Ecology and Environment

LECTURE-01BARCH,IX-th Semester

SCHOOL OF PLANNING AND ARCHITECTURE, BHOPAL

ECOLOGY?ENVIRONMENT?

WHY IS IT REQUIRED TO KNOW?

WHAT IS THE SCOPE?

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Eugene P. Odum

I prefer to define ecology as:

The study of the structure and function of ecosystems or ..

What is Ecology ???

The study of the structure and function of nature.

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1) The composition of the biological community including species, numbers, biomass, life history and distribution in space of populations.

2) The quantity and distribution of the abiotic (non-living) materials such as nutrients, water, etc.

3) The range, or gradient, of conditions of existence such as temperature, light, etc.

Structure ???

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1. The rate of biological energy flow through the ecosystem, that is, the rates of production and the rates of respiration of the populations and the community.

2. The rate of material or nutrient cycling, that is, the biogeochemical cycles.

3. The biological or ecological regulation including both regulation of organisms by environment and regulation of environment by organisms.

Function ???

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Odum, E. P. 1971. Fundamentals of Ecology. Third Edition. Saunders.

http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~franz/top_ecosystem/documents/page3.2.html

"Living organisms ( biotic) and their nonliving ( abiotic) environment are inseparably interrelated and interact upon each other.

Any unit that includes all of the organisms (i.e., the "community") in a given area interacting with the physical environment so that a flow of energy leads to clearly defined trophic structure, biotic diversity, and material cycles (i.e., exchange of materials between living and nonliving parts) within the system is an ecological system or ecosystem."

Ecosystem ???

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As per Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, environment includes all the physical and biological surroundings of an organism along with their interactions.

Environment is thus defined as the sum total of water, air and land and the inter-relationships that exist among them and with the human beings, other living organisms and materials.

Environment ???

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BARC 0903 Ecology and environment credit 1

Introduction Meaning and scope of ecology; evolution of ecology; man, environment and ecosystem; components of

nature and basis concepts and processes of ecology; flow of material water energy, invasion, succession, predation, regulatory forces, adaptation, trophic levels, food chain, food web, ecological pyramids; Environmental zones.

Ecosystem and its Relevance to Environment Resources and human settlements impact of advanced agricultural methods, urbanization and

industrialization on nature; urban ecosystem approach evolution and significance; soil, water, land, vegetation and solar, biomas, wind, hydro energy resources; settlement planning and energy conservation; development and management

Quantitative Ecology Introduction to quantitative ecology, identification of ecological parameters for planning at different

levels; site planning, settlement planning and regional planning; data needs and format for data collection; types of analysis required to evolve ecological parameters. Planning for environmentally sensitive areas.

Environmental Impact Studies EIA - meaning, significance and framework; Methodologies - checklist, matrices, network and social cost-

benefit analysis; sources and acquisition of environmental information; Environmental land use classification; Environment impact studies of development projects.

Environmental Policies Global and national policies on environment; Five year plans in relation to environmental aspects; Legal

measure for protection of environment; Environmental awareness and education in India; Agencies involved in environment protection; Public participation; Role of planners in shaping the future environment

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Environmental studies as a subject has a wide scope. It encompasses a large number of areas and aspects, which may be summarized as follows:

Natural resourcestheir conservation and managementEcology and biodiversityEnvironmental pollution and controlSocial issues in relation to development and environmentHuman population and environment

These are the basic aspects of environmental studies which have a direct relevance to every section of the society. Environmental studies can also be highly specialized concentrating on more technical aspects like environmental science, environmental engineering or environmental management.

In the recent years, the scope of environmental studies has expanded dramatically the world over.

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Several career options have emerged in this field that are broadly categorized as:(i) Research & Development (R & D) in environment: Skilled environmental scientists havean important role to play in examining various environmental problems in a scientific mannerand carry out R & D activities for developing cleaner technologies and promoting sustainabledevelopment.There is a need for trained manpower at every level to deal with environmental issues.Environmental management and environmental engineering are emerging as new careeropportunities for environmental protection and management. With the pollution control lawsbecoming more stringent, industries are finding it difficult to dispose off the wastes produced.In order to avoid expensive litigation, companies are now trying to adopt green technologies,which would reduce pollution.. (ii) Green advocacy: With increasing emphasis on implementing various Acts and Laws relatedto environment, need for environmental lawyers has emerged, who should be able to plead thecases related to water and air pollution, forest, wildlife etc.(iii) Green marketing: While ensuring the quality of products with ISO mark, now there is anincreasing emphasis on marketing goods that are environment friendly. Such products haveecomark or ISO 14000 certification. Environmental auditors and environmental managerswould be in great demand in the coming years.(iv) Green media: Environmental awareness can be spread amongst masses through mass medialike television, radio, newspaper, magazines, hoardings, advertisements etc. for whichenvironmentally educated persons are required.(v) Environment consultancy: Many non-government organisations (NGOs), industries andgovernment bodies are engaging environmental consultants for systematically studying andtackling environment related problems.

