Environmental

science
(SCIE-102)

Mr. ARBY S. LAGMAN

Instructor
Natural Sciences and Mathematics
Department, CAS
 The Chemical and
Biological Foundations of
Life
The most fundamental level
of life is made up of matter.
Matter is any substance
that occupies space and has
mass.
are unique forms of matter
with specific chemical and
physical properties that
cannot be broken down into
smaller substances by
ordinary chemical reactions.
• There are 118 elements,
but only 92 occur
naturally.

• in various combinations
comprise all matter on
Earth, including living
things.
• Some of the most abundant
elements in living
organisms include carbon,
hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen
sulfur and phosphorus.
• Are the building blocks
of matter
– the unique structures of
the atoms that make up
molecules, allowing for the
formation of cells, tissues,
organ systems and entire
organisms that made our
biosphere.
ENVIRONMENT

It describes living and nonliving

surroundings relevant to organisms.
FOR FURTHER DETAILS:

ENVIRONMENT
– It incorporates physical, chemical and biological
factors and processes that determine the growth and
survival of organisms, population and communities.
All these components fit within the ecosystem concept
as a way to organize all of the factors and processes
that make up the environment. The ecosystem
includes organisms and their environment within a
specific area.
ECOSYSTEM
It is the aggregate of all organisms living in a
community and all the nonliving with which
they interact.
FOR FURTHER DETAILS:

ECOSYSTEM
qThere must be an equilibrium between biotic and abiotic
factors in the ecosystems.
qIt includes all of the organisms in a natural community or
biome plus all of the associated environmental factors with
which they interact.
qThe term ecosystem could actually be applied to any of the
terrestrial biomes or plant communities and as well-suited
for marine biomes or aquatic communities.
 ECOLOGY
the branch of biology that focuses on how
living organisms interact with the living and
nonliving parts of their environment.
A key component of environmental
science.

qIt is derived from a Greek word,

“oikos” meaning household and
“logos” meaning knowledge.
qIt was coined by a German Biologist
Ernst Haeckel in 1866, defining it
as “the comprehensive science of the
relationship of the organism to the
environment.
§ To appreciate more about our ecology we
must know the connection of organism in
relation to his environment and realize
what’s inside the organism, know how
they live and why and how they are
organized (Oabel, 2012).
The Levels of
Biological
Organization
(hierarchy of life)

LET’S IDENTIFY EACH

COMPONENT
The Levels of
Biological
Organization
(hierarchy of life)
ATOM
q the smallest unit of an
element that has the
chemical properties of the
element.

q All matter is composed of

atoms.
 Molecules and
Macromolecules
q Atoms bond with each other to form
molecules.

q Many smaller molecules bonded

together to form a large polymer is
called a macromolecule.

q Carbohydrates, proteins and nucleic

acids (DNA and RNA) are
important macromolecules found in
living organisms.
 Cells
q Molecules and macromolecules
associate with each other to form
larger structures such as cells.

q A cell is surrounded by a membrane

and contains a variety of molecules
and macromolecules.

q The simplest unit of life.

Tissues
q In the case of
multicellular organisms
such as plants and
animals, many cells of
the same type associate
with each other to form
tissues.
 Organs
q In complex multicellular
organisms, an organ is composed
of two or more types of tissue.

For example, a heart is composed of

several types of tissue, including
muscle, nervous and connective
tissues.
 Organism
q All living things can be called
organisms.

q Biologists classify organisms as

belonging to a particular species,
which is related group of organisms
that share a distinctive form and
set of attributes in nature.
Population

A group of organisms of
the same species that
occupy the same
environment is called
population.
 Community
q A biological community is
composed of populations from
different species that live in the
same environment.

q The types of species found in a

community are determined by
the interaction of species with
each other.
Ecosystem

It is formed by
interactions between a
community of
organisms and its
physical environment.
Biosphere
It includes all of the
places on the Earth
where living organisms
exist.

