LESSON I: INTRODUCTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
Environmental science is the field of science that studies the interactions of
the physical, chemical, and biological components of the environment and the
relationships and effects of these components with the organisms in the
environment. The field of environmental science can be divided into three main
goals, which are to learn how the natural world works, to understand how we as
humans interact with the environment, and also to determine how we affect the
environment. The third goal of determining how humans affect the environment
also includes finding ways to deal with these effects on the environment
(Cunningham, 2018).
1: ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE OVERVIEW
A. LEARNING OUTCOMES:
At the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
● discuss the ideas of environmental science, how living organisms interact and
with their environment
● differentiate the meaning of environmental science and ecology and;
● elaborate the ideas and history of environmental science.
B. KEY CONCEPTS
1. Environmental Science
Environmental science is the field of science that studies the interactions of
the physical, chemical, and biological components of the environment and the
relationships and effects of these components with the organisms in the
environment. The field of environmental science can be divided into three main
goals, which are to learn how the natural world works, to understand how we as
humans interact with the environment, and also to determine how we affect the
environment. The third goal of determining how humans affect the environment
also includes finding ways to deal with these effects on the environment
(Cunningham, 2018).
2. Ecology
The word ecology was coined by the German zoologist Ernst Haeckel, 1919,
who applied the term oekologie to the “relation of the animal both to its organic as
well as its inorganic environment.” The word comes from the Greek oikos, meaning
“household,” “home,” or “place to live.” Thus, ecology deals with the organism and
its environment. The concept of environment includes both other organisms and
physical surroundings. It involves relationships between individuals within a
population and between individuals of different populations (Smith and Pimm,
2019).
3. Ecology and Environmental science
Ecology and environmental science are closely related disciplines, and
familiarity with the principles of one is essential to fully understanding the other.
The main difference between the two is that the latter is a more overarching field
that incorporates many elements of Earth and life sciences to understand various
natural processes. Ecology, on the other hand, is usually more focused on how
organisms interact with each other and with their immediate surroundings. Both
sciences provide very important information about nature and what people can do
to better protect the planet and conserve resources (Wise Geek, 2019).
Ecology Environmental Science
The scientific study of the
interaction of organisms with The scientific study of the interaction
each other and their relationship between physical, chemical, and biological
with other organisms and their components within the environment
ecosystem
Aims to identify the internal and external
Aims to understand life process,
factors that affect the environment and
adaptation, distribution, and
the organisms living in it to look for
biodiversity
solutions for environmental problems
Key issues include the effect of human
Key issues include interaction
populace in the ecosystem, the main
between organisms, adaptation,
impact of global warming at a larger scale,
changes in the ecosystem, and
the effects of urban living in
external factors that affect the
environmental change, and sustainability
population of specific organisms
measures
Ecologists study group Environmental scientists analyze earth
interactions including mating processes, assess systems used for
habits, migration, food alternative energy, evaluate measures for
preferences, and predatory mitigating air and water pollution, and
patterns manage existing natural resources
a. Environmental science merges ecology, geology, mineralogy, biology,
zoology, soil science, and other sciences into the scientific study of the
environment. A field geared towards finding solutions for problems within the
environment, environmental science is the analysis of the interaction
between chemical, biological, and physical elements present in the
environment, and their impact on the ecosystem and the organisms living in
it.
b. Ecology is the in-depth analysis of the interaction of organisms with their
environment, along with their interaction with abiotic components (also
known as the non-living physical or chemical elements) present within the
environment. It is a field that integrates other sciences including geography,
biology and Earth science. Aside from analyzing the different types of
relationships that exist between organisms, ecology also focuses on diversity
and distribution, along with the number of organisms present in the
ecosystem (Difference Guru, (2017).
4. The importance of Environmental Science/Ecology:
Earth, our home is a truly a unique place providing us not only what we all need
to survive but also delivers the destructive forces with great furry. History full of this
event of creation of destruction, and man has been at the forefront of
understanding this life drama since antiquity. The reason to study environment
science as then has always been the same, survival. Environmental science today
covers, how living and nonliving things interact. It involves a lot of discipline and
fields of study such as physics, biology, chemistry, geography, oceanography, etc.
