Ecological System and

Environment
Chapter 2: Human Dependence on Environment
 Topics to be discussed

1. What is environment? What is special about this definition? Do you like it

or not? Why?
2. What are the components of environment?
3. What does environmental science do?
4. Why studying environmental science important? Discuss with multiple
examples.
5. What is ecosystem?
6. What are the components of ecosystem?
7. What is ecosystem services? Discuss categories of ecosystem services
with example.
8. What are the ecosystem services we receive from our surrounding
environment?
9. How does ecosystem and ecosystem services can define us?
10. Biodiversity and Biodiversity loss.
11. Why is biodiversity so important?
What is Environment?

3
 Environment

Environment is the sum of all living and

nonliving factors that compose the
surroundings of human.

4
There are 4 Components of Earth’s
Environment

1. Atmosphere
2. Hydrosphere
3. Lithosphere
4. Biosphere

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There are 4 Components of Earth’s Environment
1. Atmosphere: Atmosphere is the gaseous mass or envelope surrounding the Earth,
and retained by the gravitational force

2. Hydrosphere: The hydrosphere is composed of all of the water on or near the

planet's surface. This includes oceans, rivers, and lakes, as well as underground
aquifers and the moisture in the atmosphere.

3. Lithosphere: The lithosphere is the solid outer section of Earth, which includes
Earth's crust (the "skin" of rock on the outer layer of planet Earth), as well as the
underlying cool, dense, and rigid upper part of the upper mantle.

4. Biosphere: Sphere of life around the Earth. The biosphere includes all living
organisms on earth, together with the dead organic matter produced by them. It
provides life-supporting ecosystems that provide us with a hospitable climate, clean
water, food, fibre and numerous other goods and services

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What are Types/ Classification of Environment?

8
Environment

9
Human/ Anthropogenic vs Natural Environment?

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 Environmental Science

Environmental Science is the study of

how humans interact with their
environment

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Why studying environmental science important?
 Dujiangyan Irrigation System

https://development.asia/explainer/applying-ancien
t-wisdom-disaster-risk-mitigation
Why isn’t the Netherlands underwater?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25LW_PG2ZuI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIl_uGd1CJA
The Story of Nauru: The "Country that Ate iIself"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMvAQh3eLnU
Gulf countries investing in renewable energy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGruPLlFT4o
 Why environmental science important?

❑ To Identify risk(s) from environment

❑ Identify risks
❑ Find ways to mitigate

❑ To Identify the benefit(s) from environment

❑ Identify benefits
❑ Find ways to utilize or maximize them
Why environmental science important?
1. To tackle Quadruple Squeeze

2. To Ensure Sustainability

3. To understand and prepare for the Challenges and

Complexity of Development

4. For human survival

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Why is environmental science important?
Quadruple Squeeze

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Why environmental science important?

The Quadruple Squeeze creates a complex

social-ecological cocktail of planetary interactions
that pose critical challenges for human
development.

To tackle, environmental science plays a key role

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Why environmental science important?

To Ensure Sustainability

• Better use of energy

• Maximization of the resources (air, water, oil,

forest, etc) we have

• To ensure minimum pollution

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 Why environmental science important?

To understand and prepare for the Challenges and

Complexity of Development

What are the WONDERS of modern science you can think of?
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-solar-bird-deaths-20160831-snap-story.ht
ml#

• Inadequate scientific understanding of how the dynamic environment works

and how different human choices affect the environment
• Multifaceted interactions between ecological, social, cultural and economic
factors

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What is Ecosystem?
An Ecosystem consists of a community of organisms
together with their physical environment.

An ecosystem is a dynamic complex of plant, animal, and

microorganism communities and the nonliving environment,
interacting as a functional unit. Humans are an integral part of
ecosystems.
Ecosystems refer to identifiable areas within nature in
which the organisms interact among themselves and their physical
environment and exchange nutrients largely within that system

A well-defined ecosystem has strong interactions among its components

and weak interactions across its boundaries.
Think about some examples of Ecosystem
 Components of Ecosystem
Abiotic / Physical components
The abiotic components of an ecosystem are all of the nonliving elements. They
include the water, the air, the temperature and the rocks and minerals that make
up the soil. Abiotic components of an ecosystem might include how much rain falls
on it, whether it is fresh water or salt water, how much sun it gets or how often it
freezes and thaws. The biotic components of the ecosystem both live on and
interact with the abiotic components.

