enrich it
with mineral fertilizers, and to transport the products.
The presently available resources were created by earth processes and after we
exhaust them, more will develop in a few tens of millions years, which is not in
human life-spans. We are now reaching limits of reserves for many minerals .
Human population growth and increased modern industry are depleting our available
resources at increasing rates.
The consumption of natural resources proceeded at a phenomenal rate during the past
hundred years and population and production increases cannot continue without
increasing pollution and depletion of mineral resources.
The geometric rise of population has been joined by a period of rapid
industrialization, which has placed incredible pressure on the natural resources.
Limits of growth in the world are imposed not as much by pollution as by the
depletion of natural resources. As the industrialized nations of the world continue the
rapid depletion of energy and mineral resources, and resource-rich less-developed
nations become increasingly aware of the value of their raw materials, resource driven
conflicts will increase.
By about the middle of the next century the critical factors come together to impose a
drastic population reduction by catastrophe.
Full-cost pricing (include the harmful environmental costs of mining and processing
minerals in the prices of items).
Redesign manufacturing processes (use less mineral resources, produce less pollution
and waste, mineral based waste as raw materials).
Questions:
1)
2)
3)
4)
Lecture 3:
1.4 Global Environmental Crisis
Global Environmental Crisis Related to Population:
The United Nations projects that the worlds population will be anywhere between 7.7
billion to 11.2 billion by 2050, that's an average of 9.4 billion by that time.
Population growth in poor countries is damaging many local environmental resources,
including fresh water, trees and topsoil and that this in turn makes survival even harder
for the poorest people.
Ironically we focus our attention on the 7 billion, actually the real source of
environmental destruction are not the 7 billion, but the 1%, the handful of millionaires
and billionaires who own more, consume more, control more, and destroy more than
all the rest of us put together.
The argument is that as long as humans continue to come up with scientific
advancements then the earths resources are infinite. Humans have been making these
advancements since the beginning of time, not even necessarily because the resource
ran out, but even because the new advancement is more efficient.
For example, to cook food humans have switched from burning wood to burning
natural gas. Silicon was used before primarily for glass, now it is a significant
component in microchips and optical fibres.
If humans re-arrange the resources they already have to substitute for the ones they
may lose due to the growth, then no amount of population increase can dry up the
planet - in theory.
Water is life and is necessary for all ecosystems. Sound ecosystems ensure balanced
communities of species and rich livelihoods. Rich and diverse livelihoods are
fundamental for our well-being and for the survival of the poorest.
Our meals, our health and our livelihoods depend on biodiversity. Food resources
from agriculture or fisheries, the diversity of medicinal herbs, water-consuming
industries, or tourist activities developed next to lakes and rivers demonstrate that
water resources are vital to nature and human. In addition, nature plays a role of
regulation and purification of water resources, thus contributing to better water supply
and quality.
For instance, the average American uses 176 gallons of water a day while the average
African family uses just 5 gallons.
While the world's population tripled in the 20th century, the use of renewable water
resources has grown six-fold. Within the next fifty years, the world population will
increase by another 40 to 50%. This population growth - coupled with
industrialization and urbanization - will result in an increasing demand for water and
will have serious consequences on the environment.
Already there is more waste water generated and dispersed today than at any other
time in the history of our planet: more than one out of six people lack access to safe
drinking water, namely 1.1 billion people, and more than two out of six lack adequate
sanitation, namely 2.6 billion people, 3900 children die every day from water borne
diseases (WHO 2004).
One must know that these figures represent only people with very poor conditions. In
reality, these figures should be much higher.
Agriculture, particularly the use of industrial fertilizers and other chemicals, has
fundamentally upset the chemistry of the entire planet. Already, the use of fertilizers
has more than doubled the flows of nitrogen and phosphorus compounds in the
environment, resulting in widespread water pollution and the massive degradation of
lakes and rivers.
Excess nutrient pollution is now so widespread, it is even contributing to the
disruption of coastal oceans and fishing grounds by creating hypoxic "dead zones,.
