▣ “The earth provides enough to satisfy every
person’s need but not every person’s greed”
- Mahatma Gandhi
▣ Definition : It is the physical and biotic
habitat that surrounds us.
Landmark judgment of
supreme court
▣ To prescribe a course on the
environment for colleges
▣ To consider the feasibility of making
it compulsory subject at every level
in college education.
ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION
▣ Article 51A(g) of the constitution provides “It
shall be the duty of every citizen of India to
protect & improve the natural environment
including forests, lakes, rivers & wildlife & to
have compassion for living creatures.
▣ Article 48-A of the constitution provides “The
state shall Endeavour to protect & improve the
environment & to safeguard forests & wildlife
of the country”
Legal
Obligation
▣ VTU has introduced the subject at I Year level
as a Core Subject, in compliance with UGC
directive (2005) Supreme Court in it’s
Judgment has made learning of the subject
Mandatory at Under Graduate Level.
(1991)University Grants Commission has
Directed all affiliated institutions to
compulsorily teach the subject, for all the
branches of Engineering.
You are going to be Modern day Professionals
Being Modern day Professionals, You will be
required to encounter Environment related problems
at all levels- Most importantly as Technical Managers
directly facing the Society at large.
Environmentalism...
▣ Who initiated environmentalism?
▣ Its Rachel Carson
▣ She in 1962 published a book named “Silent
Spring”
▣ In that she explained about DDT’s health
hazards.
▣ Its James
Lovelock in 1972 Created the
“Gaia Theory” and continued the
environmental awareness.
▣ The science that deals with our eco system is
Ecology.
▣ Berry Commoner explains about ecology as
“The 1st law of ecology is that everything is
related to everything else”
▣ According to him an ecosystem can be viewed
as a biotic assemblage of plants, animals,
microbes taken together with their
physico-chemical environment.
▣ The term ecosystem was coined in 1935 by
the British ecologist Sir Arthur George
Tansley, who described natural systems as
“constant interchange among their living
and nonliving parts”
▣ The term “Ecology” is derived from GREEK
“oikos” which means “House”
▣ Similarly the term “Ecosystem” was
originated from FRENCH
▣ E.P. Odum is known as ‘Father of Ecology’
Types of ecosystems:
▣ Coastal
▣ Mangrove
▣ Coral reef
▣ Estuarine
▣ Pond
▣ Arctic
▣ Antarctic
▣ Forest
▣ Grassland
▣ Desert etc.
▣ Ecology mainly has 3 groups:
▣ Producers: Plants, bacteria that have
capacity of producing their own food
▣ Consumers: Animals that obtain energy and
protein directly by grazing, feeding on other
animals or both
▣ Decomposers/Recyclers: These are fungi
and bacteria that decompose the organic
matter into inorganic substances that can be
reused. So these are the “Recyclers of
biosphere”.
Some terms about ecosystem:
▣ Ecological footprint: The minimum area where in
components of ecosystem can sustain to live
indefinite period.
▣ Homeostasis: The tendency of ecosystem to maintain
an equilibrium and to resist the changes.
▣ Two important aspects of ecology:
Autecology- It is a study of individual species
and its population
Synecology- It is the study of communities, their
composition and their behavior
COMPONENTS OF ECOSYSTEM:
▣ Biotic: a) Autotrophs: Organisms which can
produce their own food- green plants- they are
known as producers.
b)Heterotrophs: Those organisms which
depends directly or indirectly upon the autotrophs
for their food, thus known as Heterotrophs or
consumers.
▣ Abiotic components: The physical
environment with its several interacting
variables constitutes several nonliving
components. It consists of lithosphere, water of
the hydrosphere, the gaseous mixture in the air
& radiant solar energy.
A single energy source for all – SUN.
Ecological Succession
▣ Ecological succession is a process through which
ecosystems tend to change over a period of time.
▣ Succession can be related to seasonal
environmental changes, which create changes in
the community of plants and animals living in
the ecosystem. Other succession events may take
much longer periods of time extending to several
decades.
▣ It is actually an open system
▣ In this system unlike eco system large amount of
energy or matter is transferred from producer to
consumers, whereas in ecosystem it is from
producer to recyclers.
▣ A close physical proximity is present in
ecosystem, while it is absent in anthroposystem.
Classification of ecosystem:
1)Terrestrial: Forest, grassland, desert, mountain etc.
2)Aquatic: Running water (lotic), standing water
(lentic), marine
▣ Biome can be defined as various similar eco
systems throughout the world together.
▣ Is a large area with similar flora, fauna and the
micro organisms.
▣ The major biomes are mountains, forests,
marine/island, deserts, grassland, savannah
etc.,
▣ Energy flows through the eco system in the
form of C-C bonds.
▣ C-C bond rupture makes possible the
formation of CO2
▣ Inorganic nutrient will be usually in the form of
essential elements like P, S, Ca, Na, Fe, Zn, etc.,
(1) Food chain:
It’s a path of food from a given consumer back
to producer.
Ex:
Grass - Grasshopper - Mouse - Snake - Hawk
▣ The 3 main basic categories:
◆ The predator chain- starts from a plant base and
goes from smaller to larger animals
◆ The parasitic chain- goes from larger to smaller
organisms
◆ The saprophytic chain-goes from dead matter to
micro organisms
Presence of many food chains in environment produces a
food web.
(2) Ecological pyramids:
◻ Charles Elton in 1927 , a British ecologist
developed this concept.
◻ It involves the arrangement of trophic levels.
◻ At each trophic level number of organisms
decreases.
◻ Trophic level refers to as the position of the
organism in the food chain.
▣ A diagram that shows a general ecological pyramid-
Higher
carnivorous
Carnivorous
Primary consumers
Producers
“An environment having systematic food chains/
food webs OR ecological pyramids without any
imbalances/disturbances is said to be an “balanced
eco system”.
Some points about aquatic system:
▣ 3 main ecological categories:
Planktons- Small / microscopic, free floating
organisms
Nektons- Larger / more strongly swimming
organisms
Benthos- Abyssal organisms
▣ Human activities have the capacity to alter the
ecosystem in ways that threaten the very
processes and components upon which
human depend!!!
The activities may be listed as
a) The process of exhausting fossil fuels
b) Almost more than half of earth’s land has been
transformed
c) More than half of accessible water has been
consumed
d) Increase in greenhouse gases concentration
e) Marine and terrestrial areas including fisheries
has been exploited
▣ So there is a need of creation of environmental
awareness among the public and the students.
▣ Scientific and engineering research is also
playing an important role in understanding
and protecting the environment
Some environmental Movements:
Chipko Movement- Sunderlal Bahuguna
Narmada Bachao- Medha Patkar
Save water- Shree Padre