Producers at the Base

Producers are the living organisms in the ecosystem that take in energy from
sunlight and use it to transform carbon dioxide and oxygen into sugars. Plants,
algae and photosynthetic bacteria are all examples of producers. Producers form
the base of the food web and are generally the largest group in the ecosystem by
weight, or biomass. They also act as an interface with the abiotic components of
the ecosystem during nutrient cycles as they incorporate inorganic carbon and
nitrogen from the atmosphere.

https://sciencing.com/four-basic-components-ecosystem-9557.html
 Components of Ecosystem
Consumer
Consumers are living organisms in the ecosystem that get their energy from
consuming other organisms. Conceptually, consumers are further subdivided by
what they eat: Herbivores eat producers, carnivores eat other animals and
omnivores eat both. Along with producers and decomposers, consumers are part of
what is known as food chains and webs, where energy and nutrient transfer can be
mapped out. Consumers can only harvest about 10 percent of the energy contained
in what they eat, so there tends to be less biomass at each stage as you move up
the food chain.

Decomposers
Decomposers are the living component of the ecosystem that breaks down waste
material and dead organisms. Examples of decomposers include earthworms, dung
beetles and many species of fungi and bacteria. They perform a vital recycling
function, returning nutrients incorporated into dead organisms to the soil where
plants can take them up again. In this process they also harvest the last of the
sunlight energy initially absorbed by producers. Decomposers represent the final
step in many of the cyclical ecosystem processes.

https://sciencing.com/four-basic-components-ecosystem-9557.html
An ecosystem has no defining size limitations: an abandoned
tire casing containing trapped rainwater, microorganisms,
and swarms of mosquito larvae can be regarded as an
ecosystem; so can a family-room aquarium, a city park, a
cornfield, a tide pool, a cow pasture, or, indeed, the entire
planet Earth. Any of these widely diverse situations can be
considered an ecosystem so long as living and nonliving
elements are present and interacting to process energy and
cycle materials
Habitat specific: Coral reef ecosystem
Regional: Taiga ecosystem
Continental: Amazon rainforest
NASA | Satellite Tracks Saharan Dust to Amazon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygulQJoIe2Y
 Importance of Mangrove Ecosystem

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhLlqdPB_Rs
 Ecosystem services
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.
 Energy Flow

Fig: 1 Fig: 2

Trophic Level: Each stage through which this energy travels is called a trophic level
Nutrient Cycle
• While the energy is unidirectional; the nutrient flow is cyclic. This is called
Biogeochemical Cycle.
• sulfur, phosphorous, carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen are known
as macronutrients.
• zinc, manganese, chlorine, iron, and copper that are termed trace
elements
• This cycling may take two forms. The nutrients may be sedimentary and
originate from soil or rocks, or gaseous and originate from air or water.
• Carbon cycle:

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/CarbonCycle
 • Nitrogen cycle:

https://www.careerpower.in/school/biology/nitrogen-cycle#Step-Wise_Process_of_Nitrogen_Cycle
Biodiversity

Biodiversity is a term that represents the total variety of

all life on Earth— thousands of different habitats,
millions of different species, and the trillions of
characteristics they all have.

Biodiversity is the variability among living organisms. It

includes diversity within and among species and diversity
within and among ecosystems.

What is biodiversity?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US58f-SwO0k

Why is biodiversity so important?
Biodiversity loss refers to the decline in the variety
and abundance of life forms (species) within a
particular ecosystem, region, or the entire planet.

It is a consequence of various human activities, such

as habitat destruction, pollution, overexploitation of
natural resources, and climate change, which can
lead to the extinction or significant reduction in the
populations of many species.