ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

AND
ENGINEERING

BES 12
 Course Outline
Prelim
1. Overview of Environmental Eng’g.,

Ecosystem and Environmental Problems

2. Application of Chemical Principles in
Expressing Concentration of Pollutants
3. Hydrology ( water quality, overview of waste

water eng’g.)
4. Waste Water Characteristics

(Physical, Chemical and Biological)

 Course Outline
Midterm
1. Classification and Application of Wastewater
Treatment Methods
2. Advance Wastewater Treatment, Effluent

disposal and Reuse

3. Air Quality, major air pollutants and their
sources
4. Adverse effects of air pollution on people,

animal plants and properties major global

impact of air pollution.
 Course Outline
Semi-Final
1. Air Pollution Control

2. Functional Elements of Solid Waste

Management
3. Solid Waste Generation, inside handling,

storage and processing

4. Collection, transport, processing and
recovery, Solid Waste treatment and disposal
 Course Outline
1. Sources of energy and energy conservation
2. Waste Minimization, Environmental Impact
Assessment , Environmental Impact
Statement, Environmental Certificate
Compliance
 ENVIRONMENT

- is commonly perceived as the immediate

sorroundings of an individual.
- is a complex system which deals with a
network of living and non-living entities.
 ECOLOGY
 The study of the relationship of plants and animals
to their physical and biological environment

* Physical environment - includes light and heat

or solar radiation, moisture, wind, oxygen, carbon
dioxide, nutrients in soil, water and atmosphere.

* Biological environment - includes organisms of

the same kind as well as other plants and animals.
 Ecology
 Was introduced by the german biologist Ernst
Heinrich Haeckel in 1866

 Derived from the greek word (oikos) meaning

household
Ecosystem
- the basic functional unit of
ecology in which both the biotic communities
and the abiotic environment are inseparably
connected and interact, maintaining the
equilibrium necessary for life.

ABIOTIC BIOTIC
 To stay alive, living things gets in energy from
the sun
* in the process of photosynthesis green
plants use energy from the sun to
combine CO2 and H20 to form sugar.
* a by-product of photosynthesis is oxygen
gas which animals need for breathing.
 Philippine Ecosystems
A. Forest Ecosystem – forest are defined as
lands with areas not less than one
hectare and 60 meters wide, which
are at least 10 stocked with forest
trees (including seedlings and
saplings)
- like their effects the causes of
deforestation are numerous. Some
of them are: commercial timber
harvesting, agricultural and
human settlement expansion,
kaingin farming
B. Marginal Lands Ecosystem – are areas once covered with
tropical moist forest converted to plantation forest, cogon
grassland, and reproduction brushlands.
1. Open lands – are denude forest lands, cropland and grazing
lands that have been abandoned, including areas of
exposed soil resulting from landslides or erosion.
2. Grasslands – refer to lands with natural grass cover devoid
of trees or with very few isolated trees.
3. Rangelands – refer to large tracts of land naturally
vegetated with native grasses, herbs or shrubs of valuable
forage.
4. Grazing lands – are lands primarily used for the production
of forage plants, naturally or artificially.
5. Pasture lands – are small lands usually fenced mainly for
raising forage plants for domestic livestock.
Open land
Grass Land
Range Land
Grazing Land
Pasture Land
C. Agricultural Ecosystem – refers to the
productivity efforts whereby natural
resources are cut to use without
jeopardizing their capacity for
renewal.
 Primary concern of ecology
 Population – are group of individual of the
same species in a certain area at a given time.
 Primary concern of ecology
 Community – refers to all the population
occupying this given area.
 Primary concern of ecology
 Ecological system / Ecosystem – the
interaction of the community and the non-
living environment
 Units of Ecosystem
 Abiotic
* Organic
* Inorganic
 Producers (autotrophs)
* Plants
 Consumers (heterotrophs)
* Primary Consumers – herbivores
* Secondary Consumers – carnivores
* Tertiary Consumers – predatory animals
 Decomposers
* Saprobic – fungi
* Parasitic – bacteria
 Components of an Ecosystem
 A. Structural components of an ecosystem – is
made up of the living (biotic) and the non-
living(abiotic) parts of the ecosystem.
a.) Inorganic substances – involved in
material cycles like Nitrogen
cycle, carbon cycle, water cycle.
b.) Organic compounds – like protien,
carbohydrates, lipids.
c.) Climate regime – like rainful,
temperature and other physical
factors.
 Inorganic substances
 Nitrogen cycle
 Inorganic substance
 Carbon cycle
 Inorganic substances
 Water Cycle
 CLIMATE REGIME
 RAINFUL
 CLIMATE REGIME
 El nino
 CLIMATE REGIME
 La niña
 B. Living Components

