Module-1
Environment and Ecosystem
Key environmental problems, their basic causes
and sustainable solutions. IPAT equation.
Ecosystem, earth – life support system and
ecosystem components; Food chain, food web,
Energy flow in ecosystem; Ecological succession-
stages involved, Primary and secondary
succession, Hydrarch, mesarch, xerarch; Nutrient,
water, carbon, nitrogen, cycles; Effect of
human activities on these cycles.
Water cycle
Water cycle.
> The water cycle is powered by energy from the sun
and involves three major processes—evaporation,
precipitation, and transpiration. Incoming solar energy
causes evaporation of water from the oceans, lakes, rivers,
and soil.
> Evaporation changes liquid water into water vapor in the
atmosphere, and gravity draws the water back to the earth’s
surface as precipitation (rain, snow, sleet, and dew). Over
land, about 90% of the water that reaches the atmosphere
evaporates from the surfaces of plants, through a process
called transpiration, and from the soil.
Water returning to the earth’s surface as
precipitation takes various paths. Most
precipitation falling on terrestrial ecosystems
becomes surface runoff.
This water flows into streams and lakes, which
eventually carry water back to the oceans, from
which it can evaporate to repeat the cycle.
> Some surface water also seeps into the upper
layer of soils and some evaporates from soil, lakes,
and streams back into the atmosphere.
Some precipitation is converted to ice that is stored in
glaciers, usually for long periods of time. Some
precipitation sinks through soil and permeable rock
formations to underground layers of rock, sand, and
gravel called aquifers, where it is stored as groundwater.
A small amount of the earth’s water ends up in the
living components of ecosystems. Roots of plants
absorb some of this water, most of which evaporates
from plant leaves back into the atmosphere. Some
combines with carbon dioxide during photosynthesis to
produce high-energy organic compounds such as
carbohydrates.
Eventually these compounds are broken down in plant
cells, which release water back into the environment.
Consumers get their water from their food and by
drinking it.
> Throughout the hydrologic cycle, many natural processes
purify water. Evaporation and subsequent precipitation act
as a natural distillation process that removes impurities
dissolved in water. Water flowing above ground through
streams and lakes and below ground in aquifers is naturally
filtered and partially purified by chemical and biological
processes—mostly by the actions of decomposer
bacteria—as long as these natural processes are not
overloaded. Thus, the hydrologic cycle can be viewed as a cycle of natural
renewal of water quality.
> Only about 0.024% of the earth’s vast water
supply is available to us as liquid freshwater in
accessible groundwater deposits and in lakes,
rivers, and streams.
> The rest is too salty for us to use, is stored as ice,
or is too deep underground to extract at affordable
prices using current technology.
.
Human effect on water cycle
> We alter the water cycle by withdrawing large
quantities of freshwater faster than it can be
replaced and by clearing vegetation. We also
cover land with buildings and pavement, which
reduces the recharge of aquifers by holding
water above ground and increases runoff,
which in turn increases flooding and soil
erosion
Water cycle.
Carbon cycle
Carbon cycle
Carbon is the basic building block of the carbohydrates, fats,
proteins, DNA, and other organic compounds necessary for life.
It circulates through the biosphere, the atmosphere, and parts of
the hydrosphere, in the carbon cycle shown in Figure 3-13.
The carbon cycle is based on carbon dioxide (CO2) gas, which
makes up 0.038% of the volume of the atmosphere and is also
dissolved in water. Carbon dioxide is a key component of the
atmosphere’s thermostat.
> If the carbon cycle removes too much CO2 from the
atmosphere, the atmosphere will cool, and if it generates too
much CO2, the atmosphere will get warmer. Thus, even slight
changes in this cycle caused by natural or human factors can
affect climate and ultimately help to determine the types of life
that can exist in various places.
> Terrestrial producers remove CO2 from the atmosphere and
aquatic producers remove it from the water. (for information
on the effects of phytoplankton on the carbon cycle and the
earth’s climate.) These producers then use photosynthesis to
convert CO2 into complex carbohydrates such as glucose
(C6H12O6).
> The cells in oxygen-consuming producers, consumers, and
decomposers then carry out aerobic respiration. This process
breaks down glucose and other complex organic compounds and
converts the carbon back to CO2 in the atmosphere or water for
reuse by producers. This linkage between photosynthesis in producers
and aerobic respiration in producers, consumers, and decomposers circulates
carbon in the biosphere. Oxygen and hydrogen—the other
elements in carbohydrates—cycle almost in step with carbon.
> Some carbon atoms take a long time to recycle. Decomposers
release the carbon stored in the bodies of dead organisms on
land back into the air as CO2.
