MODULE-1

Introduction to Ecology and Environment

1. EARTH AS A LIVING SYSTEM:
 Everything in nature, including human beings, belongs to, contributes to, and derives its
existence from a network of interrelated systems. There is no such thing as a separate
thing.
 Everything within Nature is interconnected and interdependent. Everything that happens
is connected to something else that happens.
 Interdependence is an important word that refers to the tendency of all creatures in
Nature to be linked and mutually dependent upon each other.
 If we were to draw a diagram of this interdependence, we would see a massive network
of living creatures, including ourselves, either directly or indirectly connected. This
network of life is commonly called a “living system”.
 Interdependence is a defining feature of all of Nature because Interdependence is
necessary for the transportation and the transformation of life’s vital flow of energy.
Earth’s connectedness with the sun’s energy is of primary importance because that
energy drives all life. Throughout our Earth’s living systems, this energy from the sun is
transported and then transformed into forms of energy that are useful to plants and
animals.
 While we may not realize it, we humans encounter and connect with living systems every
moment of our lives. Our bodies are interconnected, self-maintaining systems. Every
person we meet, every organization we work with, every animal, every tree, and every
ecosystem is a living system that transports and transforms energy.
 A thorough understanding of Nature’s living systems, as well as energy flow within these
systems, is key to the development of conservation programs by human beings. When a
conservation program developed by humans proves ineffective, it is usually because there
was insufficient comprehension of living systems and Nature’s energy flow within these
systems.
 Nature is composed of hierarchal, interconnecting living systems. The terms
“ecosystems”, “complex systems”, and “living systems” have the same meaning. Living
systems are the vehicles by which Nature’s energy, the operating currency of Nature, is
transported and transformed.
 Ecosystems cycle energy and nutrients obtained from external sources. By understanding
where and how energy flows within an ecosystem, we can understand how an
environment operates. We can build this understanding by first studying what modern
science has to say about systems.
 Simply stated, a system is a collection of objects that somehow interrelate with each other
to function as a whole and produce some effect that no single object within the system
could do on its own.

2. GAIA THEORY:
 The Gaia Theory offers insights into climate change, energy, health, agriculture, and other
issues of great, if not urgent, importance.
 Overall, the Gaia Theory is a compelling new way of understanding life on our planet.
 It argues that we are far more than just the “Third Rock from the Sun,” situated
precariously between freezing and burning up.
 The theory asserts that living organisms and their inorganic surroundings have evolved
together as a single living system that greatly affects the chemistry and conditions of
Earth’s surface.
 Some scientists believe that this “Gaian system” self-regulates global temperature,
atmospheric content, ocean salinity, and other factors in an “automatic” manner.
 Earth’s living system appears to keep conditions on our planet just right for life to persist!
The Gaia Theory has already inspired ideas and practical applications for economic
systems, policy, scientific inquiry, and other valuable work. The future holds more of the
same.
 The Gaia Theory posits that the organic and inorganic components of Planet Earth have
evolved together as a single living, self-regulating system.
 It suggests that this living system has automatically controlled global temperature,
atmospheric content, ocean salinity, and other factors, that maintains its own habitability.
In a phrase, “life maintains conditions suitable for its own survival.”
 In this respect, the living system of Earth can be thought of analogous to the workings of
any individual organism that regulates body temperature, blood salinity, etc.
 So, for instance, even though the luminosity of the sun – the Earth’s heat source – has
increased by about 30 percent since life began almost four billion years ago, the living
system has reacted as a whole to maintain temperatures at levels suitable for life.
 The Gaia theory was developed in the late 1960’s by Dr. James Lovelock, a British Scientist
and inventor, shortly after his work with NASA in determining that there was probably no
life on Mars.
 The Gaia hypothesis also known as the Gaia theory or the Gaia principle, proposes
that organisms interact with their inorganic surroundings on Earth to form
a synergistic self-regulating, complex system that helps to maintain and perpetuate the
conditions for life on the planet.
 Topics of interest include how the biosphere and the evolution of life forms affect the
stability of global temperature, ocean salinity, oxygen in the atmosphere, the
maintenance of a hydrosphere of liquid water and other environmental variables that
affect the habitability of Earth.