(Yohannes 2016).
a. It discloses the consequence of our action such as the effect of technology on
the destruction of the natural resources and the ecosystem, and help see
what we can do to reverse some of these destructive forces and heal the
environment, and saving ourselves in the process.
b. This study support to save our world from destruction because of human
activities or man’s abusive actions, the environment is not safe anymore.
There are extreme calamities experienced such as flashfloods, hurricanes,
super typhoons, draughts and climate change. The study of environmental
science is a great help to realize the needs to help mitigate the danger of
what is ahead and wake us up from ignorance that will not lead to extinction,
including the extinction of our specie.
c. Environmental science find solutions to different environmental issues so that
children of tomorrow will still enjoy the healthy and productive environment
we still have now. If man will only make a proper use of the different
discoveries through environmental science, then this world will definitely be a
better place to be called home not only for us but for the next generation.
d. This study is very important because of the insights it provides about the
ways in which people and nature depend on one another. Understanding the
works of ecological systems more completely allows for predictions about the
ways human activities affect the health of the earth over time.
5. Branches of Environmental Science
Uday (2016), explains the different branches and reiterated that Environmental
science is an interdisciplinary academic field that integrates physical, biological and
information sciences including:
a. Ecology (from Greek: οἶκος, "house", or "environment"; -λογία, "study of") is
the scientific analysis and study of interactions among organisms and their
environment. It is an interdisciplinary field that includes biology, geography,
and Earth science.
b. Biology is the natural science that involves the study of life and living
organisms, including their physical and chemical structure, function,
development and evolution.
c. Physics (from Ancient Greek: φυσική (ἐπιστήμη) phusikḗ
(epistḗmē) "knowledge of nature", from φύσις phúsis "nature") is the natural
science that involves the study of matter and its motion and behavior
through space and time, along with related concepts such as energy and
force.
d. Chemistry is a branch of physical science that studies the composition,
structure, properties and change of matter. Chemistry includes topics such as
the properties of individual atoms, how atoms form chemical bonds to create
chemical compounds, the interactions of substances through intermolecular
forces that give matter its general properties, and the interactions between
substances through chemical reactions to form different substances.
e. Zoology (/zuːˈɒlədʒi/, zoo-OL-luh-jee or /zoʊˈɒlədʒi/, zoh-OL-luh-jee) or
animal biology is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom,
including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and
distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with
their ecosystems. The term is derived from Ancient Greek ζῷον, zōion, i.e.
"animal" and λόγος, logos, i.e. "knowledge, study".
f. Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of
chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of
minerals and mineralized artifacts.
g. Oceanology (compound of the Greek words ὠκεανός meaning "ocean" and
γράφω meaning "write"), is the study of the physical and the biological
aspects of the ocean. It is an Earth science covering a wide range of topics,
including ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid
dynamics; plate tectonics and the geology of the sea floor; and fluxes of
various chemical substances and physical properties within the ocean and
across its boundaries.
h. Limnology (/lɪmˈnɒlədʒi/ lim-NOL-ə-jee; from Greek λίμνη, limne, "lake" and
λόγος, logos, "knowledge"), is the study of inland waters. It is often regarded
as a division of ecology or environmental science.
i. Soil Science is the study of soil as a natural resource on the surface of the
Earth including soil formation, classification and mapping; physical, chemical,
biological, and fertility properties of soils; and these properties in relation to
the use and management of soils.
j. Geology (from the Ancient Greek γῆ, gē, i.e. "earth" and -λoγία, -logia, i.e.
"study of, discourse") is an earth science concerned with the solid Earth, the
rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over
time.
k. Atmospheric Science is an umbrella term for the study of the Earth's
atmosphere, its processes, the effects other systems have on the
atmosphere, and the effects of the atmosphere on these other systems.
l. Geodesy ( /dʒiːˈɒdᵻsi/) — also known as geodetics, geodetic engineering — a
branch of applied mathematics and earth sciences, is the scientific discipline
that deals with the measurement and representation of the Earth (or any
planet), including its gravitational field, in a three-dimensional time-varying
space.