Given our current practices, future increases in food demand will dramatically
increase water pollution and ecosystem destruction through agricultural effluent.
Ironically, the fertilizer runoff from farmlands compromises another crucial source of
food: coastal fishing grounds.
Land use is also one of the biggest contributors to global warming. Of the three most
important man-made greenhouse gasses carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide
land use and agricultural practices, including tropical deforestation, emit 30
percent of the total. That's more than the emissions from all the world's passenger
cars, trucks, trains and planes, or the emissions from all electricity generation or
manufacturing.
The vast majority comes from deforestation, methane emissions from animals and rice
fields, and nitrous oxide emissions from heavily fertilized fields.
There are at least 2.6 billion people in the world without improved sanitation. Most of
these 2.6 billion reside in rural Asia and Africa.
Improved sanitation is defined by the World Health Organization as connection to a
public sewer, connection to a septic system, a pour-flush latrine, a simple pit latrine or
a ventilated improved pit latrine.
But technically, even access to improved sanitation does not solve the problem
because conventional pit latrines usually fail to sanitize and they contribute to
groundwater pollution.
Also, septic systems and sewage treatment plants often discharge into the
environment with little or no sanitization or nutrient removal. In turn, the effluent and
sludge produced at sewage treatment facilities often pollutes groundwater, lakes and
seas.
So in actuality, far more than 2.6 billion people need to gain access to effective and
sustainable sanitation.
Sanitation can improve social and economic conditions for all, but especially for
impoverished communities.
It offers empowerment and safety, particularly to women and girls in the areas that are
often without sanitation, by providing a private and dignified environment for
urinating and defecating.
Even if the sanitation crisis can be communicated to and understood by more people,
the need to find sustainable alternatives to conventional approaches for both
developed and developing countries remains.
Sustainable and ecological sanitation calls for a holistic approach.
1.5 Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a
particular area, as well as the non-living, physical components of the environment with which
the organism interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight.
Structure of Ecosystem
An ecosystem comprises two main components:
(i)
Biotic include plants, animals and microorganisms and
(ii)
Abiotic mainly include sunlight, substratum, water, minerals, carbon dioxide and
oxygen.
Biotic components are the living things in the ecosystem. From the tiniest bacteria to the
largest mammal, all need abiotic components in order to survive. They need air to breath and
light to photosynthesize, for example.
If the ecosystem is small, the biotic factors will rely on the abiotic components more than if
the ecosystem is large. If there is much diversity in an ecosystem the biotic factors rely on
each other as well as on the abiotic components.
Components of Ecosystem
Biotic
Abiotic
Autotrophs
Heterotrophs
Producers
Consumers
Herbivores
Producers
Decomposers
Carnivores
Consumers
Consumers are heterotrophic organisms mostly animals, which generally ingest and
swallow their food.
The food of consumers consists of organic compounds produced by other living
organisms.
Decomposers
These are saprophytic (sapro = to decompose) micro organisms such as bacteria and
fungi, which obtain their food from dead bodies to producers and consumers and their
organic wastes.
Abiotic components are non-living components in the environment. This can be either a
chemical or physical presence. Abiotic components fall into three basic categories:
Climatic factors include humidity, sunlight and factors involving the climate.
Edaphic refers to soil conditions, so edaphic factors include soil and geography of the
land.
Social factors include how the land is being used and water resources in the area.
Questions:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
ecosystem
Ecotone
biome
community
Lecture 4:
Classification of Ecosystems
An ecosystem may be natural (like forest, lake, ocean etc) or man-made (such as an
aquarium, a crop field etc), temporary (like a rain fed pond) or permanent (like a lake, forest,
etc), aquatic (such as pond, ocean etc) or terrestrial (like grassland, forest, etc).
a) Natural Ecosystem: Natural Ecosystem may be terrestrial (like desert, forest, etc) or
aquatic like pond, river, lake etc. A natural ecosystem is a biological environment that
is found in nature (e.g. a forest) rather than created or altered by man (a farm).
b) Artificial Ecosystem: Humans have modified some ecosystems for their own benefits
and these are Artificial Ecosystem. They can be terrestrial (crop field, garden etc.) or
aquatic (aquarium, dam, manmade pond etc.).