> However, in water, decomposers release carbon that can
be stored as insoluble carbonates in bottom sediment.
>Indeed, marine sediments are the earth’s largest store of
carbon. Over millions of years, buried deposits of dead plant
matter and bacteria are compressed between layers of sediment,
where high pressure and heat convert them to carbon-containing
fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas (Figure 3-13).
> This carbon is not released to the atmosphere as CO2 for
recycling until these fuels are extracted and burned, or until long-
term geological processes expose these deposits to air.
> In only a few hundred years, we have extracted and burned
huge quantities of fossil fuels that took millions of years
to form. This is why, on a human time scale, fossil fuels
are nonrenewable resources.
> We are altering the carbon cycle mostly by adding large
amounts of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere when we burn
carbon containing fossil fuels and clear carbon-absorbing
vegetation from forests (especially tropical forests) faster than it
can grow back.
> Computer models of the earth’s climate system indicate that
increased concentrations of atmospheric CO2 and other gases
are very likely (with at least a 90% certainty) to warm the
atmosphere by enhancing the planet’s natural greenhouse effect,
and thus to change the earth’s climate (
Carbon cycle
Nitrogen cycle
Nitrogen cycle
>The major reservoir for nitrogen is the atmosphere. Chemically
unreactive nitrogen gas (N2) makes up 78% of the volume of
the atmosphere.
>Nitrogen is a crucial component of proteins, many vitamins,
and nucleic acids such as DNA.
> However, N2 cannot be absorbed and used directly as a
nutrient by multicellular plants or animals.
> Fortunately, two natural processes convert, or fix, N2 into
compounds that can be used as nutrients by plants and animals.
One is electrical discharges, or lightning, taking place in the
atmosphere. The other takes place in aquatic systems, soil, and
the roots of some plants, where specialized bacteria, called
nitrogen-fixing bacteria, complete this conversion as part of the
nitrogen cycle, which is depicted in Figure 3-14.
>The nitrogen cycle consists of several major steps. In nitrogen
fixation, specialized bacteria in soil and bluegreen algae (cyanobacteria)
in aquatic environments combine gaseous N2 with hydrogen to
make ammonia(NH3). The bacteria use some of the ammonia
they produce as a nutrient and excrete the rest to the soil or
water.
Some of the ammonia is converted to ammonium ions
(NH4+) that can be used as a nutrient by plants. Ammonia not
taken up by plants may undergo nitrification.
>In this process, specialized soil bacteria convert most of the
NH3 and NH4+ in soil to nitrate ions (NO3–), which are easily
taken up by the roots of plants.
The plants then use these forms of nitrogen to produce
various amino acids, proteins, nucleic acids, and vitamins.
Animals that eat plants eventually consume these nitrogen-
containing compounds, as do detritus feeders, and decomposers.
Plants and animals return nitrogen-rich organic compounds to
the environment as wastes and cast-off particles and through
their bodies when they die and are decomposed or eaten by
detritus feeders.
In ammonification, vast armies of specialized decomposer
bacteria convert this detritus into simpler nitrogen-containing
inorganic compounds such as ammonia (NH3) and water soluble
salts containing ammonium ions (NH4+).
In denitrification, specialized bacteria in waterlogged soil and in the
bottom sediments of lakes, oceans, swamps, and bogs convert
NH3 and NH4+ back into nitrate ions, and then into nitrogen
gas (N2) and nitrous oxide gas (N2O). These gases are released
to the atmosphere to begin the nitrogen cycle again.
> We intervene in the nitrogen cycle in several ways (as shown
by red arrows in Figure 3-14). According to the 2005 Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment, since 1950, human activities have more
than doubled the annual release of nitrogen from the land into
the rest of the environment.
Most of this is from the greatly increased use of inorganic
fertilizer to grow crops, and the amount released is projected to
double again by 2050.
>This excessive input of nitrogen into the air and water
contributes to pollution and other problems to be discussed in
later chapters.
Nitrogen overload is a serious and growing local, regional, and
global environmental problem that has attracted little attention.
Princeton
> University physicist Robert Socolow calls for countries
around the world to work out some type of nitrogen
management agreement to help prevent this problem from
reaching crisis levels.
Nitrogen Cycle
Communities and Ecosystems Change over Time:
Ecological Succession
The types and numbers of species in biological
communities and ecosystems change in response to
changing environmental conditions such as a fires,
volcanic eruptions, climate change, and the clearing
of forests to plant crops. The gradual change in
species composition in a given area is called
ecological succession.