a.) Producers – mostly green plants that

manufacture food from simple inorganic
substances and light energy.
b.) Consumers (macroconsumers) – chiefly
animals w/c ingest other organisms,
particulate organic matter, plants or other
animals.
c.) Decomposers (microconsumers) – mainly
bacteria and fungi w/c breaksdown and complex
cpds. of dead tissues of plants and animals
absorbs some of the decomposition products and
released simple substances or inorganic nutrients
which are used by producers.
 PRODUCERS
 Plant with deep color, other than green are also
producers
 Not all plants are producers
 Fungi such as mushroom, molds do not carry on
photosynthesis
 Nor do some flowering plants such as beech
drop of Indian pipe. The lack of photosynthesis
ability, of these plant is evident from their
whitish color, which indicates lack of
chlorophyll
 Chemosynthesis

- Bacteria are the major players in the cycles of

other elements in the environment

- Chemosynthetic bacteria use chemical energy,

instead of the light energy used by plants, to
change CO2 into something that other
organisms can eat
 CHEMOSYNTHESIS

- the process of using chemical energy

- occurs in vents at the bottom of the ocean,

where light is unavailable for photosynthesis
but hydrogen sulfide gas, H2S, bubbles up
from below Earth’s crust. Life can develop
around these vents because bacteria use the
H2S in changing CO2 into organic nutrients.
 CONSUMER
 Organisms which feed directly and indirectly
on producers

 Are a highly diverse group of organisms with

many complex relationships among them
 Subcategories of consumer

 Primary consumer – an organism which feeds

upon the producer
 Secondary consumer – an organism which
feeds upon the primary
consumer
Ex.
1.) A rabbit that feeds upon a carrot is a primary
consumer. A fox that feed upon the rabbit is a
secondary consumer. There may in turn a 3rd, 4th
or 5th levels of consumer.
2.) Human are primary consumers when they eat
vegetables. Secondary consumers when they
eat beef. Third level consumer when they eat
fish that fed on the other organism that fed on
algae .
 HERBIVORES
- Primary consumers those animals that eat plant
material

botta’s pocket gopher cabbage

 CARNIVORE
 Secondary and higher orders of consumers that
feed on other animals
 OMNIVORES
 Animals that feed on both plants and animals
 PREDATOR - PREY
 An animal that feeds upon another animal
 An animal that is fed upon, whether itself a
herbivore or carnivore
 The 2 animals are said to have a predator – prey
relationship
 PARASITES
- form another important category of consumers.
- devouring their prey as other consumers
 HOST
 The plant or animals that is fed upon
 ENDOPARASITES – parasites live inside their
host

tapeworm Helminth worm

 ECTOPARASITES – parasites that attack
themselves to the outside of their host

Ticks Lice Lamprey

 DECOMPOSERS
 Are microscopic detritus feeders, they derived
energy and nutrients from the organic matters
on which they feed.

