Environment management- ECOSYSTEMS

1. The self-sustaining structural and functional interaction between living and non-living
components
2. Living things need a place to live and grow. Fish live in water. Birds live in trees and fly in
the air. Plants grow where there is soil, water and sun.
3.  An ecosystem is made up of all the living and nonliving things in an environment.
4. A group of organisms of the same kind living in the same place is a population.
5. All members of a community live in the same ecosystem but they do not all live in the same
part of the ecosystem.
6. Habitat is a place where plants and animals lives.
7. Some organisms can survive only in certain habitats.  For example, a polar could not find
the water it needs in a desert.
8. Natural : Eco system likes ponds ,lakes ocean ,forest ,grass land , desert ,etc are self
regulating without much direct human interference or manipulations are called Natural
ecosystem .
9. The Natural ecosystem is of two type 1.Terrestrial ecosystems (grasslands, forests, desert
ecosystems) 2.Aquatic ecosystem a. Lentic (Stagnant water) like lake, ponds etc. b. Lotic
(Flowing water) like river, ocean, sea, etc.
10. Deserts are very dry ecosystems.  Desert plants and animals can survive with very little
water.
11. Desert plants, such as cactus, have thick stems that store water.  The roots of a cactus lie
just below the soil and spread far from the plant.
12. Grasslands are dry, often flat areas of land that are hot in the summer and cold in the winter.
 They get more rain and snow than deserts but less that most other ecosystems.
13. The main plant in a grassland ecosystem is grass.  There are not many bushes in the
grassland.  Trees are found only by rivers and streams.
14. Forest are ecosystems in which many trees grow.
15. What's A Temperate Deciduous Forest Like?  One of the most interesting features of the
temperate deciduous forest is its changing seasons.  The word "deciduous" means exactly
what the leaves on these trees do: change color in autumn, fall off in the winter, and grow
back again in the spring. This adaptation helps trees in the forest survive winter.
16. A tropical rain forest grows where it is hot and wet all year long.  Animals such as jaguars
and monkeys live there.
17. Saltwater ecosystems are oceans.  Oceans cover about three –fourths of Earth’s surface,
so there are more saltwater ecosystems than any other.
18.  Sharks, sea turtles, corals and octopus are all ocean animals. So are whales and seals.
19. Rivers, ponds, lakes and streams have fresh water.  Lakes and rivers are closely tied.
Some lakes are the source for some rivers. Important rivers, most often, originate from lakes.
Some rivers end in lakes.  Since both rivers and lakes are freshwater and flow in and out of
each other, they share similar characteristics and many species reside in both habitats.
20. ABIOTIC COMPONENTS BIOTIC COMPONENTS Sunlight Primary producers Temperature
Herbivores Precipitation Carnivores Water or moisture Omnivores Soil or water chemistry
(e.g., P, NH4+) Detritivores etc. etc. All of these vary over space/time Components of
Ecosystem
21. The Producers, the green plants, fix radiant energy(solar energy) and with the help of
minerals take from their edaphic(soil where they grow) or aerial environment and build up
complex organic matter. These are their food. So, with the help of solar energy they convert
the chemical energy of the food to kinetic energy and finally heat energy. 2. The animals eat
up plants and other animals as food. So, the energy is transferred through food to animals.
3. When plants and animals die, then decomposers(like certain bacteria and fungi) act on
their dead bodies and decompose them into simple materials like carbon dioxide, water and
minerals which go back to air, water bodies and soil from where they were taken.
22. Energy enters the system in the form of sunlight or photons, which is transformed into
chemical energy in organic molecules by cellular processes including photosynthesis and
respiration and ultimately is converted into heat energy.  This energy is dissipated, meaning
it is lost to the system as heat; once it is lost, it cannot be recycled.  These ecosystems
depend upon sunlight, as a source of energy, for their survival. Without this energy,
everything would collapse and quickly shut down.
23. Producer (Autotrophes) Dead Organism Decomposer Tertiary consumers Secondary
Consumer Primary Consumer SUN
24. Every organism needs to obtain energy in order to live. For example, plants get energy from
the sun, some animals eat plants, and some animals eat other animals.  A food chain is the
sequence of who eats whom in a biological community (an ecosystem) to obtain nutrition. A
food chain starts with the primary energy source, usually the sun or boiling-hot deep sea
vents.  The next link in the chain is an organism that make its own food from the primary
energy source -- an example is photosynthetic plants that make their own food from sunlight
(using a process called photosynthesis) and chemosynthetic bacteria that make their food
energy from chemicals in hydrothermal vents. These are called autotrophs or primary
producers.