Life is found in the air,

in bodies of water, on
the land and in the
soil.
Biological Spectrum and
Basic Implications
qLife begins with a mass of protoplasm and
operates within biosphere, it follows a continuous
pattern.

qThere is an increasing complexity as one

proceeds from one level to another.
Biological Spectrum and
Basic Implications
qThe levels of organization are interrelated with
one another.
qOne cannot exist without the other.

qThe interrelationship of these different levels

shows that organisms are dependent on one
another.
qNo organisms lives alone.
Historical
Aspects of
Ecology
q Science, in those days called ‘philosophy’ (‘love
of wisdom’), began with Thales (c. 640-546
BC), who lived in the Greek trading town of
Miletus on the Aegean coast of what is now
Turkey.

q He and his followers became known as the

Ionian or Milesian school and the idea they
introduced was that phenomena could be
discussed rationally.
qHe wrote extensively on natural history
and his studies of more than 500
species of animals included accurate
descriptions, clearly based on personal
observation, that were not confirmed
until many centuries later.
qHe recorded, for example, the
reproduction of dogfish and the mating of
squid and octopus.

qHe also wrote about the weather in a

book Meteorologica (‘discourse on
atmospheric phenomena’), from which we
derived our word ‘meteorology’.
qA student of Aristotle and succeeded him
as a director of the Lyceum in Athens.
q Around 320 BC the Greek philosopher
Theophrastus begins the science of botany with
his books De causis plantarum (The Causes of
plants and De historia plantarum (The History
of Plants). In his works he classifies 500 plants,
develops a scientific terminology for describing
biological structures, distinguishes between the
internal and external tissues of plants and gives
the first clear account of plant sexual
reproduction.
q The best known Roman naturalist. His Natural
History covering what are we recognized as
botany, zoology, agriculture, geography, geology
and a range of other topics, we based as facts,
although he mingled his records of his own
observations with myths and fantastic
travellers’ tales.
q In 1758, he pioneered the field of taxonomy, the
science of naming and classifying organisms.
Linnaeus discovered a vast number of plants
and animals. He recorded them in his book
entitled Systema Naturae.

q He was the Father of Modern Taxonomy

q He reported an impressive number of species,
particularly plants for which he sought to
explain their geographic distribution with
respect to geological data. He published his
work entitled Idea for Plant Geography.

q He was considered as the Father of Ecology by

many scholars.
qIn 1859, he proposed his theory of
evolution and adaptation.
q According to this theory, organisms change over
time because of their inherited traits and
characters in such evolutionary changes are
what then allow them to adapt better to their
environment.

q These changes ensure survival by increasing the

likelihood of producing more offspring. He was
greatly attributed to his idea of natural selection
or more referred to as “survival of the fittest”.
q Along with Alfred Russel Wallace, who defined
the role of natural selection in the formation of
various organisms, Charles Darwin published
all his observations, proposed mechanisms and
discoveries in his book entitled Origin of Species
by Means of Natural Selection.
qIn 1869, he coined the term “ecology”.

qSince then, ecology became the study of

the relationships of organisms with their
environment.
qIn 1875, he was the first to defined the
term biosphere (from Greek word bios
meaning life and sphaira meaning
sphere) as the system composed of living
organisms and their environment.
qIn 1895, he introduced the discipline of
biogeography.

qBiogeography is the study of the

geographic distribution of living things.
qIn 1926, he published in his book entitled
The Biosphere, redefined biosphere as
the global ecological system integrating
all living beings and their relationships
including their interaction with the
elements of the lithosphere, geosphere,
hydrosphere and atmosphere.
qIn 1935, he coined the term ecosystem as
the biological community of interacting
organisms and their physical environment.
Because of this, ecology became the science
of ecosystems.
qIn 1970, he introduced the term Gaia, or
the idea that the whole earth is one living
entity and will ensure its own survival
even if humans destroy themselves.
In 1978, Conservation Biology established as a
discipline focusing on environmental
management.