SCOPE?

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HOW IS IT IMPORTANT FOR ARCHITECTS AND PLANNERS?

Whats the use of a beautiful house if you dont have a decent planet to put it on?

Henry D. Thoreau

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Urban Ecology ???

What makes urban ecology unique or different from just ecology?

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It is absolutely essential to CREATE ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS because:

(i) Environment belongs to all and participation of masses is a must for successful implementation of environmental protection plans.

(ii) Living in a technologically developing society, our lifestyles and attitudes have become selforiented.Environmental awareness is needed to change the mindset of modern society for anearth-oriented approach.

(iii) There is a need to make the public environmentally aware of the serious health impacts ofenvironmental pollution and their right to live in a clean and healthy environment.

(iv) There is an urgent need to create awareness amongst people that we have no other option but to follow sustainability principles. Only then life of mankind on this earth would be secure and our future generations would be safe.

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Take a small quiz.

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IDENTIFY THE LADYQ1

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.PROMOTED THE CHIPKO MOVEMENT and TEHRI BACHAO ANDOLAN

Sh.Sundarlal Bahuguna

Q2

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are known for their Narmada BachaoAndolan,

Smt. Medha Patkar and Ms. Arundhati Roy

Q3

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the Magsaysay awardee .known for his water conservation efforts

Sh. Rajender Singh

Q4

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..is a renowned ornithologist, famous for his work on Indian birds.

Salim Ali

Q5

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The organisms feeding on dead organisms are called(a) Carnivores(b) Decomposers(c) Detritivores(d) Omnivores.

Q6

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Which of the following is NOT a correct pair?

(a) World Forest DayMarch 21

(b) Environment DayJune 5

(c) World Population DayJuly 11

(d) World Day for WaterMay 22.

Q7

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At the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held at Rio de Janeiro, in 1992, known popularly as .and ten years later, the World Summit on Sustainable Development, held at Johannesberg in 2002

Earth Summit,

Q8

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Nobel peace prize, 2007 was awarded jointly to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) headed by Indian Environmentalist Dr. R.K. Pachauri, and former US vice-president Al Gore. IPCC, the UN body comprising of 3,000 experts from various fields is an authority on global warming and its impacts.The award to IPCC is in appreciation of its efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about manmade climate change and to lay the foundation for the measures that are needed to counteract such change. Al Gore is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater world-wide understanding to the measures that need to be adopted, observed the Norwegian Nobel Committee while naming the joint winner of the award.

Q9

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While ensuring the quality of products with ISO mark, now there is an increasing emphasis on marketing goods that are environment friendly. Such products have Ecomark or ISO 14000

certification

Q10

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Some mundane BUT IMPORTANT definitions..

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Ecology is

The study of the distribution and abundance of organisms,

ANDthe flows of energy and materials

between abiotic and biotic components of ecosystems.

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Ecology is the study of the relationships between living things (within species and between different species), and between them and their environment.

Ecologists are the people who study this subject

The term Ecology was coined by Earnst Haeckel in 1869. It is derived from the Greek wordsOikos- home + logos- study.\ So ecology deals with the study of organisms in their natural home interacting with their surroundings. The surroundings or environment consists of other living organisms, the (biotic) and physical (abiotic) components.

Modern ecologists believe that an adequate definition of ecology must specify some unit of study and one such basic unit described by Tansley (1935) was ecosystem.

An ecosystem is a self-regulating group of biotic communities of species interactingwith one another and with their non-living environment exchanging energy and matter. Nowecology is often defined as the study of ecosystems.

