EN T &

RO N M
EN V I E M
SYST
EC O
 ENVIRONMENT
• Environment means surrounding
and refers to biosphere i.e. sphere
of life.
• Biosphere has three segments
1. Atmosphere (gaseous),
2. Hydrosphere (liquid) &
3. Lithosphere (solid).
Atmosphere Hydrosphere Lithosphere

1. Troposphere 1. Ocean 1. Earth crust

2. Stratosphere 2. Glacier
3. Mesosphere 3. Rivers
4. Thermosphere 4. Lakes
5. Ionosphere 5. Streams
6. Exosphere
 Atmosphere
• Atmosphere extends up to nearly 560km
above the surface of earth.
• The atmosphere sustains life process by
providing oxygen, carbon dioxide
(essential for PHOTOSYNTHESIS)
• Formation of clouds, winds and storms
(requirements for the creation of
WEATHER AND CLIMATE) etc,
 Function of atmosphere
• Absorbs most of the Cosmic rays and a major
portion of EM radiations.
• Transmits only near UV, VIS and IR radiations (300-
250nm) and radio waves (0.14-40m)
• Filters tissue damaging UV radiation below 300nm
• Maintains a balance of heat on earth by protecting
from excessive heat during day time (by absorbing
IR radiation emitted by sun) and prevents excess
loss of heat at night (GREEN HOUSE EFFECT).
• So earth is the only planate where life process
sustains.
 Composition of Atmosphere

Important
Altitude Temperature
Region Chemical
in kms range (in C)
0
constituents

1. Troposphere 0-12 170 → ̶ 560C N2, O2, CO2, H2O

2. Stratosphere 12-50 ̶ 560 → ̶ 20C O
3
3. Mesosphere 50-85 ̶ 20 → ̶
O2+, NO+
4. Thermosphere 85-500 920C
O+, O2+, NO+
̶ 920→
12000C
 Temperature Profile of Atmosphere
140

120
Thermosphere

100 O+, O2+, NO+

-920C
Altitude in Kms

80

Mesosphere
O2+, NO+
60
-20C

40
Stratosphere
O3
20 -560C
N2, O2, CO2, H2O
Troposphere
0
150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650

Temperature in 0 Kelvine
 Hydrosphere
• Hydrosphere includes oceans, seas, rivers,
lakes, streams, glaciers, polar ices, ground
water etc.
• It covers about 70% of earth surface.
• It contains about 1360milion cubic kilometers
of water, out of which 97% in oceans and
seas, 2% in glaciers and polar ice and only 1%
present in lakes, streams, rivers and
underground water sources.
 Lithosphere
• (Litho rock) It is the top crust of earth on which
the ocean basins and continents lie.
• It’s thickness is high (av. 40kms) in the continental
regions while it is low (av. 12km) in the oceanic basins.
• Though it includes both the land mass and the ocean
basin, it is usually used to indicate the land surface.
• The lithosphere below the crust is brittle at some
places which produces earth quacks.
• But the Asthenosphere below the lithosphere
including the lower mantel is the ductile part of the
earth.
 Ecology
1. “Oekologie”.
a. Oikos means house
b. logus means study of
2. Study of interaction between living (biotic)
and non-living (abiotic) components and their
inter-dependence.
3. i.e. the study of interaction between the living
organisms and the physical and chemical
components of the environments (non-living).
cont….
 Ecology
4. Ecology is Environmental biology.
. Thus it gives the information about life history of
organisms and environment.
5. It is divided into two classes
a. autecology
b. synecology.
6. Autecology deals with the life history, behavior,
population growth of a single species.
7. Synecology deals with interaction between
populations of different species living together
(community) and with their environment.
 Ecosystem process
In Ecosystem the various
components ( biotic and
abiotic) are inter connected in
such manner that the change in
any one component results in
related change in other w.r.t
space and time.
 Ecosystem process
various organization levels:
1. Individual: like human beings, cats, dogs
2. Population: Group of individuals of the same
species I.e., human population, dog population, etc.
3. Community: Population of different species
living together. Community occurs in habitats. For
example in a pond habitat, there are snakes, frogs,
microbes, plants etc. microbes eat plant, frogs eat
microbes, snake eat frog, and finally snakes are
eaten by hawks living nearby.
 Ecosystem process
4.Ecosystem: The system contains both the
living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic)
components together constitutes ecosystem. [
5.Biomes: A very large ecosystem is called as
biome. For example desert, grass land, tropical
rain forests etc are examples of Biomes.
6.Biosphere: The highest organization level
is biosphere which interacts with lithosphere,
hydrosphere and atmosphere.
 Types of ecosystems
• It may be classified as
i) natural ecosystem
ii) artificial ecosystem
 Natural ecosystem
It is divided into two categories.
1. Terrestrial ecosystem: For example, forest, green
lands cultivated lands, deserts etc.
2. Aquatic ecosystem: Ponds, rivers, lakes and seas etc.
these are of two kinds
a. Fresh water ecosystem: It may be lotic I.e
running water ecosystem, streams, springs, rivers,
etc or lentic (I,e standing water ecosystem like lake,
ponds etc.
b. Marine water ecosystem: This includes oceans
and seas.
 Artificial ecosystem
* Manmade ecosystems
* maintained by man.
* lawn, park, garden, croplands
* but decay or destroy
quickly.
 ECOSYSTEM

BIOTIC (living) ABIOTIC (non-living)

HETEROTR
AUTOTROP OPHS PHYSICAL
HS (depend FACTORS CHEMICAL
(produce on (heat, cold, FACTORS
food) autotrophs weather)
)
 Heterotrophs

Macro consumers

Primary consumers

Tertiary consumers

Secondary consumers

Micro-consumer

Parasitic

Saprophytic
Food chain
 Function of Ecosystem
• Energy flow
• Nutrient cycle
• It controls the modification of the environment by the
organism and vice-versa, e,g. nitrogen fixation by bacteria is
said to be “ environment regulation by organism”. And
photo-periodism is said to be the “ the organism regulation
by the environment”.
• Environmental gradient (tolerance): The ecosystem fixes limit
of tolerance for each organism towards various factors of
environments.
• Food chain & food web:
• Biodiversity: the ecosystem regulates the species diversity to
acquire a stable system,i.e. wider the variety of organisms the
greater the stability
Bioenergetics
Biogeochemical cycles
Biogeochemical cycles
Biogeochemical cycles
Biogeochemical cycles
 ECOLOGYCAL PYRAMIDS
• These are the graphic representation of
the numbers, biomass and energy of the
successive trophic levels of an
ecosystem.
• It is represented in three ways
i) pyramid of number
ii) pyramid of biomass
iii) pyramid of energy.
 R L
A I
Grass
B Z land ecosystem (number)
B A
R H
I D A
T , W
, K

M
I
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GE
N
R, A
A K
SI E
N
SS
y i
t f
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p r
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a a
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t
o f
n i
s
h
(
a
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a
 s r
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Parasitic
n , food chain (number)
F
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P g
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a a o ,
n t r
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s n s
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(
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 R
A L
Grass
B I land ecosystem (biomass)
B ZA H
I R A
T D W
, , K

M
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A
R, K
A E
SI
N
SS
 B
i ecosystem (biomass)
Pond
s g
m
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o l i
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p s
P
h l f h
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o
 0
1
2
3
4
5
6
species absent (intoler-
ance)

low population (physio-

logical stress)

tolerance
lower limit of
Optimum range

low population (physiolog-

ical stress)
tolerance
Tolerance level of environmental factors

upper limit of

species absent (in-

tolerance)
THANK YOU