ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE What keeps us alive?
- Interdisciplinary study in natural science
(Geology, Climatology, Hydrology, Ecology)
and their interaction with social science
(Economics, Political Science, Sociology,
Anthropology, Geography).
Trans-disciplinary- principle/applies to other
sciences.
Interdisciplinary- more than one branch of
knowledge, connection to other sciences.
ENVIRONMENTALISM
- Social movement for protecting the Earth’s
Life that support systems for us and other
species.
Ecology- Study of interaction between living
organisms and their environment.
Ecosystem- Includes all organism living in an
area and the physical environment with which
these organism interact.
Levels:
Atom
Compound
Organelles
Cells
Tissues
Organ
Organ system
Individual - one
Population - group of individuals
Community - group of different groups
Ecosystem - interaction w/ environment
Biome - based on climate and location (ex.
Marine environment)
Biosphere - all of living things on Earth
ENVIRONMENT
- Everything that affects a living organism.
Biotic- living components
Abiotic- non-living components
- Solar Capital (energy from the sun)
- Natural Capital (natural resources)
Ex.
Natural Resource: Trees
Services: Provide shade and oxygen to our
atmosphere
Ecosystem Economics
- Biological income mustn't exceed biological
expenditures.
- Protect your capital and live off the income it
provides.
- With no predators, and unlimited life
requirements, an organism’s population can
grow unchecked.
Sustainable Development
- Meets the needs of the current generation
without compromising the needs of the future
generations.
TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS
- Insufficient common resources.
- an economic problem where the individual
consumes a resource at the expense of
society.
- public resources were over exploited.
- private resources were exploited with
management and control.
- with no predators and ultimate life
requirements, an organism’s population can
grow unchecked.
Population Growth
- 6.4 billion and counting
- exponential growth
Economic Growth
- increase in capacity of a country /economy to
provide people w/ goods and services.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
- annual market value of goods and services
produced by all firms and organization, foreign
and domestic operating within a country.
Gross National Product (GNP)
- The total value of all the goods and services
produced by the residents and businesses of a
country, irrespective of the location of
production.
Per Capita GDP
- GDP derived by its total population.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
- Improvement of living standards by economic
growth.
Developed Countries
- mostly US, EU, Canada, Japan Australia
- high per capita GDP
- 1.2 billion people
Developing Countries
- mostly Africa, Latin America, Asia
- moderate to low per capita GDP
- 5.2 billion people
RESOURCES
Perpetual
- Solar - renewed continuously
Renewable - replenished fairly rapidly through
natural processes.
Non-renewable - minerals
Sustainable Yield
- the highest rate at which a potentially
renewable resource can be used without
reducing its available supply throughout the
area/world.
Environmental Degradation
- it is the depletion or destruction of a
potentially renewable resources that is used
faster than it is replenished.
NOTE:
Tragedy of the commons
 Depletion or degradation of a potentially
renewable resource to which people have
free and unmanaged access.
 Example is the depletion of commercially
desirable fish species in the open ocean
beyond areas controlled by coastal
countries.
 To avoid over-exploitation of natural
resources, we should be able to apply
resource management rather than just
keep on ruling out local/national laws.
ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT
- The amount of land and water needed to
supply each person or population with the
renewable resources they used.
- To absorb or dispose off the wastes from
such resources used.
- It measures the average environmental
impact of individuals or population in different
countries.
NON-RENEWABLE RESOURCES
- resources that exists in a fixed amount
(stock) in various places in the Earth’s crust
and has the potential for renewal by geological
physical and chemical processes taking over
hundreds of millions to billions of years.
- non-renewable resources and natural capital
degradation.
- extracting, processing, and use come at an
environmental expense.
- examples are copper, aluminum, iron, salt,
clay, coal,and oil.
POLLUTION
- undesirable change in the physical, chemical,
or biological characteristics that affects health,
survival, or activities of humans or other living
organism.
SOURCES:
1. Point Source
- single, identifiable source that discharge
pollutant into the environment (industrial).
2. Non-point Source
- large or dispersed areas such as crop fields,
streets, and lawns that discharge pollutant into
the environment or a large area.
Dealing with Pollution
- Prevention (input control)
- Cleanup (output control)
Major Environmental Problems:
 Air Pollution
 Biodiversity Depletion
 Water Pollution
 Food Supply Problems
 Waste Production
Causes of Environmental Problems:
 Rapid population growth
 Unsustainable resource use
 Poverty Solution:
 Not including the environmental costs of  Current Emphasis (Reactive)
economic goods and services in their  Sustainability Emphasis (Proactive)
market prices.
 Trying to manage and simplify nature with
too little knowledge about how it works.

