Introduction

Environment everything that surrounds man

Types:
- natural environment
o encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally in the area
- build environment
o refers to the human-made surroundings that provide the setting for human activity
o buildings, parks, cities and supporting infrastructures
Human and Environment
- human impacts to the environment refers to the human activities on biophysical environments,
biodiversity and other resources
- these activities includes :
o agricultural practices
deforestation, agriculture chemicals, soil degradation
o fishing
overfishing, ecological disruption
o irrigation
soil salination, reduced river discharge, evaporation, withdraw of groundwater, and
drainage
o
livestock production
Pollution, fossil fuels, water and land consumption
o Energy industry
Climate change, biofuel use, fossil fuel use, electricity generation, renewable energy
o Manufacturing
Cleaning agents, nanotechnology, paint, pesticides, pharmaceuticals and personal
care products
o Mining
Erosion, sinkholes, loss of biodiversity, contamination of soil, contamination of
groundwater and surface water
o Transport
Use of fossil fuels, air pollution, emission of carbon dioxide, traffic congestion,
invasion of natural habitat and agricultural lands
Also affects human health both due to pathological effects of chemicals, radiation and some biological
agents
Environmental Engineering
- The application of science and engineering principles to protect and utilize natural resources, control
environmental pollution, improve environmental quality to enable healthy ecosystems and comfortable
habitation of humans
Ecology
- is the scientific analysis and study of interactions among organisms and their environment.
- it is an interdisciplinary field that includes biology and Earth science.
- includes the study of interactions organisms have with each other, other organisms, and with abiotic
components of their environment.
- Study of ecosystems
- Topics :
o diversity,
o distribution,
o amount (biomass),
o number (population) of particular organisms,
o the cooperation and competition between organisms, both within and among ecosystems
Ecosystems
- are composed of dynamically interacting parts including organisms, the communities they make up,
and the non-living components of their environment

community of living (biotic) organisms (Plants, animals and microbes) in conjunction with nonliving
components (abiotic) of their environment (air, water and mineral soil), interacting as system
processes includes primary production, pedogenesis, nutrient cycling, and various niche
construction activities, regulate the flux of energy and matter through an environment.
Provide a variety of goods and services to human society

Ecology explains the

o Life processes, interactions and adaptations
o The movement of materials and energy through living communities
o The successional development of ecosystems
o The abundance and distribution of organisms and biodiversity in the context of
the environment.
Concepts:
BIODIVERSITY
(an abbreviation of "biological diversity") describes the diversity of life from genes to ecosystems and
spans every level of biological organization.
- Biodiversity includes species diversity, ecosystem diversity, and genetic diversity and scientists are
interested in the way that this diversity affects the complex ecological processes operating at and
among these respective levels
- Biodiversity plays an important role in ecosystem services which by definition maintain and improve
human quality of life. Preventing species extinctions is one way to preserve biodiversity and that goal
rests on techniques that preserve genetic diversity, habitat and the ability for species to migrate.
HABITAT
- describes the environment over which a species is known to occur and the type of community that is
formed as a result
- habitats can be defined as regions in environmental space that are composed of multiple dimensions,
each representing a biotic or abiotic environmental variable; that is, any component or characteristic
of the environment related directly (e.g. forage biomass and quality) or indirectly (e.g. elevation) to the
use of a location by the animal
- refers to the kind of place where an organism normally lives.
- It includes the arrangement of food, water, shelter and space that is suitable to meet an organism's
needs.
- You can think of this as the "address" where an organism lives
NICHE
- is the "occupation" of an organism. It defines the role of an organism in an ecosystem, such as a "fisheating wader" for a heron, or a "plant-juice-sipping summer buzzer" for a cicada.
- An organism's niche may change during different life stages. For example, a tadpole typically lives in
the water and eats plant material, while the adult frog may catch insects from the shore.
BIOME
-

Biomes are larger units of organization that categorize regions of the Earth's ecosystems, mainly according to
the structure and composition of vegetation
There are different methods to define the continental boundaries of biomes dominated by different functional
types of vegetative communities that are limited in distribution by climate, precipitation, weather and other
environmental variables.
Biomes include tropical rainforest, temperate broadleaf and mixed forest, temperate deciduous
forest, taiga, tundra, hot desert, andpolar desert.