Chapter VII: Applied Ecology

UTILIZATION and
CONSERVATION of NATURAL
RESOURCES

Presented by:
Autida, Trexia B.
Lacaza, Regine L.
Subtopics:
• Land Use
• Weather Modification
• Mineral Resources and Quarrying
• Agriculture and Forestry
• Aquatic Resources and Aquaculture
• Wildlife Management
What is Applied Ecology?

 Is the study of people’s influence

on ecological systems and
concurrently, the management of
the system’s and resource’s for
society’s benefit.
Land – one of the factors of
production. It is virtually fixed in
quantity, although the supply of
useful land maybe increased by the
use of fertilizers, irrigation and
machinery. It can be contracted
rapidly on a large scale by neglecting
the principles of soil conservation.
Land, in the economic sense, includes
natural resources such as coal, oil and
water; natural resources are neither
inexhaustible nor rigidly limited.
Land use is characterized
by the arrangements,
activities and inputs people
undertake in a certain land
cover type to produce,
change or maintain it.
Classification for use is based
on natural ecological features
such as soil, slope, and natural
biotic communities, and the
eight land types
Types Of Land
- Land types I and II comprise level areas
with good agricultural soils that can be
continuously cultivated with only
simple precautions such as crop
rotations and strip trapping
- Land types III and IV (steeper lopes)
require greater restrictions if cultivated,
for example, periodic fallowing, perennial
crops or rotated pastures.
- Types V through VII are not suitable for
cultivation and should be used for
permanent pasture, tree crops, or
retained in their natural state( for
naturally developed forestry and
wildlife, for example )
- Type VIII (steep slopes, thin soil ) is
productive only on its natural state.
Land Use
For example:
if grasslands in regions of low
rainfall are plowed up and planted
to wheat(poor land use), a “dust
bowl” or temporary dessert will
sooner or later be the result
if the grass cover is maintained
and moderately grazed(good land
use), no “dust bowl” will be likely to
develop
Weather Modification

Weather – the condition of the

atmosphere at a certain time
over a certain short period as
described by various
meteorological phenomena such
as atmospheric pressure,
temperature, humidity, rainfall,
cloudiness and wind speed and
direction.
Weather Modification
• is the act of intentionally manipulating
or altering the weather. The most
common form of weather modification
is cloud seeding to increase rain or
snow, usually for the purpose of
increasing the local water supply.
Weather modification can also have
the goal of preventing damaging
weather, such as hail or hurricanes,
from occurring; or of provoking
damaging weather against the enemy,
as a tactic of military or economic
warfare.
Cloud Seeding
- a common technique to enhance
precipitation. Cloud seeding entails
spraying small particles, such as silver
iodide onto clouds in order to affect
their development, usually with the goal
of increasing precipitation. Cloud
seeding only works to the extent that
there is already water vapor present in
the air.
Storm Prevention
-was an attempt to weaken tropical
cyclones by flying aircraft into storms
and seeding the eyewall with silver
iodide. (Hail cannons)
Hurricane modification
In 2007, "How to stop a hurricane" explored
various ideas such as:

• Using lasers to discharge lightning in

storms which are likely to become hurricanes
• Pouring liquid nitrogen onto the sea to
deprive the hurricane of heat energy.
• Creating soot to absorb sunlight and
change air temperature and hence convection
currents in the outer wall.
Mineral resources
- is a mineral concentration
which is known, estimated and
interpreted from specific geological
evidence and knowledge and with
reasonable prospects for economic
extraction.
Includes:
energy resources
coal
natural gas
uranium etc.
Types of minerals

• Locatable minerals
- include all minerals subject to
exploration, development, and production
Examples:
Gold, Silver, Lead, Zinc, Copper etc.
(metals) and industrial minerals such as
Sulfur, etc.
• Leasable Minerals
- includes fuels, coal, oil, gas, oil
shell, potash, Sodium, native asphalt,
phosphate coal, geothermal energy

• Saleable Minerals
- clay, dimension stone, marble,
volcanic rocks, sand, gravel, petrified
woods
Mineral Resources and
Quarrying
Quarrying- the process of extracting
minerals
A quarry is a place from
which dimension
stone, rock, construction
aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel,
or slate has been excavated from the
ground.
Mineral Resources and
Quarrying
• Types of rock extracted from quarries include:
• Chalk
• China clay
• Cinder
• Clay
• Coal
• Construction aggregate (sand and gravel)
• Coquina
• Diabase
• Gabbro
• Granite
• Gritstone
• Gypsum
• Limestone
• Marble
• Ores
• Phosphate rock
• Sandstone
• Slate
Agriculture
o Farm lands lie toward the highly
manipulated end of the scale.
Crop monoculture require huge
energy inputs in the form of
fertilizers, pesticides and
herbicides.
Furthermore, the systems are
often prone to epidemics of pests
and diseases.
Agriculture

• The science of cultivating the land,

farming.

