People & Enviroment Material

environment
the sum of conditions surrounding man at a given place

types of environment
pysical - the basic suitability of an area for human occupance. Such area that with normal temperature
and all are called edumen areas and which are not suitable are called non-edumen areas
biotic - includes plants and animal life of that area, which is the manifestation of its physical
environment, these both together are called natural environment
cultural - outcome of the interaction of humans with their physical and biotic environment, also called
anthropogenic or human environment

components
abiotic or physical or nonliving - soil minerals water etc, its subdivided into three components
lithosphere - solid crust of earth
hydrosphere - large bodies of water
atmosphere - envelope of air surrounding earth upto the several hundred kms.
Biotic - all plants and animal life, called organic

ecosystems
interaction between organism and environment called ecology, which leads to synthesis and transfer of
energy in the form of organic matter or biomass, the organisms in an ecosystem are linked together by
means of energy flows, which is maintained in the form of food chains.
plants are the primary producers of food or biomass in an ecosystem trough photosynthesis

components of ecosystem
autotrophs - which produce food directly from the abiotic components like plants
heterotrophs - which don’t produce or synthesis, on the basis of the food they consume , can be
classified into: herbivorous, carnivorous, omnivorous, detrivorous, decomposers (which decompose
organic matter into inorganic components such as becteria, saprophytes (grow on decaying organic
matter such as mushrooms)

conventional
coal, oil and gas, hydro (turbine), tidal (bulb type turbines), geothermal (energy within 10 kms of earths
upper crust), bio (gobar gas)

non- concentioanal
solar, wind, ocean (solar radiation), wave, nuclear, atomic

food chain and energy flow

the movement of biomass in the ecosystem through the process of organisms eating and being by other
group of organisms. In most of the ecosystems the food chains are parallel to each other and they are

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interlinked also. All these chains are interconnected and called food web.
movement of energy from one tropic community to another is called energy flow
the sun is the only perennial source of energy in ecosystem,the flow of energy follows some rules of
thermodynamics, according to one of them energy flows in one way movement and neither created nor
destroyed. however no change of state or form of energy is one hundred per cent efficient. some energy
is lost in the process of conversing , which is called entropy, entropy of a system is an indicator of the
degree of disorder in a system

energy efficiency
the ratio between amount of energy input and energy output of a system

tropical structure of ecosystem

hierarchical arrangements of the organisms in terms of the link they occupy in the food chain. All
organisms get food from a common source called tropical community for example all gazing animals are
from one tropical community

nutrient
chemical compunds of elements that are needed for production of biomass. Photosynthesis plants obtain
nutrients from their physical or a biotic environment and synthesis organic matter by combining these
nutrients and energy
macronutrients - nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorous, and carbon
micronutrients - iron, copper, iodine and zinc

nutrient cycle vs energy flow

energy moves along a linear path but nutrients are circulated in cyclic manner

ecological subsidy
when ecological systems receive energy or nutrients from other ecosystems , such subsidies common in
man-induced ecosystems, for ex modern agricultural ecosystems receive additional subsidies through
human effort to increase production such as irrigation and chemical fertilizers

maintainance of ecological balance

the state of balance in ecosystems maintained through an adjustment in the size of communities in
various trophic levels

environment degradation
effect on land - intensive farming leads to depletion of soil fertility, and chemical fertilizer and
insectisides
over irrigation makes problem of water lodging
rail and road construction
rock blasting activities leads to land slides

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effect on water - addition of undesirable substance, adding organic wastes by household water and toxic
chemicals by industries, agriculture and automobiles oils etc
presence of organic matter in water bodies increases the biological oxygen demand(bod) of the water
bodies and this leads to water shortage and death of aquatic animals
the minimata bay (japan) incident involving several deaths was a result of such accumulation of toxic
(mercury) substance in the bodies of fish and finally human food chain

effect on air - emmision from industries thermal power plants and automobiles are the leading sources of
increased amount of compound of carbon, nitrogen and sulphur in the atmosphere.
Increasing consumption of fossil fuels like coal and petroleum has led to increasing amount of carbon
dioxide, oxides of nitrogen, sulphur and tropospheric ozone
household combustion is another source of some of these pollutants
increase in tropospheric ozone and depletion of stratospheric ozone are both related to human activites
and they have wide ranging health and climate consequence

effect on biota - many plants and animal species have gone extinct, this rapid decrease in biodiversity
during the modern period is called holocene extinction.
Crop farming and animal husbandary imply replacement of great diversity of plants and animals by few
species - replacement of diversity with simplicity is ecologically unhealthy
use of insecticides and other poisonous substances in agriculture and other fields kills many insects,
birds and micro organisms, this has adverse effect on food chains and nutrient cycles, varieties of birds
are decreasing
change in climate is believed to be the result of anthropogenic causes

