Environmental Science

(Unit-1 Classes for BA/BCom/BSc)

BY
Dr ADNAN ASAD KARIM
M S c , M P h i l , P h D ( C S I R - I M M T, M I N I S T RY O F S C I . & T E C H . , G O V T. O F I N D I A )
G U E S T FA C U LT Y, R A J D H A N I C O L L E G E , B H U B A N E S WA R , O D I S H A
Unit-1 Syllabus
❑The Environment (Definition, Interdisciplinary, Importance, Protection)
❑Components of Environment (Atmosphere, Hydrosphere, Lithosphere, Biosphere)
❑Ecology (Definition, Ecological Succession, Ecological Pyramid)
❑Ecosystem (Definition, levels, Types)
❑Environmental Pollution (Air, Water, Soil, Radiation)

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The Environment
Air Environner = Surrounding
The environment is everything
Living around us. It includes the living and
Water
Organisms the non-living things (air, water, soil
and energy) with which we interact
in a complex web of relationships
Non-living
Land/Soil Materials
that connect us to one another and
to the world we live in.

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 Interdisciplinary Aspects
Environmental science—an interdisciplinary study of environment that integrates information and
ideas from the natural sciences such as biology, chemistry, and geology; the social sciences such as
geography, economics, and political science; and the humanities such as ethics.
✓Biologists – living organisms in the environment
✓Physicist – Physical materials, laws of nature
✓Chemist - Chemistry of environment
✓Mathematician – modelling of energy flow and environmental systems
✓Policy Makers – environmental protection
✓Industrialists/Managers – adapting environmental friendly processes
✓Bankers/Economists – Environmental accounting
✓Writers/Authors - Environmental Awareness
✓Academician – Environmental Education
✓Sociologist – Environmental and Public health awareness
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Protection Of Environment for Survival/Co-existence
➢Natural Resources Conservation and Management
➢Ecology and Biodiversity Protection
➢Environmental Pollution Control and Protection
➢Social Impact of Development Activities
➢Human Population and Environment
➢Global Issues Examples: Climate Change, Natural Disasters, River Water
Pollution; Deforestation,
➢Local Issues Examples: Mining Impact, Hydroelectric Projects Impact, Industry
development Impact, Solid Waste Management

Environment belongs to All: Think Globally, Act Locally

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Environment Protection Measures
1992 Earth Summit: United Nations Conferences on Environment
and Development, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg,
South Africa
2015 UN Sustainable Development Summit, New York, USA
International/National Level: Environmental laws, Environmental Engineers
and Scientists, Business Administrators; Pollution Control Boards
Grassroot Level: Public Awareness, Strategic Plantation, Scientific Waste
disposal Practices, Low carbon foot print, regular maintenance and less use of
personal vehicles, Scientific Farming/Cultivation methods, Proper resource uses
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Components of Environment
✓Atmosphere (Air)
✓Hydrosphere (Water)
✓Lithosphere (Soil)
✓Biosphere (Living System)

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 Atmospheric Primary Layers

Hottest (1000°C)
Atmosphere
➢ Gaseous mass surrounding the
planet
➢ Composition: Nitrogen (78.084 %),
Oxygen (20.9 %), Argon (0.9 Coldest (-90°C)
%),Carbon dioxide (0.035 %), Others
like methane, hydrogen, helium etc
(0.065 %)
➢ Exobase: thermosphere ends and
Exosphere (700 to 10000 Km) starts.

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 Hydrosphere
Water reservoirs: Ocean (cover 71% of Earth’s
surface, 96% of total Earth’s water) and fresh
water (4% of total Earth’s water, ).

4% freshwater = 3% as glaciers, 1.05%

groundwater, 0.01% surface water of lakes and
rivers, 0.001% as water vapor in atmosphere, and
0.0006 % water in plants and animals.

Human consumption easily accessible water –

0.01 % of Earth’s total water.