2 classes of organism
1.) FUNGI
 2.) BACTERIA streptococcus

Cyanobacteria / salmonella

anthrax
 Functional Components of an
Ecosystem
1.) Food chain

 Plant/producer deer/herbivore human/carnivore

 An example of a longer food chain.
FOOD WEB
2.) ENERGY FLOW
 The sun is the ultimate source of all
 All energy entering the earth’s biosphere
eventually leaves the earth’s surface after
sometime in the form of heat.
 Some sunshine flows through our planet very
rapidly, and some remain on earth for longer
period of time.
 The solar energy absorbed by a tree for its
growth stays longer in the earth’s ecosystem
before it is lost in space.
 Solar Energy Utilization
 For every 1,000 units of solar energy that
reaches the biosphere, only half (500 units)
reaches the earth’s surface.
 400 units are used immediately as heat.
 Of the remaining 100 units 95 are used for
plant respiration, leaving only 5 units to be
incorporated into food
 3. Diversity
 The number of species (variety of kinds) of
plants and animals in a given community.
 Higher diversity means longer food chains and
greater community stability.
 When an ecosystem attains stability, it has a
greater capacity to withstand stresses by man
or nature than an unstable ecosystem.
 4. Evolution
 Is a natural process of change in response to
the physical changes of an aging planet.
 The long term evolution of ecosystem (more
than 3 billion years ago) was shaped by
external forces such as geological and climatic
changes.
 Through the process of evolution, the
organisms are able to survive and reproduced
offspring adopted to the environment and are
capable of survival.
5. Ecological Succession
 Is an orderly process of community
development that involves changes in species
structure and community processes with time.
 Results from the modification of the physical
environment by the community.
 The last stage of the succession process is
called mature stage
Example:
6. Control or Cybernetics
 The science of controls, has important
applications in ecology since man increasingly
tends to disrupt natural controls or attempts to
substitute artificial mechanisms for natural
ones.
 EARTH’S BIOMES
 Biome – is a kind of ecosystem
- different biomes are characterized by
different average rates of vegetation
production.
- are usually named for the dominant
vegetation. For the dominant shaped and
form called the physiognomy. For the
dominant organisms, forest versus shrub
land. For the dominant climatic
conditions, cold desert versus warm
desert.
 TUNDRA – are treeless plains that occur under
the harsh climates of average
temperature.
- the dominant vegetation includes
grasses, mosses, lichens, flowering
dwarfts shrubs
 Types of Rainforests

1. Equatorial Rainforests
Equatorial rainforest is the term given to the closed, permanently
green, broadleaved forest, typical of lowland areas. This is the
most luxuriant type of tropical forest because it occurs where
there are no clear seasons and optimum conditions for plant
growth persist throughout the year.
2. Montane Forest Tropical Montane Forests
The Rio Grande rises in the mountains
west of Rio de Janeiro in south-
eastern Brazil and flows west for
about 1,090 km (almost 680 mi)
before joining the Parnaíba to form
the Alto nParaá. It pours over many
waterfalls on its journey through
uncommonly rugged terrain. These
mountain ranges are not high, usually
less than 3,048 m (10,000 ft), but
their elevation is sufficient to produce
montane forests of low-growing
evergreen trees and dense
undergrowth.
3. Monsoon Rainforest  Monsoon rainforests occur in
areas that experience a monsoon
climate, such as South East Asia
and northern Australia. In these
places there is a marked seasonal
pattern of rainfall, with a distinct
dry season, during which many
tree species lose their leaves.
When the rains return, intense
periods of growth occur so overall
productivity is high. However,
monsoon forests tend to be less
diverse than their equatorial
counterparts, and have a lower
canopy and denser ground flora.
 4. Peat and Swamp Forest
 Peat and swamp forests occur
primarily in South East Asia. They
are found in lowland areas where
decomposition is limited by
waterlogging, which can cause a
considerable thickness of peat to
build up. This peat is an important
global carbon store (see Carbon
Cycle). These forests are
vulnerable to disturbance because,
with clearance and drainage, the
peat is easily destroyed by fire.

