ONLINE ASSIGNMENT

NATURAL RESOURSES



Submitted From Submitted to
SAVITHA G DIVYA TEACHER
NATURAL SCIENCE NATURAL SCIENCE
Roll No. : 61 MCTE
MCTE
Date : 16/08/2014


I N D E X

S.No. Content Page No.
1. INTRODUCTION 1
2. EXAMPLES OF NATURAL RESOURSES 2 - 10
3. CONCLUSION 11
4. REFERENCE 12

1


INTRODUCTION
Natural resources occur naturally within environments that exist relatively
undisturbed by humanity, in a natural form. A natural resource is often characterized by
amounts of biodiversity and geo diversity existent in various ecosystems.
The rainforest in Fatu-Hiva, in the Marquesas Islands, is an example of an
undisturbed natural resource. Forest provides timber for humans, food and shelter for
flora and the fauna. The nutrient cycle between organisms form food chains and
biodiversity of Natural resources are derived from the environment. Some of them are
essential for our survival while most are used for satisfying our needs. Natural resources
may be further classified in different ways.
Natural resources are materials and components (something that can be used) that
can be found within the environment. Every man-made product is composed of natural
resources (at its fundamental level). A natural resource may exist as a separate entity
such as fresh water, and air, as well as a living organism such as a fish, or it may exist in
an alternate form which must be processed to obtain the resource such as metal ores, oil,
and most forms of energy.


2

Examples of Natural Resources
Pond
A pond is a body of standing water, either natural or man-made, that is usually
smaller than a lake. They may arise naturally in floodplains as part of a river system, or
they may be somewhat isolated depressions (examples include vernal pools and prairie
potholes). Usually they contain shallow water with marsh and aquatic plants and animals.
A few animals also make ponds, including both alligators and beavers. The type of life in
a pond is generally determined by a combination of factors including water level regime
(particularly depth and duration of flooding) and nutrient levels, but other factors may
also be important, including presence or absence of shading by trees, presence or absence
of streams, effects of grazing animals, and salinity.
Humans also make ponds. A wide variety of man-made bodies of water are
classified as ponds. Some ponds are created specifically for habitat restoration, including
water treatment. Others, like water gardens, water features and koi ponds are designed for
aesthetic ornamentation as landscape or architectural features. Fish ponds are designed
for commercial fish breeding, and solar ponds designed to store thermal energy.
Standing bodies of water such as puddles, ponds, and lakes are often categorized
separately from flowing water courses, such as a brook, creek, stream or river. Nutrient
levels and water quality in natural or man-made ponds can be controlled through natural
process such as algal growth, or man-made filtration such as an algae scrubber.



3

River
A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a
lake, a sea, or another river. In some rare cases a river could flow into the ground and dry
up completely at the end of its course, without reaching another body of water. Small
rivers may be called by several other names, including stream, creek, brook, rivulet, and
rill. There are no official definitions for generic terms, such as river, as applied to
geographic features, although in some countries or communities a stream may be defined
by its size. Many names for small rivers are specific to geographic location; examples are
"run" in some parts of the United States, "burn" in Scotland and northeast England, and
"beck" in northern England. Sometimes a river is defined as being larger than a creek,
but not always: the language is vague.
Rivers are part of the hydrological cycle. Water generally collects in a river from
precipitation through a drainage basin from surface runoff and other sources such as
groundwater recharge, springs, and the release of stored water in natural ice and snow
packs (e.g. from glaciers). Potamology is the scientific study of rivers while limnology
is the study of inland waters in general.
Extraterrestrial rivers have recently been found on Titan. Channels may indicate
past rivers on other planets, specifically outflow channels on Mars and are theorised to
exist on planets and moons in habitable zones of stars.





4

Sea
The sea, the world ocean, or simply the ocean, is the connected body of salty
water that covers 70.8% of the Earth's surface. The sea moderates the Earth's climate and
has important roles in the water cycle, carbon cycle, and nitrogen cycle. Although the sea
has been travelled and explored since prehistory, the modern scientific study of the sea
oceanographydates broadly to the British Challenger expedition of the 1870s.
Owing to the present state of continental drift, the Northern Hemisphere is now
fairly equally divided between land and sea , but the South is overwhelmingly oceanic
Salinity in the open ocean is generally in a narrow band around 3.5% by mass, although
this can vary in more landlocked waters, near the mouths of large rivers, or at great
depths. About 85% of the solids in the open sea are sodium and chloride. Deep-sea
currents are produced by differences in salinity and temperature. Surface currents are
formed by the friction of waves produced by the wind and by tides, the changes in local
sea level produced by the gravity of the Moon and Sun. The direction of all of these is
governed by surface and submarine land masses and by the rotation of the Earth (the
Coriolis effect). The sea is an essential aspect of human trade, travel, mineral extraction,
and power generation. This has also made it essential to warfare and left major cities
exposed to earthquakes and volcanoes from nearby faults; powerful tsunami waves; and
hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones produced in the tropics. This importance and duality
has affected human culture, from early sea gods to the epic poetry of Homer to the
changes induced by the Columbian Exchange, from Viking funerals to Basho's haikus to
hyperrealist marine art, and inspiring music ranging from the shanties in The Complaint
of Scotland to Rimsky-Korsakov's "The Sea and Sinbad's Ship" to A-mei's "Listen to the
Sea". It is the scene of leisure activities including swimming, diving, surfing, and sailing.
However, population growth, industrialization, and intensive farming have all contributed
to present-day marine pollution. Atmospheric carbon dioxide is being absorbed in
increasing amounts, lowering its pH in a process known as ocean acidification. The
shared nature of the sea has made overfishing an increasing problem.
5