Terrestrial ecosystems
Terrestrial ecosystems are found everywhere apart from water bodies. They are broadly
classified into:
Aquatic ecosystem
An aquatic ecosystem is an ecosystem located in a body of water. It comprises aquatic fauna,
flora and the properties of water too. There are two types of aquatic ecosystems, Marine and
freshwater.
The Marine Ecosystem
Marine ecosystems are the largest ecosystems with coverage of nearly 71% of the Earth's
surface and containing 97% of the planet's water. The water in Marine ecosystems has salts
and minerals dissolved in them in high amounts. Different divisions of marine ecosystems
are:
Oceanic: The relatively shallow part of the ocean that lies over the continental
shelf.
Profundal: Bottom or deep water.
Benthic: Bottom substrates.
Inter-tidal: The area between high and low tides.
Estuaries
Salt marshes
Coral reefs
Hydrothermal vents-where chemosynthetic bacteria form the food base.
Many types of organisms are found in marine ecosystems including brown algae, corals,
cephalopods, echinoderms, and sharks.
The Freshwater Ecosystem
In contrast to the Marine ecosystem, freshwater ecosystems only cover 0.8% of the Earth's
surface and contain 0.009% of its total water. There are three basic types of freshwater
ecosystems:
Lentic: Still or slow-moving water like pools, ponds, and lakes.
Lotic: Fast-moving water like streams and rivers.
Wetlands: Places where the soil is saturated or inundated for at least some
time.
These ecosystems are home to amphibians, reptiles and almost 41% of worlds fish species.
Faster moving turbulent water typically contains greater concentrations of dissolved oxygen,
which supports greater biodiversity than the slow moving water of pools.
Importance of ecosystem
Ecosystem study gives information about the amount of available solar energy in an
area.
It gives data about the availability of mineral elements, their utilization and recycling
in the environment.
Inter-relationships between various types of organisms as well as between organisms
and abiotic environment can be determined.
Food chain
In an ecosystem energy flows from one trophic level to another. A trophic level represents a
group of organisms, which are either predators or they get consumed. All organisms in an
ecosystem are linked to one another based on their nutritional needs. This relation between
the individuals constitutes a linear chain called the food chain.
Ultimately a food chain always begins with the producers. The various components of the
food chain can be defined as a group of organisms in which there is transfer of food energy
through a series of repeated eating and being eaten
A food chain shows how each living thing gets food and how nutrients and energy are passed
from creature to creature. Food chains begin with plant-life, and end with animal-life. Some
animals eat plants, some animals eat other animals.
Two types of food chains are recognized in nature. These are Grazing food chain and Detritus
food chain.
1. Grazing food chain:
The grazing food chain starts from green plants passes on to herbivorous primary
consumers and ends with carnivorous animals. Thus the nutrition produced by plants utilizing
energy of solar radiation are used in the following three ways (i) Used for respiratory activity of the plant
(ii) Get decayed
(iii) May be consumed by herbivores
In a grazing food chain there are basically four trophic levies - Auto trophic, primary
consumers, secondary consumers and tertiary consumers. Grazing food chain is the most
important food chain in nature.
d) Detritus food chains are generally shorter than grazing food chains
e) In nature, detritus food chains are indispensable as the dead organic matter of grazing food
chain is acted upon by the detritivores to recycle the inorganic elements into the ecosystem.
Grazing Food Chain
1. It always starts from green plants to
tertiary consumer level.
2. Green plant is the first organism to absorb
solar energy.
3. They do not help in nutrient cycle.
4. Generally large organism maintains this
type of food chain.
