Environment

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

Components
 Abiotic
 Biotic
 Energy
Ecology: relation b/w living organism with each other and environment.
Levels of ecological organization
 Individual
 Population
 Community: major(only sun) and minor(also known as societies)
 Ecosystem
 Biome
 Biosphere
Ecological Niche: no two species can have the same niche

ECOSYSTEM
Structural Components
 Biotic
 Abiotic
Functions
 Energy flow
 Nutrient cycling
 Ecological succession/development
Black-box model: study model that concentrates on input variables and
output variables
Energy flow/food chain
Producers
 Autotrophs: phototrophs and chemotrophs
Consumers
 Herbivores, carnivores and omnivores
Decomposers
Productivity: energy accumulated by autotrophic primary producers per unit
area per unit time. Depends on: sunlight radiation & efficient of the plant
Measured by 2 ways: Gross Primary Production(GPP) & Net Primary
Production (NPP).
Food Web
Trophic Cascade
Trophic level: position in food chain
Ecological pyramid
Biomass pyramid: upright or inverted (aquatic)
Pyramid of numbers: upright, partly upright and inverted
Energy pyramid: conversion of 10% per level. Plants convert 1%
Allelopathy: organism produce biochemicals that influence germination,
growth, survival etc of other organisms
Ecological interactions
 Competition
 Amensalism
 Antagonism
 Neutralism
 Commensalism

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  Mutualism
Ecological succession: directional non seasonal cumulative change in the
type of plant species that occupy a given area through time. Involves
colonization, establishment and extinction. Entire series is called sere
Climate community: final stage
Types of succession: primary, secondary and cyclic
 Allogenic succession: brought about by abiotic component
 Autogenic succession: caused by biotic component
 Progressive succession: community becomes complex
 Retrogressive succession: community becomes simpler
Ecosystem stability:
Homeostasis
Biochemical cycle: gaseous nutrient cycle and sedimentary nutrient cycle
Some important cycles:
 Carbon cycle:
 Nitrogen cycle
 Water cycle: driving force are solar radiation & gravity
 Sulphur cycle: majority found in seawater and rocks
Bioaccumulation: absorption of toxins at faster rate than excretion
Biomagnification: minamata convention on mercury
Pesticide pollution
Biotic potential: max reproductive capacity under optimum environmental
conditions
Carrying capacity: maximum population size of a species that an
environment can sustain indefinitely
Ecological overshoot: population overshoots the carrying capacity
Ecosystem services
 Provisioning

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  Supporting
 Regulating
 Cultural
Ecosystem based adaptation: emerging strategy for community
development and environmental management (EbA)
The economics of ecosystems and biodiversity (TEEB)

TYPES OF ECOSYSTEM
 Natural: totally dependant on solar radiation for energy
 Man-made(artificial)
Natural ecosystem
 Terrestrial: on land
 Aquatic: marine
Forest ecosystem(20% of land on Earth)
 Tropical rain forest: largest pharmacy, high temp & high
humidity(>200 cm). 4 layers: emergent, upper canopy, understory and
forest floor. Poor soil(laterization), buttress roots of trees and straight
trunks. Very tall trees. Mostly small animals but some predators too
 Tropical deciduous: b/w tropical and subtropical. Distinct dry and wet
seasons. Shedding of leaves(abscission). Sal and teak in India 2 imp
varieties.
 Temperate deciduous: moderate climatic conditions. Oak, Heath and
Chestnut are imp trees. Thick bark to protect from winter.
 Boreal/North coniferous: also known as Taiga. No counterpart in
southern hemisphere due to lack of land. Evergreen drought resistant
coniferous trees. Provides softwood and pulpwood for paper
 Mediterranean forests: also found in California(chapparal),
Chile(matorral), South Africa(fynbos) and Austraila(mallee)