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 Crust
Lithosphere Mohorovicic
Discontinuity

Crust Continental: Granitic rocks (Silicon-

Upto 40 Km Aluminium), Igneous rocks, Sedimentary Mantle
rocks, Metamorphic rocks
Oceanic: Basaltic rock (Volcanic, FeO, MgO)
Mantle Upper: Rocks, Fe and Mg Silicates (700 Km
depth), Asthenosphere (partly molten Gutenburg
rocks, tectonic plates) Discontinuity
Lower: Dense oxides, MgO2, SiO2 (2900 Km Core
depth)
Core Outer: Liquid Fe + Ni + Si (5150 Km depth)
Inner: Solid Metal (6371 Km depth)

Earth: Average density 5.5 g/cc

Soil: Fine porous layer formed by weathering of crust rocks
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 Biosphere
Biotic: Living Organisms + Abiotic: Non-living materials, Air, Water, Soil

Atmosphere Biosphere
Biomes
Ecosystem
Biosphere Population
Individual
Hydrosphere Lithosphere

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Ecology and Ecosystem
Ecology (Oikos-home + Logos-study): Term coined by Earnst
Haeckel (1869)
Definition: Study of living organisms interaction with environment in
its natural habitat
Ecosystem: Basic unit of Ecology (Tansley, 1935)
Definition: Group of a specific living organism interacting among
themselves and with other living organisms and non-living things,
through exchange of energy and matter.

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Structural Characteristics of Ecosystem
Ecosystem structure depends on the composition and organisation of
ecosystem
Biotic Structure:
Producers: Photo-autotrophs; Chemo-autotrophs (Chemosynthetic
Sulphur bacteria converting H2S and CO2 to organic compounds;
Consumers: Herbivores, Carnivores, Omnivores,
Detritivores/Saprotrophs
Decomposers: Complex organic compounds to simpler ones, Bacteria,
Fungi

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Structural Characteristics of Ecosystem
Abiotic Structure:
Physical Components/Factors- Climatic (Sunlight, Solar Flux intensity,
Temperature variations, Rainfall, Wind), Geographical (Latitude and
Altitude), Edaphic (Soil) type, Water availability, Water Currents etc
Chemical Components/Factors- Nutrients (Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen,
Oxygen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Sulphur; Toxic substances
concentrations, Salts/Salinity, Organic substances
Biotic components influenced by abiotic components; Linked together
through energy flow and matter cycling

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Functional Characteristics of Ecosystem
➢Food Chain and Food Web, Trophic Structure
➢Energy Flow
➢Nutrients Cycling (Biogeochemical Cycles)
➢Primary and Secondary Production
➢Ecosystem development and Regulation

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Food Chain
❑Food chain: Transfer of mass and
energy from one trophic level to
another in form of eating or being
eaten away.
❑Flow of energy in ecosystem:
Unidirectional as it flows from
producers to consumers at higher
trophic levels.

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Types of Food Chain
❑Grazing food chain - Directly dependent on solar energy. Producers
(green plants) eaten by grazing herbivores which eaten up by carnivores at
higher trophic levels.
❑Detritus food chain - Not directly dependent upon solar energy. This
food chain begins with decomposition of dead organic matter ,followed by
microbes like bacteria and fungi as primary consumers and further more.
❑ Besides these, some other known food chain are :
❑Parasitic food chain
❑Granivores food chain

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Energy Flow in Ecosystem
❑Definition: Energy flow is the transfer of energy from the sun to
subsequent higher level of the food chain in an environment
❑Energy enters the ecosystem via photosynthesis and is converted into
biomass by producers
❑Energy flows through the food chain when organisms eat other
organisms.
❑First law of thermodynamics, that states that energy can neither be
created nor destroyed, it can only change from one form to another.
❑Second law of thermodynamics, states that as energy is transferred
more and more, it is decreased.

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10 percent law – R. Linderman (1942)
❖Energy flow is not 100 percent efficient in an ecosystem.
❖According to 10 percent law, 90% of the captured energy is lost as
heat in the previous level and only 10% is available for the next level.
❖Possible Reasons:
✓Organisms consumed energy for metabolic processes (cellular
respiration), and thus not available for transfer to next higher trophic
level.
✓Energy is also lost during transfer and due to incomplete digestion
of biomass by higher trophic level.