Bohemian Forest
The Bohemian Forest extends along the border between the Czech
Republic and Germany. The highest point is Grosser Arber, in Bavaria,
which rises to an altitude of 1,457 m (4,780 ft). Part of the forest was
designated as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1990. The landscape is
varied, with marshes, swamps, and peat bogs, as well as dense pine and
spruce forests. Wildlife found in the region includes stags, roe deer, and
wild boars.
 5. Mangrove Forest
 In tropical coastal zones
rainforests often grade into
mangrove. These are not regarded
as rainforests, but are swamp
forests dominated by species
adapted to live in brackish,
waterlogged conditions. The plant
species diversity is usually lower
than the rainforests, but they
provide breeding grounds for the
marine life upon which coastal
fisheries depend

Niger River Delta, Nigeria

The Niger River enters Nigeria from the northwest, crossing the western part of the
country to join the Atlantic Ocean in the south. Near the coast, the river forms a delta
with mangrove forests, lagoons, and swamps stretching about 100 km (60 mi) inland.
The Niger delta is the largest in Africa, covering an area of about 36,300 sq km (14,000
sq mi).
Photo Researchers, Inc./M. Bertinetti
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 Taiga
 Taiga or Boreal Forest (also Northern Coniferous Forest), forest biome
covering about 11 per cent of the Earth's land surface, or one third of its
total forested area (about 1.5 billion hectares/3.7 billion acres).

 It occurs in the Northern hemisphere, in a circumpolar band, running

though Canada, Scandinavia, Russia, China, Mongolia, the Korea
Peninsula, and northern Japan.

 Although taiga is the Russian name, it can be used interchangeably with

“boreal forest” for the biome as a whole.

 In addition to these forests in high latitudes, pockets of the biome can also
be found at high altitude in more southerly mountainous regions. These are
known as oroboreal forests, from the Greek word oro meaning “mountain
 The forests are dominated by
gymnosperms. These are cone-
bearing tree species, and those
found in the taiga have needle-
shaped leaves.
 The coniferous forest is the
climatic climax vegetation.
Species from the birch (Betula),
aspen (Populus), and alder
(Alnus) families are common.
 Where drainage is poor and the
terrain low-lying, extensive bog
areas with lakes and swamps are
found with associated peat soils.
Forests dominated by larch cover
large tracts in Eurasia where they
are underlain by permafrost
 Grasslands
 Grassland, is an ecosystem in which grasses and other forage plants form
the dominant type of vegetation.

 Grasslands form the ecological zone lying between the deserts and
temperate woodlands and include a wide variety of plant communities.
Generally occurring in the interior of continents, grasslands are composed of
sod-forming grasses and perennial grasses and herbs. Grasslands have been
cultivated and used for pasture.

 The North American prairie, South American pampas, Eurasian steppe, and
South African veld constitute the world’s major natural temperate
grasslands.

 Semi-natural grasslands exist in temperate regions where climatic

conditions are suitable for the establishment of forests but where
management by burning, mowing, cultivation, or grazing keeps the land free
of trees (for example, most of agricultural Europe).

 Tropical grasslands, or savannahs, develop in regions with marked wet and

dry seasons.
 Pampas

 Pampas, also Pampa, vast treeless plains of central Argentina, which rise almost
imperceptibly from the Atlantic coast to the Andes.
 The eastern portion, known as the humid Pampa, is one of the most fertile regions in the
country. From the humid Pampa to the Andes is the dry Pampa, a less populated region
supporting cattle, horses, and sheep.
 The name pampas is sometimes given to level districts of Peru. The term is derived from a
Quechua Native American phrase meaning “flat surface or plain”.
 Steppe
 Steppe (Russian word step', “lowland”), an ecosystem in
temperate regions in w/c grasses & herbaceous plants are the
dominant vegetation.

 Some scientists use the term “steppe” for dry grasslands

covered by short grasses less than 30 cm (12 in) high, and the
term “prairie” for humid temperate grasslands with tall
grasses.

