I.

Segments of Environment
1. Lithosphere
2. Hydrosphere
3. Biosphere
4. Atmosphere

(i) Lithosphere: (Rock and the soil)

1. The solid component of earth is known as lithosphere. Lithosphere means the mantle
of rocks constituting the earth's crust.
2. It includes the soil, which covers the rock crust. Soil plays an important role as it
provides food for man and animals.
3. It is composed of soil particles and the underlying rocks down ta a depath of 50 km.
4. Soil is usually defined as "any part of earth's crust in which plants root." Muddy
bottoms of ponds or glacial deposits, porous rock surface, bottoms of lakes, peat etc., all are
thus soil.
5. A typical productive soil contains approximately 95 per cent inorganic matter and 5
per cent organic matter. Organic matter in the soil provides food for microorganism. This
matter includes amino sugars, organic sulphur, organic phosphate, and polysaccharides.
6. Soil contains silicate minerals, which includes nearly 74 per cent Silicon and Oxygen,
common elements in the soil are 46.4 % Oxygen, Silicon 27.7 %, Aluminium 8.1 %, Iron 5.6
%, Calcium 3.6 %, Sodium 2.8 %, Potassium 2.6 %, Magnesium 2.1 %. In some soils,
manganese oxide and titanium oxide are also available.
Functions of Lithosphere:
1. It is a home for human beings and wild life.
2. It is a storage house of minerals and organic matters.

(ii) Hydrosphere: (Water)

The aqueous envelope of the earth is called hydrosphere. This includes all the surface and
ground water resources such as oceans, seas, rivers, streams, lakes, reservoirs, glaciers, polar
ice caps, ground water and water locked in rock and crevices and minerals lying deep below
the earth's crust.
1. Earth is called blue planet because 80 % of its surface is covered by water. But however about
97 % of the earth's water resources is locked up in the oceans and seas, 2.4 per cent is trapped
is giant glaciers and polar ice caps. < 1% is available as fresh water for human exploitation.
2. Water is universal solvent.
3. Water is also the main medium by which chemical constituents are transported from one part
of an ecosystem to others.
4. Water has high specific heat, latent heat and relatively high freezing point.
5. Surface water contains a lot of organic matter and mineral nutrients, which feed large bacteria
population and algae.
6. The subset of the hydrosphere which includes all of the earths frozen water (snow and ice)
found in the colder latitudes is called cryosphere.
Functions of hydrosphere:
1. It is used for drinking purpose and also supports the aquatic life.
2. It is also for irrigation, power production, industries and transport.

(iii) Biosphere: (The living components of the environment)

Interaction of biological environment with physical environment (non living) is called biosphere.

The biosphere is the part of the earth in which life exists. It penetrates into and is
dependent on the atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere. This denotes the relating of living
organism and their interactions with the environment. The biosphere is a relatively thin and
incomplete envelope covering most of the world.
1. This portion extends from 10000m below sea level to 6000m above sea level. Out side this
zone life forms do not exist.
2. The temperature ranges from 5000oC near volcanic spouts to -85oC near polar region.
Functions of biosphere:
Plants through photosynthesis produce oxygen in the atmosphere. Animals inhale oxygen during
respiration and give out CO2 which is again utilized by plants during photosynthesis.

(iv) Atmosphere: (Air)

The gaseous envelope surrounding the earth is composed of an entire mass of air
containing N2, 02, H20, C02 and inert gases is known as atmosphere.
1. The atmosphere is a reservoir of several elements essential to life and serves many purposes
and functions.
2. The atmosphere is mobile, elastic, compressible and expansible.
3. Atmosphere serves many purposes and functions.
4. Different cycles those are present in the atmosphere in the form of water cycle, carbon,
oxygen, nitrogen cycle etc. related to the movement of matter been an organism and its
environment.
5. Atmosphere can be divided into several layers on the basic of temperature variations. They are
troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere and thermosphere.
6. The density of atmosphere decreases with increasing altitude.
7. Pressure at sea level is 1 atm. and at 100km above sea level is 3x107 atm.
8. Temperature varies from -100oC to 1200oC
9. Total mass is about 5x1015 tonnes.

Functions of atmosphere:
1. It absorbs most of the harmful radiations and protects the earth.
2. It maintains the heat balance of the earth by absorbing the re-emitted IR radiations from the
earth.
3. Provides life sustaining oxygen.
4. The micro nutrients N2 & CO2 needs for photo synthesis.

II. Layers of Atmosphere (or) Structure of atmosphere:

Although air is well mixed throughout the atmosphere, the atmosphere itself is not
physically uniform but has significant variations in temperature and pressure with altitude, which
define a number of atmospheric layers. These include the
1. Troposphere (Up To18 km),
2. Stratosphere (18 To 50 km),
3. Mesosphere (50 To 85km) and
4. Thermosphere (85 To 350km).
The boundaries between these four layers are defined by changes in temperature, and
include respectively the tropopause, stratopause and mesopause. In the troposphere and
mesosphere, temperature generally falls with increasing altitude and in the stratosphere and
thermosphere, temperature rises with increasing altitude.
 In addition to temperature, other criteria can be used to define different layers in the
atmosphere. The ionosphere, for example, which occupies the same region of the atmosphere as
the thermosphere, is defined by the presence of ions, a physico-chemical criterion. The region
beyond the ionosphere is known as the exosphere. The ionosphere and the exosphere together
make up the upper atmosphere (or thermosphere). The magnetosphere is the region above the
Earth's surface in which charged particles are affected by the Earth's magnetic field.
Another well-known layer of the atmosphere is the ozone layer, occupying much of the
stratosphere. This layer is defined by its chemical composition - where ozone is especially
abundant.

