Module 1: Fundamentals of Environmental Education

Unit 1: Concept of Environment, Eco System and Ecology

a) Environment: Meaning, Components (Biotic and Abiotic)

b) Concept of Eco System & Types of Eco System
c) Concept of Ecology, Ecological Pyramids (Numbers, Mass, Energy), Food Web &
Ecological Energy Dynamics

Environment Meaning:

The term environment has been derived from a French word "Environia" means to surround.
It refers to both abiotic (physical or non-living) and biotic (living) environment. The word
environment means surroundings, in which organisms live. Environment regulates the life of
the organisms including human beings. Human beings interact with the environment more
vigorously than other living beings.

Environment is the sum total of conditions that surrounds us at a given point of time and
space. It is comprised of the interacting systems of physical, biological and cultural elements
which are interlinked both individually and collectively.

It influences the growth and development of living forms in other words environment refers
to those surroundings that surrounds living beings from all sides and affects their lives in too.

It consists of atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere and biosphere. Its chief components are
soil, water, air organisms and solar energy. It has provided us all the resources for leading a
comfortable life.

Definition:-
1. "Environment is anything immediately surrounding an object and exerting direct influence
on it."- P. Gisbert
2. "Environment is an external force which influences us.' "-E.J. Ross

Components (Biotic and Abiotic):-

Biotic components:
They are the living things that shape an ecosystem. A biotic factor is any living component
that affects another organism, including animals that consume the organism in question, and
the living food that the organism consumes. All living organisms from plants to animals are
included under biotic structural elements. However the biotic components vary from system
to system.

Biotic components (Living natural physical things):

 Plants (different types of vegetation)
 Small living things like fungi (e g mushroom), bacteria and viruses
 Human beings and other types of animals
ii) Abiotic components:
They are the inert matter found on earth. Soil and its constituents, water and its constituents,
temperature of the atmosphere, rainfall, atmospheric moisture gases, wind, light, etc, all form
abiotic contents.

Abiotic components (Non-Living physical things):

 Land surface and different kinds of rocks

 Water in the forms of lakes, lagoon, river sea, ocean etc
 Atmospheric gas
 Features made by human beings -- human settlement and infrastructures road, bridges etc.
 Cultural relationship and institutions -- political, economical, social/law religion etc.

Concept of Eco System & Types of Eco System

Eco System Concept:

The concept of ecosystem was first put forth by A.G. Tansley (1935). Ecosystem is the
major ecological unit.

The structure is related to species diversity. The more complex is the structure the greater is
the diversity of the species in the ecosystem.

The functions of ecosystem are related to the flow of energy and cycling of materials
through structural components of the ecosystem.

As ecosystems are defined by the network of interactions among organisms and between
organisms and their environment, they can be of any size but usually encompass specific,
limited spaces.

Energy, water, nitrogen and soil minerals are other essential abiotic components of an
ecosystem. The energy that flows through ecosystems is obtained primarily from the sun. It
generally enters the system through photosynthesis, a process that also captures carbon from
the atmosphere. By feeding on plants and on one another, animals play an important role in
the movement of matter and energy through the system.

Ecosystems are controlled both by external and internal factors. External factors such as
climate, the parent material that forms the soil, and topography control the overall structure
of an ecosystem and the way things work within it, but are not themselves influenced by the
ecosystem.

Internal factors are also controlled and are often subject to feedback loops. While the
resource inputs are generally controlled by external processes like climate and parent
material, the availability of these resources within the ecosystem is controlled by internal
factors like decomposition, root competition or shading.
Definition:
"Ecosystem is a complex in which habitat, plants and animals are considered as one
interesting unit, the materials and energy of one passing in and out of the others" -
Woodbury.

Types of Eco System

An ecosystem consists of all the living and non-living things in a specific natural setting.
Plants, animals, insects, microorganisms, rocks, soil, water and sunlight are major
components of many ecosystems.
All types of ecosystems fall into one of two categories: terrestrial or aquatic. Terrestrial
ecosystems are land-based while aquatic are water-based.