3. DEEP ECOLOGY:
 Deep ecology is an ecological and environmental philosophy promoting the inherent
worth of non-human living beings regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs,
plus a radical restructuring of modern human societies in accordance with such ideas.
 Deep ecology supports the views that the natural world is a harmony of homeostasis due
to the complex inter-relationships in which the life of organisms is actively regulated,
partially by the existence of other organisms within the biosphere, in order to constantly
be conducive to life.
 These views are scientifically encouraged by living systems theory and the Gaia
hypothesis.
 Human interference with or destruction of the natural world poses a threat therefore not
only to humans but to all organisms of our biosphere.
 Deep ecology's core principle is the belief that the living environment as a whole should
be respected and regarded as having certain inalienable legal rights to live and flourish,
independent of its utilitarian instrumental benefits for human use.
 Deep ecology is often framed in terms of the idea of a much broader sociality; it
recognizes diverse communities of life on Earth that are composed not only through biotic
factors but also, where applicable, through ethical relations, that is, the valuing of other
beings as more than just resources.
 It describes itself as "deep" because it regards itself as looking more deeply into the actual
reality of humanity's relationship with the natural world arriving at philosophically more
profound conclusions than that of the prevailing view of ecology as a branch of biology.
 The movement does not subscribe to anthropocentric environmentalism (which is
concerned with conservation of the environment only for exploitation by and for human
purposes) since deep ecology is grounded in a quite different set of philosophical
assumptions.
  Deep ecology takes a more holistic view of the world human beings live in and seeks to
apply to life the understanding that the separate parts of the ecosystem (including
humans) function as a whole.
 This philosophy provides a foundation for the environmental, ecology, and green
movements and has fostered a new system of environmental
ethics advocating wilderness preservation, human population control, and simple living.
 Principles:

 Wilderness and biodiversity preservation

 Human population control
 Simple living (or treading lightly on the planet).
Proponents of deep ecology offer an eight-tier platform to elucidate their claims:

 The well-being and flourishing of human and nonhuman life on Earth have value in
themselves. These values are independent of the usefulness of the nonhuman world for
human purposes.
 Richness and diversity of life forms contribute to the realization of these values and are also
values in themselves
 Humans have no right to reduce this richness and diversity except to satisfy vital human
needs
 The flourishing of human life and cultures is compatible with a substantial decrease of
the human population. The flourishing of nonhuman life requires such a decrease.
 Present human interference with the nonhuman world is excessive, and the situation is
rapidly worsening
 Policies must therefore be changed. These policies affect basic economic, technological, and
ideological structures. The resulting state of affairs will be deeply different from the present.
 The ideological change is mainly that of appreciating life quality (dwelling in situations of
inherent value) rather than adhering to an increasingly higher standard of living. There will
be a profound awareness of the difference between big and great.
 Those who subscribe to the foregoing points have an obligation directly or indirectly to try to
implement the necessary changes.

4. Environment & Ecosystem Living& Non-Living

Environment

 Environment is the natural component in which biotic (living) and abiotic (nonliving)
factors interact with each other. These interactions shape the habitat and ecosystem of an
organism.
 In biological sense, environment constitute the physical (nutrients, water, air etc.) and
biological factors (biomolecules, organisms) along with their chemical interactions
 (chemical cycles – carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle etc.) that affect an organism or a group of
organisms.
 All organisms are dependent on the environment to carry out their natural life processes
(birth to death) and to meet their physical requirements (food, energy, water, oxygen,
shelter etc.).
 The environment is not static. Both biotic and abiotic factors are in a constant flux and
keep changing continuously.

Ecosystem

 An ecosystem is a group of organisms living together in a specific environment.

Ecosystems are usually seen to be definite, discrete systems but they may be permeable
to outside influences.
 An ecosystem can be visualized as a functional unit of nature, where living organisms
[producers, consumers, and decomposers] interact among themselves and also with the
surrounding physical environment.
 Ecosystem varies greatly in size from a small pond to a large forest or a sea.
 Forest, grassland and desert are some examples of terrestrial ecosystems; pond, lake,
wetland, river and estuary are some examples of aquatic ecosystems. Crop fields and an
aquarium may also be considered as man-made ecosystems.
 In the ecosystem, biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient
cycles and energy flows.
 An ecosystem can be of any size but usually encompasses specific and limited species.
Eg: Aquatic Ecosystem. [This is how ecosystem is different from Environment]
 Everything that lives in an ecosystem is dependent on the other species and elements that
are also part of that ecological community. If one part of an ecosystem is damaged or
disappears, it has an impact on everything else.
 5. Trophic Levels Food Chain

A food chain is a sequence of organisms that feed on each other. Although the design of a food
chain can vary by ecosystem, all food chains are made up of the same basic trophic levels.
Trophic levels are the levels within the food chain where an organism obtains its energy.

