MODULE POLLUTION

I:

INTRODUCTION

TO

ENVIRONMENTAL

Ecology or Environmental biology is the branch of science concerned with plant and animal relationship and their interaction with the environment. Ecology is a multidisciplinary science which includes not only the life science, but also Chemistry, Physics, geology, geography, meteorology, climatology, hydrology, anthropology, archeology, sociology and even mathematics and statistics as well.. Many practical applications of ecology are found in agriculture, horticulture, forestry, limnology, fishery, pest control, public health, toxicology, pollution control etc. A knowledge of ecological principles helps in discovering new sources of food, unpolluting sources of energy (e.g., solar energy) and new methods of pest control. By making use of ecological principles the deserts can be converted into agricultural lands DEFINITIONS OF ECOLOGY Ecology has been defined in a number of ways: . The scientific study of the interactions of the organisms with their physical environment and with each other is called ecology. . The term ecology (Greek, Oikos meaning house or habitation and logos meaning discourse or study) was introduced by Reiter as the science which deals with organism and its place to live. Since organism's place to live is its environment, so ecology is also called environmental biology. . A study of ecosystems or the totality of the reciprocal interactions between living organisms and their physical surroundings. . The scientific study of the distribution and abundance of organisms is referred to as ecology. PRINCIPLES OF ECOLOGY The basjc principles may be summarised as follows: All organisms and the physical environment are interdependent and affect each other. . The environment is holocoenotic, in which, alteration of anyone component affects all the other-components.

The environment is modified by the organisms according to their needs. The carrying capacity of the environment determines the size of organism's population which can survive in that environment . .The existence of life depends upon the flow of energy through food chains and on the cycling of nutrients. These processes ensure the stability of ecosystem. . The nature strives for greater diversity, i.e., greater variety of organisms in a system, which leads to its stability.

KINDS OF ECOLOGY Ecology may be divided into following classes:' Autoecology. Autoecology deals with the study of an individual species or organism in relation to its environment. It includes the behaviour and adaptation of each of the individual species to the environmental conditions at every stage of its life cycle. That is why auto ecology is also known as species ecology. Synecology. Synecology deals with the study of groups of organisms, i.e., communities, their composition, behaviour and relationship with the environment. Therefore, synecology is also known as community ecology. Synecology is further subdivided into: a. Population ecology. It relates the organism with various groups of organisms and their inter-relationship. b. Gene ecology. It deals with the genetic make up of species in relation to the environment. c. Taxonomic ecology. It includes ecology of taxonomic groups as microbial ecology, vertebrate or invertebrate ecology, insect ecology etc. Ecosystemology or Ecosystem Ecology. The term ecosystem was proposed by A.C. Tansley in 1935 where eco implies the environment and system denotes an interacting, interdependent complex. Ecosystem may be defined as the system resulting from the integration of all living and non-living factors of the environment.. Earth is a giant ecosystem where abiotic and biotic components are constantly acting and reacting with each other bringing structural and functional changes in it. Types of Ecosystems 1. Natural Ecosystems. Thes systems operate by themselves under natural conditions without any major interference by man. These are further divided into: (i) Terrestrial ecosystem which include forest, grassland and desert etc. (ii) Aquatic ecosystem may be further distinguished as (a) Fresh water, which may be lotic (running water as spring, stream or rivers) or lentic (standing water as lake, pond, pools, ditch, puddles, swamp etc.)