The two basic agricultural systems are:

* Shifting Agriculture – the total
manipulation of natural systems, but
only for one to five years.
* Sedentary Agriculture –
permanent replacement of natural
systems.
Ecological Consequences of Agriculture

1. Pollution of water bodies

2. Loss of topsoil
3. Continued irrigation can cause
salting of the land
4. Severe grazing by livestock can
induce desertification
5. Severe loss of wildlife
Forestry

• The study of planting and looking

after forests.

Forest – an extensive area of woodland,

either unmanaged or maintained for the
production of timbers.
Forests

 provide the basic habitat for a large

proportion of the world’s wildlife.
Also have stabilizing effects on stream
flow that provides habitat for fish.
 Trees:
* important source of food and
shelter
* young trees serves as food for
deer, elk and moose
 Example: woodpeckers nest in holes of
excavated in trees an their food usually
consist of insects collected on or in trees.
Use of forest by an animal may
be:
 Obligatory
-the animal cannot exist in its
wild form without trees.

Facultative
- the animal may use trees if
they are available, but can survive
without them.
Aquatic Resources and
Aquaculture
Includes:
wetlands
streams
lakes
rivers
spring
seeps
ponds
and ground waters
also known as fish or shellfish farming
-- refers to the breeding, rearing, and
harvesting of plants and animals in all
types of water environments including
ponds, rivers, lakes, and the
ocean. Researchers and aquaculture
producers are "farming" all kinds of
freshwater and marine species of fish,
shellfish, and plants. Aquaculture
produces food fish, sport fish, bait fish,
ornamental fish, crustaceans, mollusks,
algae, sea vegetables, and fish eggs.
Two types of Aquaculture
- Marine Aquaculture
refers to the culturing of species
that live in the ocean.

- Fresh Aquaculture
produces species that are native to
rivers, lakes, and streams
Aquaculture also includes the
production of ornamental fish for
the aquarium trade, and growing
plant species used in a range of
food, pharmaceutical, nutritional,
and biotechnology products.
Wildlife Management

 attempts to balance the needs of

wildlife with the needs of people using
the best available science.
includes:
• game keeping
• wildlife conservation
• pest control
Wildlife management draws on disciplines
such as:
mathematics, chemistry, biology, ecology,
climatology and geography to gain the best
results.
Wildlife conservation aims to halt
the loss in the Earth's biodiversity
by taking into consideration
ecological principles such as carrying
capacity, disturbance and succession
and environmental conditions such as
physical, geography, pedology and
hydrology with the aim of balancing
the needs of wildlife with the needs
of people.
Game keeping is the management or
control of wildlife for the well being of
game and may include killing other
animals which share the same niche or
predators to maintain a high population
of the more profitable species, such as
pheasants introduced into woodland.
Pest control is the control of real or
perceived pests and can be for the benefit of
wildlife, farmers, game keepers or safety
reasons.
Types of wildlife management

1. Manipulative management acts on

a population, either changing its
numbers by direct means or
influencing numbers by the indirect
means of altering food supply, habitat,
density of predators, or prevalence of
disease. This is appropriate when a
population is to be harvested, or when
it slides to an unacceptably low
density or increases to an
unacceptably high level.
2. Custodial management is preventive
or protective. The aim is to minimize
external influences on the population and
its habitat. It is appropriate in a national
park where one of the stated goals is to
protect ecological processes. It is also
appropriate for conservation of a
threatened species where the threat is of
external origin rather than being intrinsic
to the system.
• Wildlife farming refers to the raising of non-
domesticated animals in an agricultural setting
to produce whole living animals (to keep as pets)
and commodities such as food, traditional
medicine and fiber.

* Wildlife farms can protect certain species that

are in danger of extinction due to their demand
(use as food, use in traditional medicines).
Wildlife of the Philippines
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