Terrestrial ecosystems
Terrestrial ecosystems can be found anywhere apart from heavily saturated places. They are
broadly classed into:

 The Forest Ecosystems

 The Desert Ecosystem
 The Grassland Ecosystem
 The Mountain Ecosystem

The Forest Ecosystems:

They are the ecosystems in which an abundance of flora, or plants, is seen so they have a big
number of organisms which live in relatively small space. Therefore, in forest ecosystems
the density of living organisms is quite high and small change in this ecosystem could affect
the whole balance, effectively bringing down the whole ecosystem. They are further divided
into:
 Tropical evergreen forest
 Tropical deciduous forest
 Temperate evergreen forest
 Temperate deciduous forest
 Taiga

The Desert Ecosystem

Desert ecosystems are located in regions that receive an annual rainfall less than 25. They
occupy about 17 percent of all the land on our planet. Due to the extremely high temperature,
low water availability and intense sunlight, fauna and flora are scarce and poorly developed.
The vegetation is mainly shrubs, bushes, few grasses and rare trees. The stems and leaves of
the plants are modified in order to conserve water as much as possible. The best known
desert ones are the succulents such as the spiny leaved cacti. The animal organisms include
insects, birds, camels, reptiles all of which are adapted to the desert (xeric) conditions.

The Grassland Ecosystem

Grasslands are located in both the tropical and temperate regions of the world though the
ecosystems vary slightly. The area mainly comprises grasses with a little number of trees and
shrubs. The main vegetation includes grasses, plants and legumes that belong to the
composite family. A lot of grazing animals, insectivores and herbivores inhabit the
grasslands. The two main kinds of grasslands ecosystems are: Savanna and Prairies.

The Mountain Ecosystem

Mountain land provides a scattered and diverse array of habitats where a large number of
animals and plants can be found. At the higher altitudes, the harsh environmental conditions
normally prevail, and only the treeless alpine vegetation can survive. The animals that live
there have thick fur coats for prevention from cold and hibernation in the winter months.
Lower slopes are commonly covered with coniferous forests.

Aquatic Ecosystems
The aquatic ecosystem is the ecosystem found in a body of water. It encompasses aquatic
flora, fauna and water properties, as well. There are two main types of aquatic ecosystem:
Marine and Freshwater.

The Marine Ecosystem

Marine ecosystems are the biggest ecosystems, which cover around 71% of Earth's surface
and contain 97% of out planet's water. Water in Marine ecosystems features in high amounts
minerals and salts dissolved in them. The different divisions of the marine ecosystem are:

1. Oceanic: A relatively shallow part of oceans which lies on the continental shelf.
2. Profundal: deep or Bottom
3. Benthic Bottom substrates.

The Freshwater Ecosystem

Contrary to the Marine ecosystems, the freshwater ecosystem covers only 0.8% of Earth's
surface and contains 0.009% of the total water.
Three basic kinds of freshwater ecosystems exist:
1. Lentic: Slow-moving or till water like pools, lakes or ponds
2. Lotic: Fast-moving water such as streams and rivers
3. Wetlands: Places in which the soil is inundated or saturated for some lengthy period of
time.

c) Concept of Ecology, Ecological Pyramids (Numbers, Mass, Energy), Food Web &
Ecological Energy Dynamics

Concept of Ecology
The word "ecology" ("Ökologie") was coined in 1866 by the German scientist Ernst
Haeckel. Ecological thought is derivative of established currents in philosophy, particularly
from ethics and politics. Ancient Greek philosophers such as Hippocrates and Aristotle laid
the foundations of ecology in their studies on natural history.

Ecology is the branch of biology which studies the interactions among organisms and their
environment. Objects of study include interactions of organisms with each other and with
abiotic components of their environment. Topics of interest include the biodiversity,
distribution, biomass, and populations of organisms, as well as cooperation and competition
within and between species.
Definition:
Ecology is the science that studies the biota (living things), the environment, and their
interactions.

Ecological Pyramids (Numbers, Mass, Energy):

They provide qualitative and quantitative information on numbers and biomass; and
relationship with each other so there can be a pyramid of energy, pyramid of number or
pyramid of biomass. The most correct representation of an ecological system is by ecological
pyramid of biomass. The others are inaccurate. The pyramid of number is also called
Estonian pyramid.

These can be applied to any ecosystem. The pyramid structure varies from one ecosystem to
another ecosystem. Normally these are erect, but only aquatic systems show inverted
pyramids

In general as you go up a food chain the size of the individuals increases and the number of
individuals decreases. These sorts of observations can be displayed in ecological pyramids,
which are used to quantify food chains.