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Energy Flow Models
❑Single Channel Energy Flow Model (H. T. Odum in 1956)
❑Y-Shaped (Double Channel) Energy Flow Model (E.P
Odum, 1983)
❑Universal Model (E.P. Odum, 1983)

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Single Channel Energy Flow Model
➢Energy flow is unidirectional from
producers to consumers.
➢Energy passed to higher trophic
level never reverted back
➢Organisms at higher trophic level
depends on lower trophic level
organisms
➢Due to unidirectional linear energy
flow, in absence of sun ecosystem
Ingestion of energy (I), assimilated energy (A), Biomass
will collapse.
(stored Biomass), Produced biomass transferred (P), and
respiration (R), Not used (NU)

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Y-Shaped Energy Flow Model
Explained Linkage Between Grazing And Detrital Food Chain, and
their interdependence.
This model represents stratified structure of ecosystems.

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 Universal Energy Flow Model
➢ Generalized model combining
both single channel model
and Y-shaped models.
➢ Applicable to both terrestrial
and aquatic ecosystem.
➢ The biomass and energy
channels represent many
populations supported by the
same energy source

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Primary Productivity (Producers)
❑Gross primary productivity (GPP): rate at which the energy from the sun
is captured in glucose molecules. It essentially measures how much total
chemical energy is generated by primary producers in an ecosystem.
❑Net primary productivity (NPP): measures how much chemical energy is
generated by primary producers, but it also takes into account the energy
lost due to metabolic needs by the producers themselves.
NPP = GPP - Respiration
NPP is always a lower amount than GPP. It depends on available sunlight,
nutrients in the ecosystem, Soil quality, Temperature, Moisture,CO2 levels.

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Secondary Productivity (Consumers)
❑Gross secondary productivity (GSP): the total energy/biomass
assimilated by consumers and is calculated by subtracting the mass
of fecal loss from the mass of food eaten.
GSP = food eaten – fecal loss
❑Net secondary productivity (NSP): calculated by subtracting the
respiratory losses (R) from GSP.
NSP = GSP - R

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Regulation Of Energy Flow In Food Chain
Food chain regulating mechanism: Energy flow in a food chain influenced by
organisms at different trophic levels.
❑BOTTOM-UP REGULATION
Productivity is regulated by upstream factors like nutrient availability. It
emphasizes the limitations imposed by availability of resources at next level and
role of competition among species for that resources.
❑TOP-DOWN REGULATION
This hypothesis holds that predator or grazers regulate productivity. It conveys
abundance at each level is controlled by consumers, specially predators at higher
trophic level.

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Food Web Advantages Over Food Chain
❖In an ecosystem many food chain are linked together at different trophic level
to form a food web. Here transfer of energy is unidirectional but it has alternate
pathways .
❖Complexity of food web is directly proportional to stability and preservation of
that ecosystem.
❖Food Web Advantages:
▪Organism at a particular trophic levels obtain food according to their choices but
it is not as such in case of food chain.
▪In food web, the equilibrium of ecosystem is not severely affected by loss of any
organism at a particular trophic level.

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Significance of food chain/web
❑Food chain and food web are quite useful in understanding the feeding
relationships between and the interaction between organism in an ecosystem.
❑It depicts the functional role of an organism in an ecosystem i.e. ecological
niche
❑It comprehends the energy flow mechanism and matter circulation in
ecosystem.
❑It helps in analyzing the biological diversity in an ecosystem.
❑It helps to understand the movement of toxic substance and problem of
biomagnifications in ecosystem.
❑Food chain and food web play a pivotal role in nourishment and stability of an
ecosystem.

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Zones In Fresh Water Ecosystem
On basis of water depth, sunlight and types of organism, there may
be three zones in a lake or pond.
littoral zone: shallow water zone, usually occupied by rooted plants.
limnetic-zone: effective light penetration zone, organisms are small crustaceans,
insects, and their larvae and algae.
Pro-fundal zone: deep water zone having no effective light penetration. Organisms are
snails, mussels, crabs and worms
Benthic zone: Sediment layers, low temperature high pressure, benthos (detritivores)
On basis of Productivity:
Euphotic Zone: High productivity
Aphotic Zone: Low productivity
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 Lake/Pond Ecosystem
Bottom - very little oxygen/light, Decomposers and
scavengers feed on dead material

Mid water - fish are the main predators, e.g. stickleback

fish, water fleas and dragonfly nymphs.

Pond surface - Plenty of oxygen and light. ducks, and

tadpoles.

Pond margin - plants provide sheltered habitat for insects

and smalls animals such as frogs. Lots of light and oxygen,
marsh marigold plant.

