ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE - Environmental Science- the study of the interactions among
physical, chemical and biological components of the environment.
1. What is Ecology? - From a Greek word oikos “household”; and logos, “knowledge” is the
study of the relationships between organisms and their environment.
2. What is Ecosystem? - a community of organisms and their physical environment interacting
together.
3. What is environment? - refers to the sum of the external forces and conditions acting on an
organism or community of organism.
FOUR MEANING OF SCIENCE
1.) SCIENCE AS KNOWLEDGE - It refers to the organized, well-founded body of knowledge of
natural phenomena, contributions to which have been made by the people. Scientific ideas are
developed by particular ways of observing, thinking, experimenting, and validating.
2.) SCIENCE AS A FIELD OF SYSTEMATIC INQUIRY IN NATURE - It refers to a particular
field or domain of systematic inquiry in which such scientific knowledge in the first sense is
sought.
3.) SCIENCE AS A FORM OF HUMAN CULTURAL ACTIVITY- It refers to a distinctive
form or kind of human cultural activity. One practiced by people now called as scientists and
formerly known as among things, and natural philosophers and scientists and many learned men.
4.) SCIENCE AS A TOTAL SOCIETAL ENTERPRISE - Complex of knowledge, skills,
organizations, facilities, technics, physical resources, methods and technologies are taken together
and in relationship to one another are devoted to the study and understanding of the natural world.
The latter are understood including in its domain all human mental, physical and societal
phenomena.
THE ROLE OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
To develop an environmentally literate citizenry who will support and ensure the protection,
conservation and improvement of the environment, safeguard and promote sustainable living
and development, and economic efficiency in the utilization of our natural resources.
THE CONCEPT OF EARTH CAPITAL IN SUSTAINABLE LIVING
All other organisms are interdependent and interconnected parts of nature and are completely
dependent on nature.
ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORICAL EVENTS
BCE – 1200 AD
Cutting of trees for timber Greeks and Romans kept Less water pollution in cities
stripped the forest of Babylon, important trees from being cut in Israel and India due to strict
Greece, Lebanon and Italy for timber. religious codes about
with rise civilization. cleanliness.
1200 - 1750
Cutting of trees for timber in the forest of To prevent soil erosion, cultures in China, India
England, France and Germany denuded large and Peru used and built terraces, practice crop
tracts by around 1550 in England and the 1600 rotation and use natural fertilizer.
in Europe.
1750 - 1830
Thomas Malthus predicts that eventually, food and resources will run out as population explode
and new technologies create additional pollution. Town gas from coal drips tar into rivers.
1830 – 1890
-Living conditions in urban areas horrify reform minded commissions in London in the 1840’s
and America in the 1850’S and 1860’s.
-Interest in pure drinking water and sanitation is spurred by epidemics of typhoid and cholera.
-John Snow a London physician traced a part of the cholera epidemic to a contaminated water pump in 1855.
1890 – 1920
Teddy Roosevelt and his John Muir opposes the “wise New organizations like
forester Gifford Pinchot use” idea and fights for women’s club helps champion
Characterized the ideas about outright preservation of natural preservation
conserving large tracts of land unspoiled wilderness. conservation and municipal
and putting other forest to wise reform.
use.
1920 – 1930
National Coast Anti-Pollution League is Chemurgy movement is a Midwestern populist
formed by municipal officials from Atlantic and scientific phenomenon.
City to Maine who are concerned about oil and
sewage pollution detracting from tourism.
1940 – 1960
Sand Country Almanac by forester Aldo Deadly smog episode in Donora Penn.
Leopold, published in 1948, expresses the
expanding sense of human responsibility not
only to each other but also for the earth.
1960 – 1970
The truth about leaded gasoline emerges dramatically 1965 Senate Hearings as scientist Clair
Patterson testifies about the obvious and apparently deliberate lacunae and falsehoods in industry
research. A burning river ends the decade as a dramatic symbol of an environment on the brink.
2000 PRESENT
President Bill Clinton sets aside 58 million acres of forest and wilderness by the end of his
presidency, surpassing the previous conservation record set in Teddy Roosevelt’s administration.
Lesson 2: ECOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES AND CONCEPTS
Components of Ecosystem
Ecosystems are ecological units that include all the living or biotic factors and the non-living
abiotic factors in an area or portion of a forest or desert.
The biotic factors include the plants, animals, fungi, bacteria and other living things that live
in an area. These factors include the following:
Producers or autotrophs producers, such as plants, make food through a process called
photosynthesis. In photosynthesis, plants use carbon dioxide and water to make sugar. This
food is used by the plants for its own energy or may be eaten by consumers.
Consumers or heterotrophs - consumers need to eat food that autotrophs have produced. There
are different types of consumers: Decomposers are heterotrophs that breakdown dead
1) Herbivores eat plants; tissue and waste products. They play a very important
2) Carnivores eat animals; and role in the ecosystem because they recycle nutrients.
3) Omnivores eat both plants and animals. Bacteria and fungi are decomposers
Abiotic factors such as solar radiation, the atmosphere, the ocean, climate and fire also affect
ecosystems. For a given abiotic factor, each organism living in an ecosystem has an optimal range
in which it survives and reproduces. Water and temperature are probably the two abiotic factors that
most affect organisms in the ecosystem.
SUNLIGHT
On the average, clouds and surfaces of
snow, ice, and the ocean immediately reflect
away 30% of the solar radiation that falls on
earth. The remaining 70% is absorb by the
Earth's surface and the atmosphere, which runs
the water cycle, drives the wind and ocean
currents, powers photosynthesis, and warms the
planet. Ultimately, the continued radiation of
long-wave infrared (heat) energy returns all this Figure 1. The Fate of Solar Radiation that reaches the Earth Source
energy to space.
AIR WATER
The atmosphere is an invisible layer of gases The ocean surrounds the continents and covers
that envelops Earth. It is composed of oxygen almost three fourths of the Earth's surface. The
(21%) and nitrogen (78%) or 99% of dry air. pacific ocean is largest covering one third of
Other gases including argon, carbon dioxide, the Earth's surface and contains more than half
neon, and helium make up the remaining 1%. of the Earth's water.
CLIMATE and MICROCLIMATES
Climate is the average conditions, and the Microclimates are sometimes quite different
extremes that occur in a given place over a from the overall surroundings.
period of years.
FIRE – have several effects on organism.
[Link], combustion frees the nutrient minerals that were locked in dry organic matters.
2. Secondly, fire removes plant cover and exposes the soil.
[Link], fire causes increased in soil erosion because it removes plant cover, leaving the soil more vulnerable to wind and water.
FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS
TEMPERATURE- the ability to withstand extremes in temperature widely vary among plants and animals.
ANIMALS - respond to variation in temperature both physiologically and behaviorally.
Endotherms maintain body temperature by:
1) changing the position of fur or feathers sweating and panting;
2) shivering; and
3) by behavioral means such as seeking shade or water, burrowing, or varying periods of activity.
Ectotherms use sources of heat such as solar radiation (direct and indirect) and conduction to help
adjust their body temperature.
PLANTS- Obviously, plants cannot move to escape high and low temperatures. Photosynthesis
slows down or stops when temperatures get too high or too low.
WATER
Precipitation along with mean temperature determines the distribution of biomes. The primary
problem of plants in areas like desert is lack of water. Plants adapted for arid conditions include:
Xerophytes such as cacti and Joshua trees that usually have special means of storing and
conserving water. They often have few or no leaves which reduces transpiration.
Phreatophytes plants that grow extremely long roots, allowing them to acquire moisture at or near
the water table.