In most food chains, there are five main trophic levels, but the number can vary depending on the
composition of the ecosystem.

The three basic ways in which organisms get food are as producers, consumers and decomposers.

 Producers (autotrophs) are typically plants or algae. Plants and algae do not usually eat
other organisms, but pull nutrients from the soil or the ocean and manufacture their own
food using photosynthesis. For this reason, they are called primary producers.

[ In this way, it is energy from the sun that usually powers the base of the food chain. An
exception occurs in deep-sea hydrothermal ecosystems, where there is no sunlight. Here
primary producers manufacture food through a process called chemosynthesis. ]
  Consumers (heterotrophs) are species that cannot manufacture their own food and need to
consume other organisms. Animals that eat primary producers (like plants) are
called herbivores.

Animals that eat other animals are called carnivores, and animals that eat both plant and
other animals are called omnivores.

 Decomposers (detritivores) break down dead plant and animal material and wastes and
release it again as energy and nutrients into the ecosystem for recycling.

Decomposers, such as bacteria and fungi (mushrooms), feed on waste and dead matter,
converting it into inorganic chemicals that can be recycled as mineral nutrients for plants
to use again.

Trophic levels :

 Level 1: Plants and algae make their own food and are called producers.
 Level 2: Herbivores eat plants and are called primary consumers.
 Level 3: Carnivores that eat herbivores are called secondary consumers.
 Level 4: Carnivores that eat other carnivores are called tertiary consumers.
 Level 5: Apex predators that have no predators are at the top of the food chain.

Trophic Levels of Food Chain

 6. Web of Life

Web of Life portrays nature resilience as an interdependent collection of systems that, starting
with the sun’s energy transports and transforms the energy that drives nature. One small part of
this complex web includes us humans but, Nature’s systems can easily survive without humans.
The notion of an interconnected web of life does not facilitate the human dominance that the
Earth is now experiencing.

7. Ecosystem services

Ecosystem. An ecosystem is a dynamic complex of plant, animal, and microorganism

communities and the non-living environment interacting as a functional unit. Humans are an
integral part of ecosystems. Ecosystems vary enormously in size; a temporary pond in a tree
hollow and an ocean basin can both be ecosystems.
Ecosystem services are the benefits people obtain from ecosystems. These include provisioning
services such as food and water; regulating services such as regulation of floods, drought, land
degradation, and disease; supporting services such as soil formation and nutrient cycling; and
cultural services such as recreational, spiritual, religious and other nonmaterial benefits.
The demand for ecosystem services is now so great that trade-offs among services have become
the rule. A country can increase food supply by converting a forest to agriculture, for example,
but in so doing it decreases the supply of services that may be of equal or greater importance,
such as clean water, timber, ecotourism destinations, or flood regulation and drought control.
There are many indications that human demands on ecosystems will grow still greater in the
coming decades. Current estimates of 3 billion more people and a quadrupling of the world
economy by 2050 imply a formidable increase in demand for and consumption of biological and
physical resources, as well as escalating impacts on ecosystems and the services they provide.

 Provisioning services are the products people obtain from ecosystems, such as food,
fuel, fibre, fresh water, and genetic resources.
 Regulating services are the benefits people obtain from the regulation of ecosystem
processes, including air quality maintenance, climate regulation, erosion control,
regulation of human diseases, and water purification.
 Cultural services are the nonmaterial benefits people obtain from ecosystems through
spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation, and aesthetic
experiences.
 Supporting services are those that are necessary for the production of all other
ecosystem services, such as primary production, production of oxygen, and soil
formation.
8. NATURAL CAPITAL
Natural capital refers to the planet's stocks of water, land, air, and renewable and non-renewable
resources (such as plant and animal species, forests, and minerals). The term natural capital
implies an extension of the economic notion of capital. Just as all forms of capital are capable of
providing a flow of goods and services, components of natural capital interact to provide humans
and other species with goods and services that are wide-ranging and diverse. The collective
benefits provided by the resources and processes supplied by natural capital are known as
ecosystem goods and services, or simply ecosystem services. These services are imperative for
survival and well-being. They are also the basis for all economic activity.
The services that nature provides for free are often not accounted for and, therefore, not properly
valued by decision-makers. We evaluate the benefits that nature provides and calculate the
economic cost of these services if we had to provide them ourselves.