(b) Marine water such as ocean (deep bodies) or sea or estuary (shallow ones). 2: Artificial (Man-engineered) Ecosystem. These are maintained artificially by man where, by addition of energy and planned manipulations, natural balance is disturbed regularly. For example, croplands like maize, wheat, rice, fields etc, where man tries to control the biotic community as well as the physico-chemical -environment, are man-engineered ecosystems. There is recognition of some other ecosystem, known as space ecosystem. Components of an Ecosystem An ecosystem refers to a biotic community and its abiotic environment taken together. Biotic (living) Component This is the trophic structure of any ecosystem, where living organisms are distinguished on the basis of their nutritional relationships. From th~s trophic (nutritional) standpoint, an ecosystem has two components: 1. Producer's autotrophic component. Here fixation of light energy, use of simple inorganic substances and build up of complex substances predominate. The component is constituted mainly by green plants, including photosynthetic bacteria. Chemosynthetic microbes also contribute to the build up of organic matter. 2. Consumer's heterotrophic component. Here utilisation, rearrangement and decomposition of complex materials predominate. The organisms involved are known as consumers, as they consume the matter built up by the producers (autotrophs). . Macroconsumers. These are the consumers, which in an order as they occur in a food chain are, herbivores, carnivores (or omnivores). Herbivores are also known as primary consumers. Secondary and tertiary consumers, if present, are carnivores or omnivores. These are phagotrophs which include chiefly animals that ingest other organic and particulate organic matter. 3. Decomposers.' These are saprotrophs (osmotrophs) microconsumers and include mainly bacteria, actinomycetes and fungi. They breakdown complex compounds of dead or living protoplasm, absorb some of the decomposition or breakdown products and release inorganic nutrients in environment, making them available again to autotrophs. The biotic component of any ecosystem is regarded as the functional kingdom of nature. The trophic structure of an ecosystem includes eater and the eaten sequence represented by primary producer and primary, secondary and tertiary consumers, which form the food chain. Each link of the chain is referred to as trophic level or food level. A food chain is represented as Phytoplankton Zooplankton Small fishLarge fish Abiotic Components These consist of non-living factors of physical environment which strongly influence the structure, behaviour, distribution and inter-relationship of the organisms. Abiotic component can be divided into following parts:

. Inorganic components, e.g., CO2, H2O, N2, Ca, Sand P. . Organic components. Proteins, carbohydrates, lipids and amino acids form link between abiotic and biotic components and are synthesized by living forms, i.e., flora and fauna of an ecosystem Edaphic factors are pH, soil and topography. Energy is required for maintaining the activities of life in the ecosystem. Energy from the sun is trapped by plants to synthesize their food. However, the flow of energy through the ecosystem is non-cyclic, unidirectional and follow the classical principles of thermodynamics. Within an ecosystem, there will be a gradual loss of energy within each trophic level from producer to consumer. So shorter the food chain, greater would be the available food energy. Ecological Pyramids In pond system the organisms at the beginning of food chain are relatively abundant, while those at the end are few. The trophic structure and function at successive trophic levels, i.e., Producers HerbivoresCarnivores is known as ecological pyramid. These are of three types: Pyramid of numbers showing number of organisms at each level. Pyramid of biomass showing the total dry weight and total amount of living matter. (iii) Pyramid of energy showing the rate of energy flow and productivity at successive trophic levels. 1 2

ECOLOGICAL PYRAMIDS

BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES IN THE ENVIRONMENT Biogeochemical cycles in the environment are the cyclic pathways in which a regular and continuous transition of elements occur from the environment into the organism and from organism into the environment. The word bio-denotes living organisms, geo represents soil environment while chemical means elements such as C, S, P which undergo transition continuously. Cycles are classified into two types: 1. Sedimentary Cycles. Reservoir pool is in the deep sediment. Examples are Sand P cycle. 2. Gaseous Cycles. Reservoir pool is the atmosphere. Examples are 0, C, H, N cycles. Both types of cycles are driven by the flow of energy and tied to the hydrological cycle

The Oxygen Cycle

The Nitrogen cycle

Nitrogen cannot be used directly by most forms of life. It must be fixed before it can be utilised by plants and animals. By fIxation, Nz is converted into NOa and NHa. Nitrogen fixation is of two types. (i) Physico-chemical Nitrogen Fixation. Doo to thunder storm in rainy season, nitrogen and oxygen of air combine to form NO and NOz. The latter react with water to form nitric acid in presence of oxygen of atmosphere. Nitric acid (acid rain) comes to the earth and combines with basic components in soil to form nitrates which are the basic food of the plants in the soil. N2 +O22NO, 2NO + O22N02, 4NO2+2H20 + O2 4HNO3 HNO3 + NH3NH4NO3, CaO + 2HNO3 Ca(N03)2 + H2O (ii) Biological Nitrogen Fixation. This fixation is limited to a few, but abundant organisms like the free living bacteria Azetobacter and Clostridium, symbiotic nodule bacteria on leguminous plants like rhizobium and some blue green algae. They convert nitrogen into nitrates which can be easily assimilated by plants.