Above the pond surface - birds such as kingfishers and

insects like dragonflies are present.
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Ecosystem Homeostasis
Homeostasis is a self regulating mechanism that maintains a stable internal
environment despite the changes present in the external environment.

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Biogeochemical cycle
Definition: Nutrient and elements cycling/movement between biotic and
abiotic (geological) components in an environment
❖Carbon Cycle
❖Nitrogen Cycle

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Ecological Pyramids
Definition: Graphical representation of structure and function in an
ecosystem at various trophic levels with producers at the basic or
lowest level. Introduced by Charles Elton (1927), also called as
Eltonian pyramids.
Three types:
❑Pyramid of Number
❑Pyramid of Biomass
❑Pyramid of Energy

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Pyramid of Number
A graphical depiction of the number of organisms at each succeeding trophic
level in an ecosystem

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Pyramid of Biomass
A graphical depiction of the amount of organic material (biomass) at each
succeeding trophic level in an ecosystem.

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Pyramid of Energy
A graphical depiction of energy flow at each succeeding trophic level in an
ecosystem. Always upright form.

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Ecological (Plant) Succession
Successive replacement of one type of plant community by the other
of the same area/ place is known as plant succession.
Causes: Autogenic Succession-Biotic (Animal wastes, Overgrazing);
Allogenic Succession- Abiotic (disasters like forest fires, flood, climate
change)
Pioneers: the first occupied plants in a barren area.
Seral communities: series of transitional developments of plant
communities one after another in a given area.
Climax community: a final plant community gets established
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Types of Succession

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 Process of succession
Nudation - development of a barren area due to topographic (soil erosion, wind action), climatic (hails, storm,
fire), and biotic (human activities, epidemics, etc.,) factors.
Invasion - If species reach a barren area from any other area it is called invasion. The seeds, spores of plant
species reach the barren area, by air, water and various other agent
Ecesis (Establishment)- successful establishment of the species, as a result of adjustment with the conditions
prevailing in the area, is known as ecesis.
Aggregation - successful establishment of species, as a result of reproduction and increase in population of the
species than the earlier stage is called aggregation.
Competition - aggregation of a particular species in an area which leads to inter specific and intraspecific
competition among the individuals for water, nutrient, radiant energy, CO2, O2 and space, etc.
Reaction - Species gradually modify the environmental condition, the existing species community is replaced by
another.
Stabilization (Climax stage) - final establishment of plant community is called stabilization. Plant community
which maintains itself in equilibrium and not replaced by others is known as climax community and the stage is
climax stage.

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Different Stages of Hydrosere

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Different Stages of Lithosere

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Environmental Pollution
Definition: Any unwanted change in the environment, which can cause harm to living
organisms is called as environmental pollution. The substances/agents causing pollution
is called pollutants.
Major Types of Environmental Pollution:
Air Pollution
Water Pollution
Soil/Land Pollution
Radiation Pollution

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Air Pollution
Undesirable
change in the
ambient gaseous
composition and
quality of air
causing harm to
living organisms is
called as air
pollution.

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 Carboxyhemoglobinemia

Carbon monoxide (CO) binds to hemoglobin with 200-250

times greater affinity than oxygen
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Sulphur Oxide

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OZONE LAYER DEPLETION

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 1987

1985 Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer

2016 (Kigali, Rwanda) Amendment of Montreal Protocol

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Indoor air pollution

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Air Pollution Prevention
 Water Pollution
Undesirable change in water quality,
causing harm to living organisms

Wular Lake Located in Bandipora district in Jammu and

Kashmir, India.
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Water Pollution by Pathogens

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Ground water Pollution

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Arsenic Groundwater Pollution (Mostly occur - Bengal, Bangladesh)

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Control of Water Pollution

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Water treatment methods

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Soil/Land Pollution
Unwanted change in
the soil quality due to
pollutants, causing
harm to humans and
other living organisms
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Bioremediation

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Radiation Pollution

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Control of Radiation Pollution
Radiation pollution can be controlled in the major following ways:

❑ Care should be taken to check manmade radiation pollution at source. For

example, scientific biomedical equipment's and waste handling

❑ Nuclear reactor should be perfectly maintained to avoid accidental leakage.

❑ Nuclear tests should be controlled.

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