Why natural capital is important?

Natural capital is the most fundamental of the forms of capital since it provides the basic
conditions for human existence, delivering food, clean water and air, and essential
resources. Many aspects of natural capital such as biodiversity, clean air, land, and water are
both limited and vulnerable. The complexity of natural systems and irreversibility of much
environmental change mean that replacing natural capital with other forms of capital is often
impossible or carries significant risks.

9. Biosphere 2 Project
Constructed of steel-framed glass, this 1.28-hectare structure near Oracle, Arizona, is intended to
replicate ecological environments on earth (that is, Biosphere 1) under closed conditions. In
addition to agricultural and living areas for its human occupants, Bio-sphere 2 houses tropical
rain forest, desert, savannah, and cloud forest ecosystems as well as a coral reef within a
miniature ocean. The original purpose of Biosphere 2 was to provide baseline data for
designing structures for long-term habitation by humans in space.
The Biosphere 2 serves as a laboratory for controlled scientific studies, an arena for scientific
discovery and discussion, and a far-reaching provider of public education.

Researchers at the Biosphere 2 are expanding knowledge about Earth, its living systems, its
future, and its place in the universe by employing interdisciplinary thinking and collaborative
efforts The Biosphere 2 is a useful tool for Earth education and outreach to industry,
government, and the public. It is also used to educate on Earth systems planning and
management for policymakers, students, and the public.

10. Water Cycle

 The water cycle, also known as the hydrological cycle or the hydrologic cycle, describes the
continuous movement of water on, above and below the surface of the Earth.
 The mass of water on Earth remains fairly constant over time but the partitioning of the water
into the major reservoirs of ice, fresh water, saline water and atmospheric water is variable
depending on a wide range of climatic variables.
 The water moves from one reservoir to another, such as from river to ocean, or from the ocean
to the atmosphere, by the physical processes of evaporation, condensation, precipitation,
infiltration, surface runoff, and subsurface flow. In doing so, the water goes through different
forms: liquid, solid (ice) and vapor.
 Processes
Many different processes lead to movements and phase changes in water
i. Precipitation
Condensed water vapor that falls to the Earth's surface. Most precipitation occurs as
rain, but also includes snow, hail, fog drip, graupel, and sleet.Approximately 505,000
km3 (121,000 cu mi) of water falls as precipitation each year, 398,000 km3 (95,000 cu
mi) of it over the oceans. The rain on land contains 107,000 km3 (26,000 cu mi) of water
per year and a snowing only 1,000 km3 (240 cu mi). 78% of global precipitation occurs
over the ocean.
ii. Canopy interception
The precipitation that is intercepted by plant foliage eventually evaporates back to the
atmosphere rather than falling to the ground.
iii. Snowmelt
The runoff produced by melting snow.
iv. Runoff
The variety of ways by which water moves across the land. This includes both surface
runoff and channel runoff. As it flows, the water may seep into the ground, evaporate
into the air, become stored in lakes or reservoirs, or be extracted for agricultural or
other human uses.
v. Infiltration
The flow of water from the ground surface into the ground. Once infiltrated, the water
becomes soil moisture or groundwater. A recent global study using water stable
isotopes, however, shows that not all soil moisture is equally available for groundwater
recharge or for plant transpiration.
vi. Subsurface flow
The flow of water underground, in the vadose zone and aquifers. Subsurface water may
return to the surface (e.g. as a spring or by being pumped) or eventually seep into the
oceans. Water returns to the land surface at lower elevation than where it infiltrated,
under the force of gravity or gravity induced pressures. Groundwater tends to move
slowly and is replenished slowly, so it can remain in aquifers for thousands of years.
vii. Evaporation
The transformation of water from liquid to gas phases as it moves from the ground or
bodies of water into the overlying atmosphere.[7] The source of energy for evaporation
is primarily solar radiation. Evaporation often implicitly includes transpiration from
plants, though together they are specifically referred to as evapotranspiration. Total
annual evapotranspiration amounts to approximately 505,000 km3 (121,000 cu mi) of
water, 434,000 km3 (104,000 cu mi) of which evaporates from the oceans.[2] 86% of
global evaporation occurs over the ocean.
viii. Sublimation
The state change directly from solid water (snow or ice) to water vapor.
 ix. Deposition
This refers to changing of water vapor directly to ice.
x. Advection
The movement of water — in solid, liquid, or vapor states — through the atmosphere.
Without advection, water that evaporated over the oceans could not precipitate over
land.
xi. Condensation
The transformation of water vapor to liquid water droplets in the air, creating clouds
and fog.
xii. Transpiration
The release of water vapor from plants and soil into the air. Water vapor is a gas that
cannot be seen.
xiii. Percolation
Water flows vertically through the soil and rocks under the influence of gravity
xiv. Plate tectonics
Water enters the mantle via subduction of oceanic crust. Water returns to the surface
via volcanism.
Water cycle thus involves many of the intermediate processes.