25. Next come organisms that eat the autotrophs; these organisms are called herbivores or
primary consumers -- an example is a rabbit that eats grass.  The next link in the chain is
animals that eat herbivores - these are called secondary consumers -- an example is a
snake that eat rabbits.  In turn, these animals are eaten by larger predators -- an example is
an owl that eats snakes.  The tertiary consumers are eaten by quaternary consumers -- an
example is a hawk that eats owls. Each food chain end with a top predator, and animal with
no natural enemies (like an alligator, hawk, or polar bear).  The arrows in a food chain show
the flow of energy, from the sun or hydrothermal vent to a top predator. As the energy flows
from organism to organism, energy is lost at each step. A network of many food chains is
called a food web
26.  Plant Herbivore carnivore Top carnivore Grass Land ecosystem Grass Grasshopper Bird
Man Tiger Grass Goat Man Tiger Forest ecosystem Plant Deer Lion Plant Goat Tiger Pond
Ecosystem Phytoplankton zooplankton Small Fish Big Fish Crocodile
27. Predator Food Chain (Grass Grasshopper Toad Snake ) (Grass Grasshopper Small Fish Big
Fish Crocodile) Parasitic Food chain (Cow Worm Protozoa ) Saprophytic Food chain (Dead
organism Fungi Bacterial) (Plant and Animal)
28. Numbers of Organisms: In any food web, energy is lost each time one organism eats
another. Because of this, there have to be many more plants than there are plant-eaters.
There are more autotrophs than heterotrophy, and more plant-eaters than meat-eaters.
Although there is intense competition between animals, there is also an interdependence.
When one species goes extinct, it can affect an entire chain of other species and have
unpredictable consequences.
29. Equilibrium As the number of carnivores in a community increases, they eat more and more
of the herbivores, decreasing the herbivore population. It then becomes harder and harder
for the carnivores to find herbivores to eat, and the population of carnivores decreases. In
this way, the carnivores and herbivores stay in a relatively stable equilibrium, each limiting
the other's population. A similar equilibrium exists between plants and plant- eaters.
30. Ecological pyramid are the diagrammatic representation of data of each tropic level in
ecosystem . In pyramids ,the producer level forms the base and successive levels form the
tires ,which make up the apex. The higher the steps in the ecological pyramid the lower the
number of individual and larger their size.
PYRAMID OF NUMBERS.  PYRAMID OF BIOMASS.  PYRAMID OF ENERGY.
31. Pyramid of Numbers It depicts the relationship between the producers and different orders of
consumer at successive trophic level in terms of their number, the shape of the pyramid
varies from one ecosystem to another. There are two types of Pyramid of Numbers  Upright
 Pyramid (In aquatic and grassland ecosystem , the pyramid is always upright)  Inverted
Pyramid (In parasitic food chain the pyramid is always inverted.)
32. tertiary consumers secondary consumers primary consumers producers 5 5000 500,000
5,000,000
33.  Biomass is the total living material of an organism. The pyramid of biomass describes the
qualitative relationship between the producer and consumer .There is gradual decrease of
biomass from one tropic level to the next. The total biomass of the producer is more than that
of the primary consumer which in turn , is more which in than that of the secondary
consumer
34. Pyramid of energy describes the energy utilization by successive trophic level .since the
energy passes from lower trophic level(producer) to higher trophic level (consumer)
35.  Energy Pyramid Indicates the total amount of energy present in each trophic level .It Shows
the loss of energy from one trophic level to the next It also shows that the energy transfer
from one trophic level to the next is accompanied by a decrease due to the conversion of
potential energy into kinetic energy and heat energy Only 10% of the overall movement of
potential energy is transferred to the next tropic level
36. Energy transfer and more importantly energy loss in an ecosystem. Why there are more
herbivores than carnivores in an ecosystem. Why there are more plants than everything
else combined (they support all other populations).
37. Industrial Ecology (IE) has been defined as a "systems-based, multidisciplinary discourse
that seeks to understand emergent behavior of complex integrated human/natural systems".