6. Components of Environmental Science
a. Atmospheric sciences focus on the Earth's atmosphere, with an emphasis
upon its interrelation to other systems. Atmospheric sciences can include
studies of meteorology, greenhouse gas phenomena, atmospheric dispersion
modeling of airborne contaminants, sound propagation phenomena related to
noise pollution, and even light pollution.
b. Ecology is the study of the interactions between organisms and their
environment. Ecologists might investigate the relationship between a
population of organisms and some physical characteristic of their
environment, such as concentration of a chemical; or they might investigate
the interaction between two populations of different organisms through some
symbiotic or competitive relationship.
c. Environmental chemistry is the study of chemical alterations in the
environment. Principal areas of study include soil contamination and water
pollution. The analysis include chemical degradation in the environment,
multi-phase transport of chemicals (for example, evaporation of a solvent
containing lake to yield solvent as an air pollutant), and chemical effects
upon biota.
d. Geosciences include environmental geology, environmental soil science,
volcanic phenomena and evolution of the Earth's crust. In some classification
systems this can also include hydrology, including oceanography (Mondal,
2020).
7. History
a. DURING THE PRE – 18TH CENTURY
● 4TH Century B.C.E: ARISTOTLE– ecological thought is said to derive its
roots from the early teachings of philosophy, ethics, and politics.
● ARISTOTLE and THEOPHRASTUS - were considered as the one of the first
ecologists who had the interest of studying plants and animals. Theophrastus
had described several interrelationships that exist between living organisms
and their environment.
b. Early 18th Century
● Two schools of thought dominated the growing scientific study of
ecology.
- Arcadian Ecology – advocates for “simple, humble life for man” and
nature.
- Imperial Ecology – believe in the establishment of man’s dominance over
nature through the exercise of reason and by hard work.
● 1758: CAROLUS LINNAEUS – also known as Carl von Linne pioneered the
field of taxonomy, the science of naming and classifying organisms. He also
discovered a vast number of plants and animals and recorded them in his
book entitled “Systema Naturae”.
c. DURING THE 19TH CENTURY
● Early 19th century: countries such as Great Britain, Portugal, and Spain
have set several expeditions to discover new natural resources and to make
records about them.
● 1804: ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT– reported an impressive number of
species, particularly plants, for which he sought to explain their geographic
distribution with respect to geological data. One year after, he published his
work entitled “Idea for Plant Geography”. He was considered as the father of
ecology by many scholars.
● 1859: CHARLES DARWIN– proposed his theory of evolution and adaptation.
According to this theory, organisms change over time because of their
inherited traits and characters. Such evolutionary changes are what then
allow them to adapt better to their environment. He published all his
observations, proposed mechanisms, and discoveries in his book entitled “On
the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection”.
● 1869: EARNST HAECKEL– coined the term “ecology”. Since then, ecology
became the study of the relationships of organisms with their environment.
● 1875: EDUARD SEUSS – first defined the term biosphere (Greek word bios –
life and sphaira – sphere) as the system composed of living organisms and
their environment.
● 1879: not long after, symbiosis or the living together in more or less intimate
association or close union of two dissimilar organisms was first described.
● 1895: EUGEN WARMING – introduced the discipline of biogeography.
Biogeography, as its name suggests, is the study of the geographic
distribution of living things. Under this discipline, abiotic factors like wind,
fire, temperature, etc. are being studied.
● The study of ecology was greatly enhanced by the discovery of nitrogen cycle
by Antoine Lavoisier and Theodore de Saussure. Nitrogen is considered
as one of the major nutrients important for the survival of all living organisms
and the discovery of how it is cyclically produced into various forms paved
the way for the better understanding of nutrients uptake in living organisms.
d. 20th CENTURY UP TO THE PRESENT
● 1920: The study of human ecology emerged. The goal of this discipline was
to increase the role of ecological science in the management of cities and
residential places.
● 1926: VLADIMIR I. VERNADSKY in his book entitled the “the Biosphere”,
redefined biosphere as the global ecological system integrating all living
beings and their relationships, including their interaction with the elements of
the lithosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere.
● 1935: ARTHUR TANSLEY coined the term ecosystem as the biological
community of interacting organisms and their physical environment. Because
of this, ecology became the science of ecosystems.
● 1940: RUTH PATRICK studied interdependence of organisms, particularly
freshwater ecosystems. She developed methods to measure the health of a
stream. (temperature, turbidity, ph level)
● 1950: The harmful effects of pollution to ecosystems became known to
people.