11. CARBON CYCLE

 The carbon cycle is the biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged among the
biosphere, pedosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere of the Earth.
 Carbon is the main component of biological compounds as well as a major component of
many minerals such as limestone.
  Along with the nitrogen cycle and the water cycle, the carbon cycle comprises a sequence
of events that are key to make Earth capable of sustaining life.
 It describes the movement of carbon as it is recycled and reused throughout the
biosphere, as well as long-term processes of carbon sequestration to and release from
carbon sinks.
 The global carbon cycle is now usually divided into the following major reservoirs of
carbon interconnected by pathways of exchange:
 The atmosphere
 The terrestrial biosphere
 The oceans, including dissolved inorganic carbon and living and non-living marine
biota
 The sediments, including fossil fuels, fresh water systems and non-living organic
material.
 The Earth's interior, carbon from the Earth's mantle and crust. These carbon stores
interact with the other components through geological processes
 The carbon exchanges between reservoirs occur as the result of various chemical, physical,
geological, and biological processes.
 The ocean contains the largest active pool of carbon near the surface of the Earth.
 The natural flows of carbon between the atmosphere, ocean, terrestrial ecosystems, and
sediments is fairly balanced, so that carbon levels would be roughly stable without human
influence.

12. NITROGEN CYCLE

 The nitrogen cycle is the biogeochemical cycle by which nitrogen is converted into various
chemical forms as it circulates among the atmosphere, terrestrial, and marine ecosystems.
 The conversion of nitrogen can be carried out through both biological and physical processes.
Important processes in the nitrogen cycle include fixation, ammonification, nitrification, and
denitrification.
 The majority of Earth's atmosphere (78%) is nitrogen,making it the largest source of nitrogen.
However, atmospheric nitrogen has limited availability for biological use, leading to a scarcity of
usable nitrogen in many types of ecosystems.
 The nitrogen cycle is of particular interest to ecologists because nitrogen availability can affect
the rate of key ecosystem processes, including primary production and decomposition.
 Human activities such as fossil fuel combustion, use of artificial nitrogen fertilizers, and release
of nitrogen in wastewater have dramatically altered the global nitrogen cycle.
 How does the nitrogen cycle work?
Step 1- Nitrogen Fixation- Special bacteria convert the nitrogen gas (N2 ) to ammonia (NH3)
which the plants can use.
Step 2- Nitrification- Nitrification is the process which converts the ammonia into nitrite ions
which the plants can take in as nutrients.
Step 3- Ammonification- After all of the living organisms have used the nitrogen, decomposer
bacteria convert the nitrogen-rich waste compounds into simpler ones.
Step 4- Denitrification- Denitrification is the final step in which other bacteria convert the simple
nitrogen compounds back into nitrogen gas (N2 ), which is then released back into the
atmosphere to begin the cycle again.

13. INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY

 Industrial ecology (IE) is the study of material and energy flows through industrial systems.
 The global industrial economy can be modelled as a network of industrial processes that extract
resources from the Earth and transform those resources into commodities which can be bought
and sold to meet the needs of humanity.
 Industrial ecology seeks to quantify the material flows and document the industrial processes
that make modern society function.
 Industrial ecologists are often concerned with the impacts that industrial activities have on the
environment, with use of the planet's supply of natural resources, and with problems of waste
disposal.
 Industrial ecology is a young but growing multidisciplinary field of research which combines
aspects of engineering, economics, sociology, toxicology and the natural sciences.
 Industrial ecology has been defined as a "systems-based, multidisciplinary discourse that seeks
to understand emergent behaviour of complex integrated human/natural systems".
 The field approaches issues of sustainability by examining problems from multiple perspectives,
usually involving aspects of sociology, the environment, economy and technology.
 The name comes from the idea that the analogy of natural systems should be used as an aid in
understanding how to design sustainable industrial systems.