 Steppe is sometimes commonly used to describe the treeless,

undulating plains that extend from Hungary and the lower
regions of the Danube basin, through Ukraine & southern
Russia, into northern Kazakhstan and Siberia as far as the
foothills of the Altai Mountains.
 Other steppe regions lie farther east in Mongolia & north-eastern China. The width
of the Eurasian steppe belt varies between about 300 and 1,000 km (186 and 621
mi), although its boundaries are imprecise. Prior to the region's economic
development, which began in the 16th century, the Eurasian steppe included both
short and tall grass ecosystems depending on the climate and soil conditions.
Today, little of the original Eurasian steppe survives, and most of the land is now
devoted to crop-farming and animal husbandry.
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 Environmental Variables Affecting
the Biomes
SUNLIGHT – powers the photosynthesis that supplies
energy to nearly all life on earth. Also essential for
vision, which many animals rely on for catching
food, spotting predators.
TEMPERATURE – Organisms can survive within a
specific, limited range of temperature. If the body
temperature either rises above or falls below that
range, the critical chemical reactions in the tissues
get “out of sync” with one another, resulting in
metabolic chaos.
WATER AND DISSOLVED SALTS
- precise balance of water;
dissolved salts and organic molecules in the
body fluids
- many plants and animals
cannot survive in dry conditions, such as
deserts because they cannot acquire and store
water that are needed by their body cells.
- but some organisms cannot
equally live in swamps or marshes because of
too much water in the soil.
OXYGEN – the concentration of available
oxygen can be an important limiting factor in a
variety of environments.
- bacteria can either be aerobic or
anaerobic
- too much oxygen for anaerobic
organisms can be fatal as lack of oxygen is for
aerobic.
- air-breathing animals need more
oxygen to sustain life.
 METABOLIC WASTE
- all organisms produced
metabolic waste products. Plants release O2 by
day, gives off CO2 , and discard leaves and
stems on a seasonal basis.
- waste products have to enter
the biogeochemical cycle in which they are
broken down and carried away
 NUTRIENTS – important in determining
where organisms can grow and where they
cannot.
- the more nutrients available in
a given area, the more living things can
successfully survive.
Causes of Destruction of Rainforest
♦ Poverty drives people into the woods for
fuel, food and work.
♦ World’s growing demand for wood
products (timber) encourages the
continued rape of rainforest.
♦ Poor government policies.
♦ Ever-increasing and growing number of
people who live and continue to establish
residence in the rainforest.
 Effects of Rainforest Destruction
 The practice of slash and burn affects the uncut
area, and the remaining trees suffer.
 In steep areas, logging does not only destroy
the forest, but also erodes bare grounds.
 Many valuable chemical compounds are
sourced from the jungles. Unfurtunately, as the
forest are cut, many of these potentially life –
saving tropical plants disappear forever.
 Causes of Deforestation
 Slash-and-Burn Agriculture
- this is done by farmers cutting
the trees, tilling the land for few years then
abandoning or leaving it fallow – for up to 7
years.
- devastating effects are high
into too large clearcut areas. The fallow period
is often too short for soil fertility to be
restored.
 Fire – is used as a tool in slash-and-burn
farming (kaingin system) to dispose of fallen
leaves and prevent the invasion of weeks and
shrubs in the crop area.
 Cattle Ranching – large area of tropical
forests are being cleared away for cattle
ranching. Hamburger, hotdog, and luncheon
meat productions demand the conversion of
forest to ranches and grazing lands at the rate
of 21,500 square kilometers per year.
□Gathering Fuel Wood
- more than 1 million cubic meters of
wood are harvested for fuel in the tropics. The wood
is either used as firewood or is converted to charcoal.
□Industrial Logging
- commercial logging in tropical
regions is frequently wasteful and inefficient
- most clearcut areas do not become
reforested by natural means.
 Population and Human Ecology
 All the forms of life depend for their existence
on the materials that comprises :
1. Solid lithosphere, consisting of the upper
surface of the earth’s crust, containing soil
and deposits of matter, energy resources,
and the earth’s upper mantle.
2. Hydrosphere, the collective mass of water
(in liquid , solid and gaseous form ) found
on under or over the earth’s surface.
3.Gaseous atmosphere extending above the
earth’s surface as liquid water, ice and water
vapor; and
4.Biosphere containing all the water, minerals,
oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorous and other
nutrients that living things need. Everything in
the biosphere is interdependent: air helps
purify water that keeps animals and plants
alive; plants are food of some animals, and
renew soil and air.