pollution
a negative change in the quality of any component of the environment so that it is no longer suitable for
the intended use
undesirable change in the physical chemical and biological characteristics or air, water or land causing
harmful effect on human life

types of pollutant
biodegradable - natural organic compounds
non-biodegradable - are not consumed or acted upon by microbes but are oxidized and disassociated
automatically

air pollution
subjected to maximum pollution through anthropogenic causes
increased amount of carbon di oxide in atmosphere
carbon di oxide and methane is also a greenhouse gas contributing to rise in temperature.
green house gas responsible for global rise in temperature, chief causes are increased use of fossil fuels
like coal and petroleum in industry, power houses and transport

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oxides of sulphur and nitrogen are largely contributed by the combustion of the fossil fuels, responsible
for environmental hazards like acid rains
oxides of nitrogen react with hydrocarbons to produce tropospheric ozone
cloro-flurocarbons find application in air conditioning and refrigeration. cfs break the stratosphere ozone
thereby producing ozone hole
aerosol propellants and in industrial solvents and a host of other areas

among natural sources of air polution, there is volcano eruption

heavy metal pollution in air -

lead sources - mining,automobiles and dying industries, leads to menta retardation and learning
difficulties
chromium and coal - tenneries thermal power plants fertilizers and mining
cadamium - nuclear power plants, battries ceramics, carcinogen which leads to itai itai disease
nickel - automobiles, electroplating, thermal and fertlizers
mercury - electrical equipment, cement, thermal, paper and pulp industries, damages nervous system
iron - coal mining

water pollution
organic pollutants - in the form of sewage and Municipal organic waste, agricultural residue, dairy
activity also, increases bod of water body leads to shortage of dissolved oxygen so marine organisms
start dying, leads to emmision of methane, easy to take out
chemicals in house hold and Municipal waste - not easy to take out, such as soaps and detergents,
contains lead, mercury nikel zinc and cromium, leads to heavy metal pollution of water
industrial effulence - effluents are released into lakes rivers and seas they contain acids and toxic
substances
agriculture waste - chemical fertalizer, pesticides, insecticides, herbicides etc
radioactvive pollution -

pollution of land
industrial waste, Municipal waste, farming practises

noise pollution
under 65db - ok
65-80db - intrusive
80-88db - annoying
88db - can cause hearing impairment
135-150db -painful
150 above - permanent impairment of hearning immediately

thermal pollution
higher than normal temperature

marine pollution

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nulear waste oil waste

persistent pollution
toxic substances being added continuously to the environment through various human activites are
called persistent organic pollutants and enter into tissues of plants and animals, long lasting chamicals
do not degenerate and build up food chain
ddt - reduced population of birds,
malathion - cures malaria but affects respiratory system
pcb - disrupts hormone systems causes carcinomas, low iq levels

biomagnification , bio concentration

some chemicals tend to get concentrated in plants or animal tissues, the concentration becomes much
higher in the body
this is fatal for one who occupies higher position in the food chain
in minimata bay incident higher lead in maine organisms
lead, cadamium, copper, zinc etc

natural hazards and disasters

conditions that under certain circumstances can lead to damage to human life and property river, such
events are generally called disasters which are defines as sudden events causing loss of life and property,
floods droughts cyclones earthquakes are typical types of natural hazards.

current environmental issues

global warming - rise in the temperature of the atmosphere of the earth, because of increasing amount of
green house gases that absorb heat and keep the atmosphere warm, water wapour methane and carbon di
oxide are such gases energy absorbers,
kyotoprotocal - reducing carbon emmision getting diluted as a result of such controversies

ozone deplition
ozonosphere, the zone in the stratosphere at a height of 20 to 30 kms where ozone occurs in the
maximum amount, acts as ablanket protecting the earth from radiation, while ozone is synthsized
through the action of ultravoilet light on oxygen, deleption takes place thought cloroflurocarbons and
oxides of nitrogens
monetral protocol - to restric the use of cfcs

loss of biodiversity
hunting animals, clearing forests for obtainian land and woods leads to the loss of species
national biodiversity strategy and action plan - evolved by earth summit in rio di genero in 1992
biosphere researve- evolved though man and biosphere program of unesco, india has established several
biosphere reserve

loss of forests

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for woods and cultivation forests shrinking, they work as carbon sinks, problems like floods, depleting
ground water resources, less rainfall

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