Resource Consumption
 “shop-till-you-drop” symptom
 Between 1998 and 2001, more Americans
declared bankruptcy than graduated from
college.

Environmental Impact (I) = (P)(A)(T)

Environmental Worldviews
 Planetary Management - of human
growth
 Environmental Wisdom - wise use of our
natural resources

What is our Greatest Environmental

Problem?
 Disease
 Overpopulation
 Water Shortages
 Climate Changes
 Biodiversity Loss
 Poverty
 Malnutrition
Phytoplankton  The decomposition of phythoplankton also
- plant-like protists depletes oxygen which decreasing of
- are microscopic, single-celled plants that live oxygen level much more faster.
in the ocean.  Decreasing of oxygen level in water
bodies leads to hypoxic.
Zooplankton  Increasing growth rate of phytoplankton
- animal-like protists can lead to algal bloom resulting in killing
of fishes around the water bodies or so
Run off called “fish kill”.
- occurs when there is more water than land  The only option of fishes to survive is to
can absorb. go and live in an area unaffected by the
-the excess liquid flows across the surface of algal bloom.
the land and into nearby creeks, streams, or
ponds.

Eutrophication
- excessive nutrients in bodies of water.
- the process in which the water body becomes
overly enriched with nutrients, leading to an
increase in the production of algae and
macrophytes.
- Eutrophication occurs when a body of water
receives an excessive nutrient load,
particularly phosphorus and nitrogen. This
often results in an overgrowth of algae. As the
algae die and decompose, oxygen is depleted
from the water, and this lack of oxygen in the
water causes the death of aquatic animals, like
fish.

Algal Bloom
- a rapid increase or accumulation in the
population of algae in freshwater or marine
water systems.

Hypoxic
- decrease in oxygen level.

NOTES:
 Run off flows microorganisms found in
land to its nearest water bodies.
 Could flow through rivers, seeps, and
creeks.
 Oxygen in water bodies (lakes) can be
unlimited during day with sunlight but only
stored oxygen can be use at night until
dawn.
 Phytoplankton growth depends on the
availability of carbon dioxide, sunlight, and
nutrients (photosynthesis) but needed
oxygen during the night (respiration).
 With alarming growth rate of
phythoplankton leads to algal bloom.
 Being with zooplankton that also requires
oxygen makes the oxygen consumption
competitive.
Structure - compositions 2. Landscape Ecology
Dynamics - differences - focuses on the exchanges of energy,
materials, and organisms across multiple
Dynamics of an ecosystem involves 2 ecosystem.
processes: 3. Ecosystem Ecology
- emphasizes energy flow and chemical cycling
 Energy Flow - flowing of energy from the among the various biotic and abiotic
sun. components.
 Chemical Cycling - nitrogen cycle, 4. Community Ecology
phosphorus cycle, etc. - deals with the whole array of interacting
- describes systems of species in a community.
repeated circulation of chemicals between 5. Population Ecology
other compounds, states and materials, and - focuses on factors affecting population size
back to their original state. over time.
6. Organismal Ecology
 We can follow the transformation of - studies how an organism in structure,
energy by grouping the species in a physiology, and (for animals) behavior meet
community into trophic levels of feeding environmental challenges.
relationships.
 Ecosystem ecologists view ecosystems Trophic levels:
as energy machines and matter
processors.

Cellular Respiration - transformation of

glucose to energy and heat.

Photosynthesis - the process of plants in

making their own food.

Ecology- study of interaction of living

organisms to their environment.
- natural resources, climate, etc.

Geographical Distributions - distribution of

certain organism in an area.

ECOSYSTEM RESEARCH

 Observing ecosystem
 Modeling (of ecosystem functions Flow of Relationship
through cycles, etc.)
 Vortex - modeling tool for extinction Transfer of Energy
 Ecosystem experiments