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Ecosystems: Basic Concepts

What is meant by an ecosystem The biotic and abiotic community Food chains, trophic levels, ecological pyramid Water and carbon cycles Benefits from ecosystem services

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What is an ecosystem? System = regularly interacting and

interdependent components forming a unified whole

Ecosystem = an ecological system;= a community and its physical environment treated together as a functional system

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Ecosystem

Ecosystem: Defined area in which a community lives with interactions taking place among the organisms between the community and its non-living physical environment.

An ecosystem is formed by the interactions between all living and non-living things

How do living and non-living things interact in an environment?

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Ecosystem Services The human economy depends upon the services performed

for free by ecosystems. The ecosystem services supplied annually are worth many

trillions of dollars. Economic development that destroys habitats and impairs

services can create costs to humanity over the long term that may greatly exceed the short-term economic benefits of the development.

These costs are generally hidden from traditional economic accounting, but are nonetheless real and are usually borne by society at large. http://www.epa.gov/watertrain/pdf/issue2.pdf

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Ecosystems:Fundamental Characteristics

Structure: Living (biotic) Nonliving (abiotic)

Process: Energy flow Cycling of matter (chemicals)

Change: Dynamic (not static) Succession, etc.

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Abiotic components: ABIOTIC components: Are non living physical and chemical factors in the

environment which affect the ecosystems. Eg radiation, temperature, water, pressure sometimes

even sound waves. Solar energy provides practically all the energy for

ecosystems. Inorganic substances, e.g., sulfur, boron, tend to cycle

through ecosystems. Organic compounds, such as proteins, carbohydrates,

lipids, and other complex molecules, form a link between biotic and abiotic components of the system.

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BIOTIC components Biotic is a living component of a communtiy. The biotic components of an ecosystem can be

classified according to their mode of energy acquisition.

In this type of classification, there are:Autotrophs and Heterotrophs

Organisms that produce their own food from an energy source, such as the sun, and inorganic compounds.

Organisms that consume other organisms as a food source.

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Modified from: General Ecology, by David T. Krome

Trophic level: the position an organism occupies in a food chain. All the organisms that are the same number of food-chain steps from the primary source of energy

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Trophic Levels A trophic level is the position occupied by an organism in a

food chain. Trophic levels can be analyzed on an energy pyramid. Producers are found at the base of the pyramid and

compromise the first trophic level. Primary consumers make up the second trophic level. Secondary consumers make up the third trophic level. Finally tertiary consumers make up the top trophic level.

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Trophic Levels Found on an Energy Pyramid

The greatest amount of energy is found at the base of the pyramid.

The least amount of energy is found at top of the pyramid.

Source: corpuschristiisd.org/user_files/91702/Ecosystem.ppt 39

Trophic Structure Reminder

Eltonian pyramids Number of individuals per species Is this pyramid stable?

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Trophic Structure Reminder

What if we transformed each species into biomass instead of absolute numbers?

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Biomass

Energy is sometimes considered in terms of biomass, the mass of all the organisms and organic material in an area.

There is more biomass at the trophic level of producers and fewer at the trophic level of tertiary consumers. (There are more plants on Earth than there are animals.)

Bio=life Mass=weight Bio + Mass = Weight of living things within an

ecosystem.

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Trophic Structure Reminder

Express trophic structure as energy transfer

Energy pyramids can never be inverted

Is there room for anyone else

at the top of this food chain?

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Food Chains

The producers, consumers, and decomposers of each ecosystem make up a food chain.

There are many food chains in an ecosystem. Food chains show where energy is transferred

and not who eats who.

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Example of a Food Chain

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Food Webs All the food chains in an area make up the food web of the area.

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2003 John Wiley and Sons Publishers

Food web of a hot spring

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2003 John Wiley and Sons Publishers

Fig 6.5 Food web of the harp seal.

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Urban Ecology

An interdisciplinary study of the urban ecosystem

Origin of Cities

Through most of history, the human population has lived a rural lifestyle.

Settled communities of people became possible with the advent of agriculture (10,000 to 4,000 BC).

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City YearBecame #1 Population Information

Memphis, Egypt 3100 BCE Well over 30,000Akkad, Babylonia (Iraq) 2240Lagash, Babylonia (Iraq) 2075

Ur, Babylonia (Iraq) 2030 65,000

Thebes, Egypt 1980Babylon, Babylonia (Iraq) 1770

Avaris, Egypt 1670

Memphis, Egypt 1557

Thebes, Egypt 1400

Nineveh, Assyria (Iraq) 668Babylon, Babylonia (Iraq) 612 First above 200,000

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Understanding how urban ecosystems function is integral to mitigating their negative effects on ecosystem services, assessing their impact on neighboring environments, and considering them in decision-making dialogue.