There are three kinds:

1. Pyramids of Numbers
2. Pyramids of Biomass
3. Pyramids of Energy

Fig: Pyramids of Numbers

 Fig: Pyramids of Biomass

Fig: Pyramids of Energy

Food Web:
The transfer of energy from the source in plants through a series of organisms by eating and
being eaten constitutes food chains. At each transfer, a large proportion of energy is lost in
the form of heat. These food chains are not isolated sequences, but are interconnected with
each other. This interlocking pattern is known as the food web. Each step of the food web is
called a tropic level. Hence green plants occupy the first level, herbivores the second level,
carnivores the third level and secondary carnivores the fourth level. These tropic levels
together form the ecological pyramid.

Food many webs are species limited into tropic representations species, of which real are
ecosystems functional as sdnos8 they of necessarily species that have the same predators and
prey in a food web.
Ecological Energy Dynamics:

Almost all life on this planet is powered, either directly or indirectly, by sunlight. Energy
captured from sunlight drives the production of energy-rich organic compounds during the
process of photosynthesis. These organic compounds are the biomass of the ecosystem. The
biomass is equivalent to the net primary productivity, which ìs the net amount of energy
captured and stored by the producers. This is also the amount of energy available to the next
trophic level.

The net primary productivity is derived from the gross primary productivity, which is a
measure of the total amount of light energy that was captured and converted into chemical
energy (organic compounds) during Photosynthesis. To obtain the net productivity you must
subtract all the energy that was used in cellular respiration and ultimately released as heat,
from the gross productivity.

In terrestrial systems, plants play the role of producers. Plants allocate that biomass (energy)
to power their life processes or to store energy. Different plants have different strategies of
energy allocation that reflect their role in various ecosystems. For example, annual weedy
plants allocate a larger percentage of their biomass production to reproductive processes and
seeds than do slower growing perennials.

As plants, the producers are consumed or decomposed, and their stored chemical energy
powers additional individuals, the consumers, or trophic levels of the biotic community.
Biotic systems run on energy much as economic systems run on money. Energy is generally
in limited supply in most communities. Energy dynamics in a biotic community is
fundamental to understanding ecological interactions.

First Law of Thermodynamics - Energy Conservation

The first law, often referred to as the law of energy conservation, posits that energy in a
closed system remains constant. It can neither be created nor destroyed but can only change
forms. This principle is paramount in studying energy flow and transformations within
ecosystems.

Energy Transformation
Types of Energy: Energy manifests in various forms like kinetic, potential, thermal, and
chemical. In environmental systems, energy transformations are commonplace, with solar
energy being converted into chemical energy by plants, which is then transformed into other
forms as it moves along the food chain.
Energy Flow: Energy’s journey from the sun to producers and then to consumers and
decomposers is a complex process involving multiple transformations. Each transformation
adheres to the first law, ensuring energy conservation.
Energy Balance
Input and Output: Every environmental system has a distinct energy input, output, and
internal energy change. The first law ensures that energy is accounted for in these processes,
maintaining a balance that is crucial for the system’s stability.
Ecosystem Productivity: The energy available in an ecosystem determines its productivity.
The first law aids in quantifying this energy, offering insights into primary and secondary
productivity levels.

Second Law of Thermodynamics - Energy Quality

The second law introduces the concept of energy quality, emphasizing that energy
transformations are not perfectly efficient. It introduces entropy, a measure indicating the
level of energy dispersion in a system.
Entropy
Energy Dispersion: Energy becomes more dispersed and less available for work as it
transforms. This increased dispersion, or entropy, is a natural tendency in all energy
transformations.
Natural Processes: Every natural process, from the growth of plants to the movement of
planets, increases the universe’s total entropy. This law underscores the inherent inefficiency
in energy transformations.

Third Law of Thermodynamics:

The third law of thermodynamics states that the entropy of a system approaches a constant
value as the temperature approaches absolute zero. The entropy of a system at absolute zero
is typically zero, and in all cases is determined only by the number of different ground states
it has. Specifically, the entropy of a pure crystalline substance (perfect order) at absolute
zero temperature is zero. This statement holds true if the perfect crystal has only one state
with minimum energy.