Areas of Ecological Research: ECOSYSTEM DYNAMICS

1. Global Ecology
- examines the influence of energy and
materials on organisms across the biosphere.
- Ecosystem generally contain primary
producers capable of harvesting energy from
the sun by photosynthesis and of using this
energy to convert carbon dioxide and other
inorganic chemicals into the organic building
blocks of life.
Ecosystem Services:
1. Provisioning
- food, lumber, fuel, medicine, etc.
2. Regulating
- protection from disasters (storm surges,
flood, etc.)
3. Cultural
- research, education, spiritual
4. Support
- soil formation, nutrients, biodiversity
Trophic Interactions - interactions among
producers and the organisms that consume
and decompose them.
- composed of trophic
levels in an energy pyramid.
Trophic level - all organisms that are the
same number of food-chain steps from the
primary source of energy.
FUNCTION OF ECOSYSTEM PROCESSES
 Ecosystem use energy and cycle matter
and these processes also define the basic
ecosystem functions.
 Energic processes in ecosystems are
usually described in terms of trophic
levels, which define the role of organisms
based on their level of feeding relative to
the original energy captured by primary
producers.
 All ecosystems are “Open System”
requiring a net flow of energy to persist
over time - without the sun.
 Energy input to ecosystems drives the
flow of matter between organisms and the
environment in a process known as
Biogeochemical Cycling.
ECOSYSTEMS: FUNDAMENTAL
CHARACTERISTICS
 Structure
- Living (biotic)
- Nonliving (abiotic)
 Process
- Energy flow
- Cycling of matter (chemicals)
 Change
- Dynamic (not static)
- Succession, etc.
Abiotic Components:
- Solar energy
- Inorganic substances (e.g. sulfur, boron)
- Organic compounds (proteins,
carbohydrates, lipids, and other complex
molecules)
Biotic Components:
- can be classified according to their mode of
energy acquisition.
- Autotrophs -an organism that can produce
its own food using light, water, carbon dioxide,
or other chemicals.
- Heterotrophs - an organism that consumes
other organisms in a food chain.
SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIPS
Symbiosis - “living together”
- close, long-term interaction
between two different species
(symbiont and host).
Relationships:
1. Parasitism
- a relationship where the symbiont lives in/on
the host.
- the symbiont (or parasites) benefits.
- the host is harmed.
- ex. Tick and dog, lice and humans
2. Mutualism
- relationship between host and symbiont
where both organisms benefit and neither is
harmed.
- relationship could be long or short-termed.
- ex. Flower and bees, clownfish and sea
anemone
3. Commensalism
- a relationship between the host and symbiont
where the symbiont benefit and the host is
neither helped or harmed.
- symbiont benefits by receiving transportation,
filtering, etc.
- ex. Barnacles and whales, bird making a nest
in a tree
 Energy begins with the Sun.
 As the sun is the source of energy.
PHOTOSYNTHESIS
 Chemical reaction where green plants use
water and carbon dioxide to store the
sun’s energy in glucose.
 Energy is stored in glucose.
 Glucose is stored as starch in plants.
 6CO2 + 6H2O + sunlight & chlorophyll →
C6H12O6 + 6O2 (glucose + oxygen)
4 Macromolecules Stored in Animals &
Humans:
1. Carbohydrates
2. Lipids
3. Protein
4. Nucleic Acid
Chloroplast - organelle, site of
photosynthesis.
Chlorophyll - green pigment that absorbs light
energy.
PRODUCERS
 Organisms that can make glucose during
photosynthesis.
 Uses cellular respiration
 Uses the energy they make for
themselves.
 Energy that is not used by the producers
are passed on.
CELLULAR RESPIRATION
 Chemical reaction that releases the
energy in glucose.
 6O2 + C6H12O6 → 6H2O + 6CO2 + energy
 Happens in mitochondria.
CONSUMERS
 Organisms that cannot produce their own
food.
 Relies on the energy released or from
producers.
Primary Consumers
- Herbivores
- First order
- Some of the energy moves into atmosphere
as heat.
- Some energy in the primary consumer is
STORED & not lost to the atmosphere or used
by the consumer itself.
Secondary Consumers
- Can be carnivores or omnivores.
- Either predator or scavengers
- some of energy is lost as heat.
Tertiary Consumers
- consumer that absorbs the least energy.
- can be carnivores or omnivores.
Predator - the one that kills/hunts and eats the
animals.
Prey - the one that is killed/hunted and eaten
by other animals.
Scavenger - organisms that feed on the
remains of other animals.
FOOD CHAIN
 Transfer of energy from the sun to
producer to primary consumer then to
higher order consumers.
 Consuming producers gains only 10% of
its energy.
 Ex. 1000 units (plants) → 100 units
(crickets) → 10 units (frog) → 1 unit
(eagle)
ENERGY PYRAMID
 Amount of available energy decreases for
higher consumers.
 FOOD WEB

 Are interconnected food chains.