Institute for Ecosystem Studieshttp://www.ecostudies.org/IES_urban_ecology.html

Engaging urban dwellers is critical; their activities directly impact the way urban ecosystems function and they have a vested interest in maintaining the environmental integrity of the area they live in.

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What is Urbanization?

Often related to industrialization Up until very recently -- about 200 years

ago -- the proportion of the worlds urban population was limited to about 5%

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Speed of Urbanization

In 18003% By 190014 % In 1950 30% In 2000 47 % (about 2.8 billion)

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Human Numbers Through Time

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Name Population

1 London, United Kingdom 6,480,0002 New York, United States 4,242,0003 Paris, France 3,330,0004 Berlin, Germany 2,707,0005 Chicago, United States 1,717,0006 Vienna, Austria 1,698,0007 Tokyo, Japan 1,497,0008 St. Petersburg, Russia 1,439,0009 Manchester, United Kingdom 1,435,00010 Philadelphia, United States 1,418,000

http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa011201f.htm

Ten Largest Cities of 1900

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Name Population

1 Shanghai, China 13,278,5002 Mumbai (Bombay), India 12,622,5003 Buenos Aires, Argentina 11,928,4004 Moscow, Russia 11,273,4005 Karachi, Pakistan 10,889,1006 Delhi, India 10,400,9007 Manila, Phillipines 10,330,1008 So Paolo, Brazil 10,260,1009 Seoul, South Korea 10,165,40010 Istanbul, Turkey 9,631,700

Source: Stefan Helders, World Gazetteer, 2004. Reprinted with permission. Web: www.world-gazetteer.com .

Ten Largest Cities of 2004

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Global Urbanization Trends (contd)

Size of Urban Population in the World

(Source: United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects, The 1999 Revision) 58

Earth at Night2000 November 27

Credit: C. Mayhew & R. Simmon (NASA/GSFC), NOAA/ NGDC, DMSP Digital Archive 59

Global Urbanization Trends (contd)

(Source: United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects, The 1999 Revision)

Comparison of Urban Population in Developed Countries and Developing Countries

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Impacts of Urbanization

By concentrating humans and the resources they consume, metropolitan areas alter

soil drainage, water flow, and light availability. Furthermore they concentrate: waste energy demand

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Progression of Urban Growth

1975, 1985,1995

Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia

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Consequences of Urbanization:

Food Import Trends in Puerto Rico

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When the last tree is cutWhen the last river is dryWhen the last fish is caughtThen we realise thatMoney just cant be eaten

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Ecology and EnvironmentSlide Number 2Slide Number 3Slide Number 4Slide Number 5Slide Number 6Slide Number 7Slide Number 8BARC 0903 Ecology and environment credit 1Slide Number 10Slide Number 11Slide Number 12Slide Number 13Slide Number 14Slide Number 15Slide Number 16Slide Number 17Slide Number 18Slide Number 19Slide Number 20Slide Number 21Slide Number 22Slide Number 23Slide Number 24Slide Number 25Slide Number 26Slide Number 27Slide Number 28Ecosystems: Basic ConceptsSlide Number 30What is an ecosystem?EcosystemEcosystem ServicesEcosystems:Fundamental CharacteristicsAbiotic components:BIOTIC componentsSlide Number 37Trophic LevelsTrophic Levels Found on an Energy PyramidTrophic Structure ReminderTrophic Structure ReminderBiomassTrophic Structure ReminderFood ChainsExample of a Food ChainFood WebsFood web of a hot springFig 6.5 Food web of the harp seal.Urban EcologyOrigin of CitiesSlide Number 51Slide Number 52What is Urbanization?Speed of UrbanizationSlide Number 55Slide Number 56Slide Number 57Global Urbanization Trends (contd)Slide Number 59Global Urbanization Trends (contd)Slide Number 61Slide Number 62Slide Number 63Impacts of UrbanizationSlide Number 65Slide Number 66Slide Number 67Slide Number 68Slide Number 69Slide Number 70Slide Number 71Slide Number 72