Troposphere
1. The lowest layer of the atmosphere is called the troposphere.
2. It occupies the region of atmosphere up to 18 km.
3. The troposphere is bounded above by the tropopause, a boundary marked by stable
temperatures. It is characterized by very cold condition, where water vapour condensed to ice.
4. Temperature usually decreases with increasing altitude in the troposphere is called positive
lapse rate. Temperature at sea level is 28oC and above sea level is -56.5oC.
5. All human activities occur only in troposphere. The tallest mountain on the earth, Everest is
only about 9km height.
6. The troposphere is denser than the layers of the atmosphere above it (because of the weight
compressing it), and it contains up to 75% of the mass of the atmosphere. It is primarily
composed of nitrogen (78%) and oxygen (21%) with only small concentrations of other trace
gases.
7. Nearly all atmospheric water vapour or moisture is found in the troposphere.
8. The troposphere is the layer where most of the world's weather takes place. Since temperature
decreases with altitude in the troposphere, warm air near the surface of the Earth can readily
rise, being less dense than the colder air above it. In fact air molecules can travel to the top of
the troposphere and back down again in a just a few days. Such vertical movement or
convection of air generates clouds and ultimately rain from the moisture within the air, and
gives rise to much of the weather which we experience.
9. Sometimes the temperature does not decrease with height in the troposphere, but increases.
Such a situation is known as a temperature inversion. Temperature inversions limit or prevent
the vertical mixing of air. Such atmospheric stability can lead to air pollution episodes with air
pollutants emitted at ground level becoming trapped underneath the temperature inversion.
10. The composition of air (gases) in this region remains more or less constant due to their
constant movement (wind) of air molecules.

Stratosphere
1. The stratosphere is the second major layer of the atmosphere. It lies above the troposphere and
is separated from it by the tropopause.
2. It occupies the region of atmosphere from about 18 to 50 km.
3. The stratosphere defines a layer in which temperatures rises with increasing altitude is called
negative lapse rate.
4. At the top of the stratosphere the thin air may attain temperatures close to 0C. This rise in
temperature is caused by the absorption of ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the Sun by the
ozone layer. (The concentration of ozone is from 5-10ppm between 20-30km by volume).
5. Such a temperature profile creates very stable atmospheric conditions, and the stratosphere
lacks the air turbulence that is so prevalent in the troposphere. Consequently, the stratosphere
is almost completely free of clouds or other forms of weather.
6. The stratosphere provides some advantages for long-distant flight because it is above stormy
weather and has strong, steady, horizontal winds.
7. The stratosphere is separated from the mesosphere above by the stratopause. Stratopause
reflects sound waves from earth back to the surface.
8. Air craft travels at the lower part of stratosphere.
9. Ozone layer in this region serves as a shield to protect the earth from harmful UV rays.

Mesosphere
1. The mesosphere is the third highest layer in our atmosphere, occupying the region 50 km to 85
km above the surface of the Earth.
2. Temperatures in the mesosphere decreases with increasing altitude to about -100C is called
positive lapse rate.
3. It contains more nitrogen oxide.
4. The mesosphere is the coldest of the atmospheric layers.

Thermosphere
1. The thermosphere (literally "heat sphere") is the outer layer of the atmosphere, separated from
the mesosphere by the mesopause.
2. Within the thermosphere temperatures rise continually to well beyond 1200C. The few
molecules that are present in the thermosphere receive extraordinary amounts of energy from
the Sun, causing the layer to warm to such high temperatures.
3. This region is characterized by low pressure and low densities.
5. The lower part of the thermosphere, from 50 to 100 km above the Earth's surface, contains the
ionosphere.
6. Beyond the ionosphere extending out to perhaps 10,000 km is the exosphere or outer
thermosphere, which gradually merges into space.

Ionosphere
1. The ionosphere is a layer of ionized air in the atmosphere extending from almost 50 km above
the Earth's surface altitudes of 100 km and more.
2. Ionisation of air molecules in the ionosphere is produced by ultraviolet radiation from the Sun,
 and to a lesser extent by high-energy particles from the Sun and from cosmic rays.
3. In this region of the atmosphere the Sun's energy is so strong that it breaks apart molecules
and atoms of air, leaving ions (atoms with missing electrons) and free-floating electrons.
4. O2 and NO present in this region absorb solar radiations and undergo ionization producing
O2+, O+ and NO+ ions.
M + h Mn+ +ne-
The large number of free electrons in the ionosphere allows the propagation of electromagnetic
waves. Radio signals - a form of electromagnetic radiation - can be "bounced" off the
ionosphere allowing radio communication over long distances.

Exosphere
The exosphere is the highest layer of the atmosphere. Together with the ionosphere, it
makes up the thermosphere. The exosphere extends to 10,000 km above the Earth's surface. This
is the upper limit of our atmosphere. The atmosphere here merges into space in the extremely
thin air. Air atoms and molecules are constantly escaping to space from the exosphere. In this
region of the atmosphere, hydrogen and helium are the prime components and are only present at
extremely low densities. This is the area where many satellites orbit the Earth.

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