Forest
A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is a community of living
organisms, that interact mutually and with the physical environment, characterized by the
fact that contain trees, which constitute the larger part of their biomass. As with cities,
depending on various cultural definitions, what is considered a forest may vary
significantly in size and have different classifications according to how and of what the
forest is composed. A forest is usually an area filled with trees but any tall densely
packed area of vegetation may be considered a forest, even underwater vegetation such as
kelp forests, or non-vegetation such as fungi, and bacteria. Tree forests cover
approximately 9.4 percent of the Earth's surface or 30 percent of total land area, though
they once covered much more i.e. about 50 percent of total land area. They function as
habitats for organisms, hydrologic flow modulators, and soil conservers, constituting one
of the most important aspects of the biosphere.
A typical forest is composed of the over story and the understory. The understory
is further subdivided into the shrub layer, herb layer, and also the moss layer and soil
microbes. In some complex forests, there is also a well-defined lower tree layer. Forests
are central to all human life because they provide a diverse range of resources: they store
carbon, aid in regulating the planetary climate, purify water and mitigate natural hazards
such as floods. Forests also contain roughly 90 percent of the world's terrestrial
biodiversity.



6


Wetland
A wetland is a land area that is saturated with water, either permanently or
seasonally, such that it takes on the characteristics of a distinct ecosystem. Primarily, the
factor that distinguishes wetlands from other land forms or water bodies is the
characteristic vegetation that is adapted to its unique soil conditions. Wetlands consist
primarily of hydric soil, which supports aquatic plants.
The water found in wetlands can be saltwater, freshwater, or brackish. Main
wetland types include swamps, marshes, bogs and fens. Sub-types include mangrove,
carr, pocosin, and varzea.
Wetlands play a number of roles in the environment, principally water
purification, flood control, and shoreline stability. Wetlands are also considered the most
biologically diverse of all ecosystems, serving as home to a wide range of plant and
animal life.
Wetlands occur naturally on every continent except Antarctica. They can also be
constructed artificially as a water management tool, which may play a role in the
developing field of water-sensitive urban design.
The largest wetlands in the world include the Amazon River basin and the West
Siberian Plain. Another large wetland is the Pantanal, which straddles Brazil, Bolivia,
and Paraguay in South America.
The UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment determined that environmental
degradation is more prominent within wetland systems than any other ecosystem on
Earth. International conservation efforts are being used in conjunction with the
development of rapid assessment tools to inform people about wetland issues.

7


Mangrove
Mangroves are various types of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow
in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics mainly between
latitudes 25 N and 25 S. The remaining mangrove forest areas of the world in 2000 was
53,190 square miles (137,760 km) spanning 118 countries and territories. The word is
used in at least three senses:
(1) most broadly to refer to the habitat and entire plant assemblage or mangal, for
which the terms mangrove forest biome, mangrove swamp and mangrove forest are
also used,
(2) to refer to all trees and large shrubs in the mangrove swamp, and
(3) narrowly to refer to the mangrove family of plants, the Rhizophoraceae, or
even more specifically just to mangrove trees of the genus Rhizophora. The term
"mangrove" comes to English from Spanish, and is likely to originate from Guarani. It
was earlier "mangrow", but this word was corrupted via folk etymology influence of the
word "grove".
The mangrove biome, or mangal, is a distinct saline woodland or scrubland
habitat characterized by depositional coastal environments, where fine sediments collect
in areas protected from high-energy wave action. The saline conditions tolerated by
various mangrove species range from brackish water, through pure seawater, to water
concentrated by evaporation to over twice the salinity of ocean seawater.




8




Sacred grove
A sacred grove or sacred woods are any grove of trees of special religious
importance to a particular culture. Sacred groves were most prominent in the Ancient
Near East and prehistoric Europe, but feature in various cultures throughout the world.
They were important features of the mythological landscape and cult practice of
Celtic, Baltic, Germanic, ancient Greek, Near Eastern, Roman, and Slavic polytheism,
and were also used in India, J apan, and West Africa. Examples of sacred groves include
the Greco-Roman temenos, the Norse hrgr, and the Celtic nemeton, which was largely
but not exclusively associated with Druidic practice. During the Northern Crusades, there
was a common practice of building churches on the sites of sacred groves.
Ancient holy trees still exist in the English countryside and are mentioned often in
folklore and fairytales.






9



CONCLUSION
Natural resources are basic and essential for the survival of people. Natural are
referred to as land or raw materials in economic point of view, which occur naturally in
environment without human intervention. It is our duty to protect the natural resources by
it using it judiciously and in a proper manner if they break the rules they are responsible
for the problems of it, and prohibited to offence and they should punished by the law.












10


REFERENCE
"Teaching Science Successfully". Marlow Ediger ; D. Bhaskara Rao
"EnviroStats: Canada's natural resource wealth at a glance". Statcan.gc.ca.
Retrieved 2014-05-31.
Teaching of Biology -Veenapani Pandey.



VALUE BY
DIVYA.S (20/09/2014)
(Lecturer in Natural Science)