 Shows feeding relationships in an
ecosystem.
 EVOLUTION
 Is the process by which one species gives
rise to another and the tree of life grows
 “to understand the present, you must
understand your past first”
 Tree of Life - all living things shares a
common ancestor.
Evolution as Theory and Fact:
 Evolution is a theory or a fact.
 The theory of evolution deals with how
evolution happens.
 Is also a fact as there is a huge amount of
indisputable evidence for its occurrence.
DISCOVERIES
Discovery (1) - Fixed Species
 The Creation of Adam by Michaelangelo
 Species were considered to be special
creations, fixed for all time.
Discovery (2) - Transmutation
 Around 1800, scientists began to wonder
whether species could change or
transmute.
 An animal acquired a characteristics
during its lifetime, it could pass it onto its
offspring.
 Proposed by Jean Baptiste de Lamarck
 Ex. The longevity of Giraffe’s neck due to
the height of their food source, trees.
Discovery (3) - Fossils and Strata
 Fossils showed that different species
existed in the past.
Discovery (4) - Darwin’s Voyage
 From 1831-1836 Charles Darwin toured
the world in HMS Beagle.
 “Origin of the Species”
Discovery (5) - Survival of the Fittest
 “Origin of the Fittest” (1859)
 Darwin proposed how one species might
give rise to another.
 Where food was limited competition
meant that only the fittest would survive.
 That lead to the natural selection
 Natural Selection - Organisms that are
more adapted to their environment are
more likely to survive and pass on the
genes that aided their success.
Discovery (6) - Huxley v.s Wilberforce
 a famous debate in 1860 pitted bishop
Wilberforce against Darwin’s bulldog,
Thomas Henry Huxley
 Evolutionists got the better of the debate,
but few were convinced by Darwin’s idea
of Natural Selection.
Discovery (7) - Genetics
 1856-1863 a monk named Gregor
Mendel.
 “Father of Genetics”
 He investigated how evolution worked.
 Showed that offspring received
characteristics from both parents but only
the dominant characteristic trait was
expressed.
 His work was accepted in 1900 long after
his death.
Discovery (8) - Making Sense
 Early 20th century
 Modern synthesis as Julian Huxley called
it brought Charles Darwin’s Natural
Selection back to the centre of
evolutionary theory.
 Building on Mendel’s genetics, studies
showed how characteristics in a
population could be selected by
environmental pressures.
Discovery (9) - Opposition
 In the 1925, the teaching of evolution is
outlawed in Tennessee, USA. Resulting in
the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial.
MECHANISMS:
Mechanism (1) - All in the Genes
 Genotype - genetic make-up of an
organism.
 Phenotype - its total characteristic traits.
Mechanism (2) - DNA
 Discovered in 1953
 Shows how genetic information is
transferred from one cell to another
almost without error.
Mechanism (3) - Mutation
 A change in DNA sequence of an
organism.
 May be caused by radiation, viruses, or
carcinogens.
 Are rare and often damaging effects.
Mechanism (4) - Variation
 Various traits and characteristics of an
organism.
 Alleles - Variants of a particular gene.
Mechanism (5) - Natural Selection
 Organisms that are more adapted to their
environment are more likely to survive
and pass on the genes that aided their
success.
 Alleles spread through a population by
sexual reproduction.
Mechanism (6) - Peppered Moth
 The Peppered Moth is an example of
Natural Selection in action discovered by
Haldane
 During the Industrial Revolution the trees
on which the moth rested became soot-
covered.
 This selected against the allele for pale
colour in the population (which were
poorly camouflaged from predators) and
selected for the dark colour allele.
  Ex. Coccyx (ancestral tail), appendix.
Mechanism (7) - Microevolution
 Microevolution refers to small changes
over short periods of time within a
population.
 Change of frequency of alleles in a
population.
 Ex. Dog breeds
Mechanism (8) - Macroevolution
 Macroevolution refers to larger changes
over a long time scale.
 If the two populations can no-longer
interbreed, new species are born.
 Ex. Galapagos Finches
Mechanism (9) - Speciation Today
 Development of a new species through a
variety of factors.
 Studies indicate several genetic
differences from its above-ground
ancestors. Interbreeding between
populations is difficult suggesting that
speciation may be occurring.
 Ex. London Underground Mosquito
EVIDENCES:
Evidence (1) - Biochemistry
 The basic similarity of all living things
suggests that they evolved from a single
common ancestor.
 Information are passed through
generation to generation using the DNA
molecule.
 All living things also use a molecule called
ATP to carry energy around the organism.
Evidence (2) - Similar Genes
 If evolution is true then we might also
expect that closely related organisms will
be more similar to one another than more
distantly related organisms.
Evidence (3) - Comparative Anatomy
 Similar comparisons can be made based
on anatomical evidence.
 Bilateral symmetry
Evidence (4) - Homology
 The pentadactyl limb is ancestral to all
vertebrates but modified for different uses.
Evidence (5) - Vestigial Structures
 Some structures get side-lined as they not
longer of use.
Evidence (6) - Fossil Record
 Shows a sequence from a single bacteria
to more complicated organisms through
time and provides the most compelling
evidence for evolution.
Evidence (7) - Transitional Fossils
 Fossils show a clear transition form one
species, or group, to another.
 Archaeopteryx was found in Germany in
1861. It share many characteristics with
both dinosaurs and birds.
Evidence (8) - Geography
 Geographic spread of organisms also tells
of their past evolution.
 Marsupials occur in two populations today
in the Americas and Australia.
Evidence (9) - Antibiotic Resistance
 Certain bacteria can become resistant to
antibiotics.
 The antibiotic acts as an environmental
pressure where it weeds out those
bacteria with low resistance and only
those with high resistance survive to
reproduce.
 \