Food web
A food web is a graphical description of feeding relationships among species in an ecological
community, that is, of who eats whom (Fig. 1). It is also a means of showing how energy and
materials (e.g., carbon) flow through a community of species as a result of these feeding
relationships. Typically, species are connected by lines or arrows called "links", and the
species are sometimes referred to as "nodes" in food web diagrams.
A food web differs from a food chain in that the latter shows only a portion of the food web
involving a simple, linear series of species (e.g., predator, herbivore, plant) connected by
feeding links. A food web aims to depict a more complete picture of the feeding relationships,
and can be considered a bundle of many interconnected food chains occurring within the
community.
All species occupying the same position within a food chain comprise a trophic level within
the food web. For instance, all of the plants in the foodweb comprise the first or "primary
producer" tropic level, all herbivores comprise the second or "primary consumer" trophic
level, and carnivores that eat herbivores comprise the third or "secondary consumer" trophic
level. Additional levels, in which carnivores eat other carnivores, comprise a tertiary trophic
level.
Food webs are important tools in understanding that plants are the foundation of all
ecosystems and food chains, sustaining life by providing nourishment and oxygen
needed for survival and reproduction.
The mechanism of transfer of food, energy and nutrients through various components
of nature can be studied.
The movement of some toxic substances (like DDT) in the ecosystem, sprayed to kill
the pests and insects, through the various trophic levels, their accumulation at the
highest trophic level, etc. can be studied. (The phenomenon is known as biological
magnification.)
Ecological Pyramid
An ecological pyramid is a graphical representation designed to show the number of
organisms, energy relationships, and biomass of an ecosystem. They are also called Eltonian
pyramids after Charles Elton, who developed the concept of ecological pyramids.
The producers form the base and the carnivore occurs at the top of food chain. The different
organisms in the pyramid are present in the sequence wise and include the producers at the
base which are followed by the herbivore. These are followed by the primary carnivore with
the lion at the top.
They can be upright which means that the base is larger in size and it decreases as we move
upwards. They can be inverted also which means that the base is smaller in size and it
increases as we move upwards. It can be spindle shape which means that the base is thin
along with the top but the middle part is broad.
The ecological pyramids are of three types:
(i)
Pyramid of energy
(ii)
Pyramid of biomass and
(iii)
Pyramid of numbers.
1. The pyramid of energy
The energy pyramids give the best picture of the overall nature of the ecosystem.
Here there will be gradual decrease in the availability of energy from the autotrophs higher
trophic levels. In other words, there is decrease in energy flow from autotrophs at successive
trophic levels.
In the course of energy flow from one organism to the other, is considerable loss of energy in
the form of heat. More energy is available in the autotrophs is the primary consumers. The
least amount of available energy will be in the tertiary consumer. Therefore, shorter the food
chain, greater is the amount of energy available at the top.
1. The energy pyramid always upright and erect.
2. It shows the rate of energy flows at different trophic levels.
3. It shows that energy is maximum at producer level and minimum at the carnivores' level.
4. At every successive trophic level there is a loss of energy in the form of heat, respiration
etc.
In the parasitic food chain, the pyramid of numbers is found to be inverted. Here, a single
plant or tree might support varieties of herbivore. These herbivores like birds in turn, support
varieties of parasites like lice, bugs that outnumber the herbivores.
Subsequently each parasite might support a number of hyperparasites like bacteria and fungi,
which will outnumber the parasites. Thus from the producer level onwards, towards the
consumers, in the parasitic food chain there is a gradual increase in the number of organisms,
instead of the usual decrease.
As a result of this, the pyramid becomes inverted in the parasitic food chain. There is a
gradual increase in the numbers of individuals from autotrophs to the higher trophic levels.
Questions:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
a.
b.
c.
d.
Grassland
Forest
Oceans
Desert
Keys: 1(c), 2(b), 3(b), 4(b), 5(c), 6(c), 7(a), 8(b), 9(c), 10(c).
.