Module-1

[Concept and scope of Environmental science, components of environment,

Define environment??

The environment of an organism has two components, abiotic and biotic. The
abiotic includes the atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere. The abiotic
components are characterised by physical and chemical factors such as
temperature, rainfall, pressure, pH, the content of oxygen and other parameter.
These factors exhibit seasonal and annual changes. The biotic component includes
all living organisms which interact with each other and with the abiotic
components.

Definition?

The physical, chemical and biological presence of living and non living things
outside and individual species is called environment. Each and every living
organism, whether it belong to the highest or the lowest life form, has its own
environment.

According to “ISO 14001” environment can be defined as -

“Surrounding in which an organization operates including air, water, land, natural

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Scope of environmental studies:
The scope of environmental studies is so wide that it related to every science and
scientific aspects in general and biological in particular.

The scope of environmental studies in numerous fields: -

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(i) Conservation and management of natural resources, like forest resources,
Water resources etc.
(ii) Conservation of biodiversities: like conservation of genetic diversity, species
diversity, ecosystem diversity, landscape diversity etc

(iii) Control of Environmental pollution: - Like air pollution, water pollution, soil
pollution, solid waste pollution, noise pollution, electronic waste pollution, e-
pollution etc.

(iv) Control of human population.

(v) Replacement of development, like green revolution, urbanisation, economic

Components of environment:

The life supporting environment of planet earth, which is called as biosphere is

1. Air (atmosphere)
2. Land (lithosphere)
3. Water (Hydrosphere)

Air and atmosphere:

Atmosphere is a thin layer of mixed gases covered over the earth. It is composed of
mixed gases which make up the air.

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The origin of atmosphere is related to the origin of earth itself. The main function
of the atmosphere is to filter the sunlight reaching on the earth. It also helps the
earth from becoming too hot or too cold, much like clothing for us. The total mass
of the atmosphere amounts to 5.7x1015 tonnes of air.

Composition of air:

The gaseous mixture of troposphere is called as air. The major constituents of air
are oxygen and nitrogen. It is utilized by most of the organisms for respiration to
get energy from food during oxidation.

The composition of atmospheric air in percentage of weight and volume is shown

Component % by weight % by volume

Small amount of hydrogen, helium, ozone, radon, neon, krypton, xenon, sulphur
dioxide, ammonia, methane, hydrogen sulphide, etc are part of the miscellaneous
components of the atmospheric air.

Even though the atmospheric air contains more gases, the composition is not
constantly maintained throughout the atmosphere. It may slightly vary depending
up on the latitude and places such as volcanoes, industries, cities and forests.

Structure of atmosphere:

The vertical structure of the atmosphere consists of the following layers: -

1. Troposphere
2. Stratosphere (ozonosphere)
3. Mesosphere
4. Hetrosphere (Thermosphere)
5. Exosphere

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 1. Troposphere:
i. It is the lower most layer of the atmosphere.
ii. This portion extends about 8 km over the earth at the poles, and 18 km
over the earth at the equator.
iii. In this region the presence of living organism exists and it has strong
movement and cloud formation.
iv. Nitrogen and oxygen are the major composition of tropospheric air.
v. The amount of water vapour content present depends upon the
weather conditions.
vi. The pollutants in this region are easily diluted or removed by means
of rainfall or setting.

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 2. Stratosphere:
i. Thickness of this layer is about 50 km above the surface of the earth.
ii. This region has sufficient amount of ozone. Hence it is called
ozonosphere. The amount of ozone present varies from time to time.
iii. The main chemical species of this region is the ozone- a very essential
protective layer to check UV radiation which are harmful to human
being.
iv. This region is free from clouds and airplanes usually fly in the lower
zone.
3. Mesosphere:
i. It is the portion above the stratosphere.
ii. It extends about 90 to 100 km above the earth’s surface.
iii. In this portion the temperature decreases with altitude.
iv. This region has cold temperature and low atmospheric pressure.
v. The important species are positively charged particles or ions known
as O2+ and NO+.
4. Hetrosphere:
i. It extends about 500 km above the earth’s surface.
ii. It contains mixture of nitrogen and oxygen in the ratio 1:1. In this
region the molecules of air are so widely spaced that high frequency,
audible sounds are not carried by the atmosphere.
iii. The outer portion of the thermosphere is called as ionosphere.
iv. In the ionosphere, the temperature is about 200 °F and it is
characterised by the ionisation of oxygen molecules.
5. Exosphere:
i. It is upper most layer of the earth’s atmosphere.
ii. It extends about 32000 km from the surface of the earth.
iii. In this region, the atoms and particles are away from each other and
the collision of particles occurs very rarely.
iv. In this region friction is negligible; the density of air is very low in
this region.
v. In this region of atmosphere, hydrogen and helium are the dominant
elements.

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 Menopause:
The mesopause is the temperature minimum at the boundary between the
mesosphere and the thermosphere atmospheric regions. Due to lack of solar
heating and very strong radiative cooling from carbon dioxide the
mesopause is the coldest place on earth with temperature as low as
-100°C.
An interesting feature about is that the summer mesopause is cooler than the
winter. This is sometimes referred to as the mesopause anomaly. It is due to
a summer to winter circulation giving rise to upwelling at the summer pole
and down welling at the winter. Air rising will expand and cool. Resulting in
cold summer mesopause and conversely down welling air results in
compression and associated increase in temperature at the winter mesopause.
In the mesosphere the summer to winter circulation is due to gravity wave
dissipation, which deposits momentum against the mean east- west flow
resulting in small north south circulation.

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