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Grassland Ecosystem
 Temperate: interior of continent in the belt of westerlies. NA(prairies),
Asia(Steppes), Argentina(pampas) Australia(Downs). Short juicy grass
 Tropical: in the belt of trade winds. Tall coarse and spiky grass.
Africa(Savanna) South America(llanos and Campos), South
Africa(Veldt)
Desert Ecosystem
 Hot desert: b/w 15-35 latitudes both side of the equator.
 Cold desert
Tundra ecosystem
 Arctic: below polar ice cap and above tree line
 Alpine: above tree line in a mountain
Aquatic Ecosystem
Freshwater: study is called limnology. Static water(lentic), running
water(lotic)
 Littoral zone: near shore where the sunlight penetrates and allows
aquatic plants and macrophytes to grow. Euphoric zone(layer where
the light level becomes too low for photosynthesis.
 Limnetic zone: where the light does not penetrate.
 Benthic zone: bottom
Ecotone: zone of junction b/w 2 or more diverse ecosystem. Like
mangrove forest
Edge effect and edge species.

Wetlands
 Ecotone b/w land and water
 Ramsar convention
Types
 Saline: coral reef

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  Brackish: lagoon
 Saline/freshwater : Karst
 Fresh water: lagoon
Other types
Marsh
Swamp
Bogs and fens
Eutrophication of Wetlands: excessive plant and algal growth due to
enrichment of nitrogen or phosphorous
Two types
 Natural
 Cultural(human)
Harmful Algal Blooms
Some conventions on wetlands
 Ramsar
 Monteaux Record
 Wetlands international
 Bird life international: flyaway concept used
Wetlands in India
 Western Himalayas
 Indo gangetic
 Coastal
 Deccan
Some legislations related to lakes and wetlands: forest act, wildlife
protection, water pollution act etc. Signatory to Ramsar
Estuary ecosystem
Mangrove ecosystem

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Coral ecosystem: coral polyps and zooxanthllae , coral bleaching etc. Coral
reef in India: Andaman, gulf of Kutch, gulf of manners, lakswadweep
Epizootics: epidemic in non human animal species

Mountain Ecosystem
 Himalayan: National Mission for sustaining the Himalayan
ecosystem(NMSHE)
 Western : one of the 8 hottest hotspots. Gadgill committee and
Kasturirangan committee reports

BIODIVERSITY
 Genetic
 Species
 Ecosystem
Measurement of Biodiversity
 Alpha biodiversity: by counting number of species in an ecosystem
 Beta diversity: species diversity b/w 2 adjacent ecosystem
 Gamma diversity: total species richness over a large area

Hotspots
Criteria: >1500 endemic species and lost over 70% of the original habitat.
35 hotspots around the world. India: Western Ghats and Eastern Himalayas
Near India: indo-Burma and Sunderland
Hottest Hot Spots: 8, western Ghats among them.
Mega diverse nation’s: 17. Most in tropical/sub-tropical region.
Importance of Biodiversity: water resources, soil protection, nutrient cycle,
pollution reduction, climate stability, ecological process
Endemism

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Extinction: local, ecological and global
Living planet index
Background extinction: gradual disappearance due to changes in local
environment
Mass extinction: 5 major in history
Keystone species: disproportionately large impact on the environment
relative to it’s abundance. Ex: tiger, otter, salmon, phytoplankton, coral and
mangrove tree.
Engineer species
Indicator species: sensitive and can serve as early warning to the ecologists
Flagship species
Priority species
Umbrella species: conservation leads to conservation of many others
Charismatic megafauna:
IUCN Red list
 Species classified into 9 groups.
India's Biodiversity
Inside Indo-malaya ecozone.

BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION
 In-situ: On site
 Ex-situ: outside natural habitat
Insitu methods
 National Parks: declared only by state govt under the WPA. 104 in
India. Prohibited: hunting, deprivation of any wild animal, destruction
of Flora, use of weapons and grazing of live stock.
 Wildlife Sanctuaries: 543. Notified by both state and central govt.