The Sulphur Cycle

The Phosphorus Cycle

Environmental pollution Environmental pollution is contamination of air, water and land from man-made waste. Pollution leads to depletion of the ozone layer, global warming and climate change. POLLUTION => is the introduction of contaminants into an environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the physical systems or living organisms they are in. POLLUTANTS=>are the elements of pollution, can be foreign substances or energies, or naturally occurring; when naturally occurring, they are considered contaminants when they exceed natural levels. Classification of Pollutants on the basis of their form 3 Primary pollutant: Any pollutant released directly from a source to the atmosphere are primary pollutant . Sulfur dioxide, oxides of nitrogen, and carbon monoxide are all primary pollutants.

Secondary pollutant: Secondary pollutants are not emitted directly to the air, water, or soil. Secondary pollutants are synthesized in the environment by chemical reactions involving primary, or emitted chemicals. The best known of the secondary pollutants are certain gases that are synthesized by photochemical reactions in the lower atmosphere. The primary emitted chemicals in these reactions are hydrocarbons and gaseous oxides of nitrogen such as nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide Classification of Pollutants from the ecosystem point of view 5 6 7 Biodegradable or non-persistent pollutants=>decompose gradually in nature. e.g.=>domestic sewage, vegetable wastes etc. Slowly degradable pollutants=> cannot decompose in a natural way for a long period of time. e.g. plastics and DDT. Non-biodegradable (Persistent) pollutants => do not degrade at all, e.g. lead, mercury etc.

Bioconcentration referers to the accumulation of a chemical in an organism at concentrations above those of the immediate environment. The degree of bioconcentration is expressed as BCF(bioconcentration factor), which is represnted as the concentration of a chemical in an organism divided by the concentration of the same chemical in the environment or an environmental compartment(e.g., water). The bioconcentration factor is mostly used to predict the degree of accumulation by fishes of an organic pollutant in water.

Energy Flow in Biosphere

All living beings require a constant supply of energy for the various functions they perform. The energy is obtained from the sun. This energy is introduced into the biosphere by green plants by a process known as photosynthesis. Plants are able to trap this light energy and by the process of photosynthesis convert it into chemical energy. Thus the initial point of entry of energy in the ecosystem is through the green plants (autotrophs or producers). It has been estimated that on an average, about one per cent of total sun's energy reaching the earth is trapped by green plants during the process of food manufacture (i.e., photosynthesis). The energy thus trapped by plants is stored as carbohydrates. Some of the energy trapped by plants is used by them in performing their metabolic activities like respiration, growth, etc., and some energy is released in the atmosphere as heat. When the plants are eaten by herbivorous animals, the energy stored in plants gets transferred to the consumer animals. These animals utilize this energy for their own metabolic activities. Here again some of the energy is released as heat. When primary consumers are eaten by secondary consumers, the same process is repeated at every step of the food chain. Here it must be remembered, that energy released as heat is considered as energy lost.

We can thus conclude the following:

Conversion of energy takes place from one form to another. The light energy gets converted into chemical energy by plants during photosynthesis. Plants act as converters of energy. They do not produce energy. The energy lost as heat is quite substantial, if taken together from various trophic levels During the transfer of energy through successive trophic levels in an ecosystem, there is a lost of energy at each trophic level. In other words, the level following the previous one always receives less amount of energy. After studying various food chains and energy transfers in different ecosystems, Lindemann in 1942 gave the generalization called "The 10 per cent law". It shows that about 90% of the energy is used up at each level and only 10% of it is transferred to the next trophic level. As a result, at the last trophic level (decomposer), no energy is left for

recycling. This is how the flow of energy is unidirectional. Fast decreasing energy level at each step sets the limit of trophic levels only to 4-5 at the maximum. Therefore, the plants (producers) receive the maximum energy and as you go further down the trophic levels, the energy in the food goes on decreasing.

The flow of energy is unidirectional. It enters into the living system from non-living environment The energy lost as heat cannot be utilised