Xerosere (Xerarch) from bare rock
Lichen : A lichen is a composite organism that emerges from algae or
cyanobacteria (or both) living among filaments of a fungus in a mutually
beneficial (symbiotic) relationship
Plants – annual – biennial - perennial
Primary succession
> Ecologists recognize two main types of ecological
succession, depending on the conditions present at the
beginning of the process. Primary succession involves
the gradual establishment of biotic communities in lifeless
areas where there is no soil in a terrestrial ecosystem
or no bottom sediment in an aquatic ecosystem.
> Examples include bare rock exposed by a retreating
glacier, newly cooled lava, an abandoned
highway or parking lot, and a newly created shallow
pond or reservoir. Primary succession usually takes
hundreds to thousands of years because of the need to
build up fertile soil to provide the nutrients needed to
establish a plant community.
Primary Succession
Begins in a place without any soil
Sides of volcanoes
Starts with the arrival of living things such as
lichens that do not need soil to survive Called
PIONEER SPECIES.
Soil starts to form as lichens and the forces of
weather and erosion help break down rocks into
smaller pieces.
When lichens die, they decompose, adding small
amounts of organic matter to the rock to make
soil.
Primary succession
Secondary ecological succession
> The other, more common type of ecological succession
is called secondary succession, in which a series
of communities or ecosystems with different species
develop in places containing soil or bottom sediment.
This type of succession begins in an area where an
ecosystem has been disturbed, removed, or destroyed, but
some soil or bottom sediment remains.
> Candidates for secondary succession include abandoned
farmland , burned or cut forests, heavily polluted streams,
and land that has been flooded. Because some soil or
sediment is present, new vegetation can begin to
germinate, usually within a few weeks. It begins with seeds
already in the soil and seeds imported by wind or by the
droppings of birds and other animals.
Secondary ecological succession
Seral stages or sere : Sequence of communities which are
transitory are called….Community establishing first of all
in the area is called pioneer community
Primary vs. Secondary succession
No soil Soil already exists
Pioneer species Seeds have suitable
Weathering & soil conditions.
decomposition Occurs much faster
Humus and sand increase Climax community.
over time.
End = climax community
Climax Community:
A stable group of plants and animals that is the end
result of the succession process.
Does not always mean big trees.
Grasses in prairies.
Cacti in deserts.
Ecological Succession
The ecosystem is dynamic – changes with
respect to external factors
Some times replacement of one community by
other over a period of time
Orderly process of changes in a community
structure and function with time mediated
through modifications in the physical
environment
It ultimately culminating in a stabilized
ecosystem known as climax
Clement's theory of succession/ Process of succession
According to Clement, succession is a process involving
several phases:
Nudation: Succession begins with the development of a
bare site, without any life form called Nudation
(disturbance). It is due to
Landslides, Volcanic eruption, Draught,
Glaciers,
Forest, Overgrazing, Disease outbreak,
Agricultural activities etc
Invasion or Migration: It refers to arrival of Seeds,
Spores etc by wind, Water, Insects or Birds. Pioneer
species.
Ecesis: It involves establishment and initial growth of
vegetation.
Competition & Coaction: As vegetation became well
established, grow, and spread, various species began to
compete for space, light and nutrients.
This phase is called competition.
Reaction: During this phase autogenic changes affect the
habitat resulting in replacement of one plant community
by another.
Living organisms grow, use water and nutrients from
the substream.
Stabilization: Reaction phase leads to development of a
climax community.
Ecological Succession
Different types of ES depending upon
starting areas
i. Hydrarch (hydro + arkhe) or Hydrosere –
watery area like swamp or pond
ii. Mesarch – area with adequate moisture
iii. Xerach or Xerosere – dry area with little
moisture
Lithosere – starting on a bare rock
Psammosere – starting on sand
Halosere – starting on saline soil
What are the features xerosere (xerarch)
Pioneer community consists of crustose and foliose lichens.
Lichens produce weak acids and catalyse in the disintegration of rock, - weathering
Their growth helps in building up gradually some organic matter,
humus (from plants decay) and soil
Next stage is mosses, followed by herbs, shrubs and finally forest trees
Importance of ecological succession
> Primary and secondary ecological succession are
important natural services that tend to increase
biodiversity, and thus the sustainability of communities
and ecosystems, by increasing species richness and
interactions among species. Such interactions in turn
enhance sustainability by promoting population control
and by increasing the complexity of food webs.
> This allows for the energy flow and nutrient cycling that
make up the functional component of biodiversity As part
of the earth’s natural capital, both types of succession are
examples of natural ecological restoration.