SUCCESSION

 Gradual changes happen in an ecosystem

that takes up to hundreds of years.
 Ecosystem doesn’t start with soil,
everything comes from rocks.

WEATHERING

 Physical change in rocks due to natural

agents (wind, water, gravity, ice, etc.).

Two Types of Succession:

1. Primary Succession
- new patch of land was created for the first
time.
- always starts with rock.

2. Secondary Succession
- restarts the cycle of succession due to
wipeout.
- starts with a bare soil.

Three Parts in Succession:

1. Pioneer Species
- species that first colonize new habitats
created by disturbance.
- rocks forming lichens, bacteria, mosses,
fungi.

2. Intermediate Species
- next species that colonize and dominate the
area.
- grasses and shrubs, under stories(coffee,
etc.).

3. Climax Community
- endpoint of succession within an area.
- rainforest with species interacting with one
another.
- ecologist debated about the existence of
climax community as it is already stable and
raw.
- after stochastic event/s, wipeout happens
leaving bare soils.
 BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLE  NH3 undergoes nitrification - conversion
of NH3 to NO3 (Nitrate).
 Bio (Life)  Organic matter to NH4 (ammonium)
 Geo (Earth)  NH4 to NO2 (nitrogen dioxide)
 Chemical (Elements)  NO3 detrifies to N2 (nitrogen)
 Significant change in environmental  Then repeat
aspects from biological, geological, and
chemical factors. PHOSPHORUS CYCLE
 The term biogeochemical is a contraction
that refers to the consideration of the  Rock weathers then carried by a run off
biological, geological and chemical carrying amounts of phosphorus.
aspect.  Plants absorbs phosphorus from soil
 Decomposers break down and animal
C - Carbon matter into soil.
H - Hydrogen  Leaching into water bodies from soil
O - Oxygen (source of phosphorus in water bodies).
N - Nitrogen  Human source: Agricultural farms/fields
P - Phosphorus
S - Sulfur ROCK CYCLE

Some of the biogeochemical cycles are the  Magma cools down into igneous rock
following:  Igneous rocks weather into sediments
 Sediments compacts into sedimentary
WATER CYCLE rocks
 Sedimentary rocks forms into
 Evaporation metamorphic rocks through heat and
 Condensation pressure
 Precipitation (repeat)  Metamorphic rocks melts into magma
 Temperature affects evaporation (warm)
and condensation (cold)

CARBON & OXYGEN CYCLE

 A central elements in organic compounds

cycles between living and non-living
systems.
 Carbon sinks
 Carbon sequestration - the process of
capturing and storing atmospheric carbon
dioxide.
 It is one method of reducing the amount of
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere with the
goal of reducing global climate change.

NITROGEN CYCLE

 Diatomic (N2)
 Nitrogen fixation (lightning)
 Nitrogen fixing bacteria produces
NH3(ammonia)
POLLUTION

 is the introduction of harmful materials

into the environment.
 the presence of any substance in air,
water, soil, or food which threatens the
health of human, animal and plant life
 Water, Air, Soil, Light, Noise, and Thermal
pollution.

AIR POLLUTION

 Contamination of the indoor or outdoor

environment by any chemical, physical or
biological agent that modifies the natural
characteristics of the atmosphere.
 is the presence of any substance at high
enough levels in the atmosphere to
threaten the health of human, animal and
plant life.
 Pollutants - harmful materials that
causes pollution.

What Causes Air Pollution:

 Natural (volcanic ash, ozone)
 Human (power plants, cars, aerosols,
etc.)

Some of the pollutants of our atmosphere:

 Carbon Monoxide
 Lead
 Nitrogen Oxide
 Ground-level ozone
 Particle pollution
 Sulfur oxides
 Etc.