 This field approaches issues of sustainability by examining problems from multiple
perspectives, usually involving aspects of sociology.
38. The environment, economy and technology. The name germinates from the idea that we
should use the analogy of natural systems as an aid in understanding how to design
sustainable industrial systems.  Industrial ecology is the shifting of the industrial process
from linear (open loop) systems, in which resource and capital investments move through the
system to become waste, to a closed loop system where wastes become inputs for new
processes.  The main criterion here is to manage wastes and improve efficiency.
39. Recycling involves processing used and unwanted materials (waste) into new products in
order to prevent wastage of potentially useful materials. It intends to reduce the consumption
of fresh raw materials; reduce energy usage, air pollution (from incineration) and water
pollution (from land filling) by reducing the need for 'conventional' waste disposal and
lowering greenhouse gas emissions as compared to fresh production.  Recycling is a key
component of modern waste reduction and is the third component of the 'Reduce, Reuse,
Recycle' waste hierarchy.
40. Recyclable materials include many kinds of glass, paper, metal, plastic, textiles and
electronics.  These materials have to be managed differently. Although similar in effect, the
composting or other reuse of biodegradable waste– such as food or garden waste – is not
typically considered recycling.  Materials to be recycled are brought to a collection centre or
picked up from the curbside, then sorted, cleaned and reprocessed into new materials bound
for manufacturing.
41. Environmental management system (EMS) refers to the management of an organisation's
environmental programmes in a comprehensive, systematic, planned and documented
manner. It includes the organizational structure, planning and resources for developing,
implementing and maintaining policy for environmental protection. An environmental
management system (EMS):  Serves as a tool to improve environmental performance
provides a systematic way of managing an organisation’s environmental affairs  EMS is the
aspect of the organisation’s overall management structure that addresses immediate and
long-term impacts of its products, services and processes on the environment  Gives order
and consistency for organizations to address environmental concerns through the allocation
 of resources, assignment of responsibility and ongoing evaluation of practices, procedures
and processes  Focuses on continual improvement of the system
42. An EMS follows a plan-do-check-act cycle or PDCA.  It shows the process of first
developing an environmental policy, planning the EMS and then implementing it.  Process
incorporates checking the system and acting on it the model is continuous because an EMS
is a process of continual improvement in which an organization is constantly reviewing and
revising the system.  EMS is an important tool for managing the environment effectively
and efficiently.
43. The ISO 14000 is a standard for environmental management systems that is applicable to
any business, regardless of size, location or income.  The aim of the standard is to reduce
the environmental footprint of a business and to decrease pollution and waste that ensues
business processes.  The most recent version of ISO 14001 was released in 2004 by the
International Organization for Standardization (ISO), which has a representation from
committees all over the world
44. The major objective of the ISO 14000 series of norms is "to promote more effective and
efficient environmental management in organizations and to provide useful and usable tools-
ones that are cost effective, system- based, flexible and reflect the best organizations The
best organizational practices available for gathering, interpreting and communicating
environmentally relevant information". The intended result is the enhancement of
environmental performance
45. All ISO standards are generated through a voluntary, consensus-based approach.  ISO has
many member countries across the globe. Each member country develops its position on the
standards and these positions are then negotiated with other member countries. Draft
versions of the standards are sent out for formal written comment and each country casts an
official vote on the drafts at the appropriate stage of the process. Within each country, myriad
organizations can participate in the process. Industries, government (federal and state) and
interested parties, like various non-government organizations, become a part of the system.
 For example, EPA and some states participated in the development of the ISO 14001
standard and are now evaluating its usefulness through a variety of pilot projects
46. Environmental policy: Develop a statement of the organization's commitment to the
environment 2. Environmental aspects and impacts: Identify environmental attributes of
products, activities and services and their effects on the environment 3. Legal and other
requirements: Identify and ensure access to relevant laws and regulations 4. Objectives and
targets and environmental management programme : Set environmental goals for the
organization and plan actions to achieve objectives and targets 5. Structure and
responsibility: Establish roles and responsibilities within the organization 6. Training,
awareness and competence: Ensure that employees are aware and capable of their
environmental responsibilities 7. Communication: Develop processes for internal and
external communication on environmental management issues