● 1953: EUGENE ODUM and HOWARD ODUM: wrote the first ecology
textbook and ecology became a university course.
● 1960: The discipline of ecology gained much public prominence because of
the widespread concern for the state of the environment.
● 1970: JAMES LOVELOCK introduced the term “Gaia”, or the idea that the
whole earth is one living entity and will ensure its own survival even if
humans destroy themselves.
● 1971: UNESCO launched the research program man and biosphere.
● 1978: conservation biology established as a discipline focusing on
environment management.
● 1980’s Scientists discover hole in the ozone over Antarctica; Water pollution
seriously reduced due to new sewage treatment practices’ Air pollution
reduced in cities as unleaded gas and catalytic converters are used in autos
● AT PRESENT: a lot of questions on different biological phenomena still
remain unanswered to guests still continue and studies still conducting (Bio
Explorer, 2019).
2: COMPONENTS OF ENVIRONMENT
A. LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of this lesson, the students should be able to:
● analyze the level of organization and factors consists the environmental
science
● provide significant examples of the interactions occurring in the ecosystem
and
● differentiate the important factors of the ecosystem.
B. KEY CONCEPTS
1. Components of Environment Definition
The environment is defined as the whole physical and biological system
surrounding man and other organisms along with various factors influencing them.
The factors are soil, air, water, light, temperature etc. These are called Abiotic
factors. Besides the abiotic factors, the environment is very much influenced by
biotic factors which include all forms of life like plants, animals, microorganisms etc.
Man is an inseparable part of the environment. Man and Environment have
very close relationship with each other. The social life of man is affected by
environment. This is the reason for various types of social and cultural activities
around the world. The hilly people have different life styles than people in the plain
area. Similarly, people around the world differ in their food, cloth, festivals etc. All
these are influenced by the factors around him.
2. Environmental Components
● Physical (Abiotic)
● Biological (Biotic)
● Social
a. The Physical component of environment includes soil, water, air, climate,
temperature, light etc. These are also called abiotic constituents of the
environment. This part of the environment mainly determines the type of the
habitat or living conditions of the human population. There are physical components
of the environment divided into three parts: Atmosphere (gas); Hydrosphere
(liquid); Lithosphere (solid).
● Atmosphere: The earth’s atmosphere, a complex fluid system of gases and
suspended particles, did not have its origin in the beginning of the planet.
The atmosphere as of today has been derived from the Earth itself by
chemical and biochemical reactions. Although the fluid system forms a
gaseous envelope around the Earth, its boundaries are not easily defined.
They can be arbitrarily defined as the Earth’s atmosphere interface and
space interface.
● Hydrosphere: Is the discontinuous layer of water at or near Earth’s surface.
It includes all liquid and frozen surface waters, groundwater held in soil and
rock, and atmospheric water vapor. Water is the most abundant substance at
the surface of Earth.
● Lithosphere: It is the outer boundary layer of solid earth and the
discontinuity within the mantle. The outer boundary forms a complex
interface with the atmosphere and hydrosphere and is also the environment
in which life has evolved. The inner boundary is adjacent to rock, which is
near its melting point and is capable of motion relative to the lithosphere
above.
b. The biological constituent of environment is also called biotic component
of environment. This component consists of all living things like plants, animals
and small micro-organisms like bacteria. This component interacts with the abiotic
component of the environment. This interaction of two components forms various
ecosystems like pond ecosystem, marine ecosystem, desert ecosystem etc.
Biosphere: The biosphere encompasses all the zones on the Earth in which life is
present, i.e. entire bio-resources of the earth. It develops on earth since 4.5 billion
year through evolutionary process. At the top of the lithosphere, throughout the
hydrosphere and into the lower atmosphere, life of diverse type exists. These bio-
resources and their surrounding constitute the “Biosphere” where mankind acts as
the most evolved creature.
c. The social constituent of environment mainly consists of various groups of
population of different living organisms like birds, animals etc. Man is the most
intelligent living organism. Like other living creatures, man builds house, prepares
food and releases waste materials to the environment. Man is a social animal as
told by Greek philosopher, Aristotle. He makes various laws, policies for the proper
functioning of the society (GKTODAY, 2019).