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  Conservation and community reserves.
 Biosphere Reserves: 18 in India. Larger than NP and WS.
Biosphere Reserve
 Core zone
 Buffer zones
 Transition zone
Ecologically sensitive zone
Some programs
 Project tiger
 Project elephant
 Project Hangul
 Crocodile management project
 Vulture conservation
 Indian Rhino Vision
Ex-Situ Methods: botanical gardens, captive breeding, Gene banks, seed
vaults
Conservation by faith: Sacred Groves of India
International effort in Biodiversity conservation
 Rio declaration, 1992. : Key takeaways: Agenda 21, convention on
Biodiversity, Conference of the Parties, Aichi Biodiversity Targets,
Cartegena protocol, Nagoya protocol, nagoya-kuala Lumpur
supplementary protocol, international seed treaty, International Plant
Protection Convection, Bonn convention(bird species), Raptor
Agreement, CITES(endangered species), TRAFFIC( Wildlife trade
monitoring network), Monitoring of Elephants(MIKE),
 Marine and Coastal biodiversity: sustainable ocean initiative, world
summit on sustainable development, Evian agreement, Durban action
plan and convention on Biological diversity. International convention
for control and management of ship ballast water and sediments,
international convention for the regulation of whaling

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  Indian efforts towards biodiversity conservation: Biological diversity
act, national biodiversity authority, national biodiversity fund. Wildlife
Protection Act. Protection of plant variety and farmers right(PPVFR)
Important institutions in India
 National board for wildlife
 Animal welfare board
 Wildlife institute of India
 Wildlife trust of India
 Traditional knowledge digital library
 Bombay natural history society (BHNS)
 National tiger conservation authority

POLLUTION
 Air
 Water
 Noise
 Thermal
 Radiation
Air pollution
 Natural pollutants
 Primary pollutants: due to human action
 Secondary pollutant: due to chemical reaction
Types
 Gaseous
 Suspended particulate matter
Particulate pollutant: dust, fume, mist, smoke and aerosol. In descending
order of size
Aerosol: minute particles suspended of size less than 1 micron
 Natural: gog, pollen etc

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  Artificial: cement powder etc
Fly ash
Carbon black
Trace air pollutants : heavy metals doing in trace amounts
Effect on humans
 Asthma, ozone causes respiratory problems, cancer etc
On plants
 Photochemical smog forms ozone and peroxyacetul nitrate(PAN).
Ozone damages plants.
 PAN is phytotoxic
Control of air pollution
 Filter
 Electrostatic precipitators(ESP)
 Inertial collectors for example cyclone
 Scrubbers: wet collectors
Control of vehicular pollution
 Use of quality fuel
 Alternative fuels
 Zero emission vehicle
 Public transport system: mass transit
 Tree cover
Indoor air pollution
 Volatile organic compounds: perfume etc
 Tobacco smoke
 Pesticide
 Biological: fungi etc
 Formaldehyde: from carpet, insulation foam etc. Cause allergies
 Asbestos: cancer
 Radon: naturally from soil

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 Baval: less smoke tree
Some schemes to reduce indoor pollition
 National biomass cook stoves initiatives (NBCI)
 Lightening a billion lives: replace inefficient lighting, enable
productive use of clean energy and facilitate access and adoption of
demand responsive solutions.
 Pradhan mantri ujjwal yojana: LPG connection to BPL and support
of Rs 1600 per connection. The connection is given in the name of
the woman
National Air Quality Monitoring Program(NAMP)
 Determine status and trend of air quality
 4 pollutants: SO2, nitrogen oxides, SPM, and RSPM are monitored
regularly.
 Monitoring of metrological parameters like wind speed and wind
direction
National Air Quality Index(AQI)
 Under ministry if Environment, forest and climate change and swacch
bharath.
 Color coding from Green to maroon
Central pollution control board: under the water prevention of pollution act
SAFAR(System of air quality forecasting and Research)

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