Ecology and Environment

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ECOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT

Ecology (Haeckel, Tansley) is a branch of science that deals with the study of interactions of the organism with the environment. It is a multi-disciplinary subject that includes the study of biology, geography and environmental science.

Ecology also includes an ecosystem. Ecosystem refers to the aggregation of all the biotic (plants, animals and micro-organisms) and abiotic (temperature, soil, water, light) components. Ecosystem should not be confused with Biosphere, as the latter refers to the part of earth that supports life or where life exists. Thus, biosphere includes lithosphere (solid component), hydrosphere (liquid component) and atmosphere (gaseous component; basing upon distance from earth, they are categorized as troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, ionosphere).

BRANCHES OF ECOLOGY

Ecology has two branches-

1. Autecology: It refers to the study of individual, that how an individual interacts with an environment. This branch of ecology is also known as population ecology.
2. Synecology: It refers to the study of a group, that how a group interacts with an environment. This branch of ecology is also known as community ecology.

TOPICS TO STUDY IN ECOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT

Ecology and environment is vast discipline that includes the study of the following topics:

1. Interactions: Organisms does not prefer to live in isolation, thus, they interact with other organism(s). Their interaction can be beneficial, harmful or neutral to each other. Thus, it results in:

• MUTUALISM: An interaction between two organisms, where both the organisms are benefitted.
• COMPETITION: An interaction between two organisms, where both are harmed with each other.
• AMMENSALISM: An interaction, where one organism is at loss and another is neither benefitted nor at loss.
• PREDATION: An interaction, where one is benefitted and the other is at loss.
• PARASITISM: An interaction, where one is benefitted and the other is at loss. It differs from predation, because parasites live on or in the living hosts.
• COMMENSALISM: An interaction where one organism is benefitted and the other is neither benefitted nor at loss.

2. Biomes: Basing upon the presence of different annual precipitation and annual temperature, there are different biomes, namely
   •Tundra.
   •Rainforest.
   •Taiga.
   •Savanna.
   •Temperate forest.
   •Temperate grassland.
   •Alpine.
   •Chapparal.
3. Edaphic Factor: Edaphic refers to soil. It is an abiotic factor, which with its physical and chemical properties affect the growth of plants and supports the life of micro organisms. The physical property of the soil is determined by its density, porosity, permeability, temperature, atmosphere and soil water (gravitational, hygroscopic, capillary, combined water and water vapor). The chemical properties include chemical composition of soil, soil pH, soil humus and soil organisms. Beside these properties, soil profile (O, A, B, C, D, R), soil texture (clay, silt, fine sand, coarse sand, fine gravel and gravel) and soil structure (which is influenced by texture, air, moisture and organic matter) also affects the plants, animals and micro organisms of that area.

3. Biodiversity: It refers to the variety of flora (plants) and fauna (animals) present on earth. Biodiversity has been categorized as species biodiversity, genetic biodiversity and community biodiversity (alpha, beta and gamma biodiversity). IUCN (International Union For Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) which is now known as WCU (World Conservation Union), has maintained a book namely, Red Data Book, which has mentioned the plants and animals basing upon their number on earth as, critically endangered, endangered, near threatened, vulnerable and extinct. This data book is quite helpful in maintaining the flora and fauna of our world.
4. Energy Flow, Food chain, Food web: The flow of energy in our ecosystem takes place from sun to the plants, to herbivores, to carnivores, to omnivores and finally to decomposers. Only autotrophs (plants), have got the unique ability to convert the solar energy into chemical energy, this energy is then passed to further organisms. This flow of energy from one trophic level (plants) to another trophic level (herbivores, carnivores and omnivores) is termed as food chain. Collection of food chains in an area is termed as food web.
5. Ecological Pyramids: When these trophic levels are depicted in the form of pyramid, they constitute ecological pyramid. These can be pyramid of number, biomass and energy. Pyramid of number and biomass can be upright or inverted, but pyramid of energy is always upright, as it follows 10% law. According to 10% law, only 10% of energy flows from one trophic level to another, rest energy is used for various metabolic processes.
6. Ecological Succession: When over a period of time the species change in an ecological community, it marks ecological succession. Succession on a barred land marks primary succession, however, succession on an area where plants had grown earlier signifies secondary succession. Succession of microbes is termed as serule. The final species of plants that are formed in the end marks a climax community. It can occur in water (hydrach) or on rock (xerach). The species of plants and animals depends upon habitat where succession occurs.
7. Pollution: The contamination of air, water and soil by various pollutants (harmful chemicals) is termed as pollution. When the quality of air is disrupted from its normal composition then it marks air pollution. Similarly, when the quality of water and soil is disrupted from normal, then it is known as water and soil pollution, respectively. The chemicals which brought about such change in the composition of air, water and soil are known as pollutants. Radioactive, noise pollution is also not rare these days. For specific pollution, specific factor is required. However, the prime factor for it is increasing population. With increase in population, the requirement of resources is increasing day-by-day, as a result residential area is increasing and agricultural land is decreasing, which in turn is causing deforestation. Occurrence of floods, soil erosion, increased desertification, global warming are the after effects of deforestation. Industrial pollution is also causing Eutrophication and Biomagnification. Increase use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) is depleting the ozone layer too, which is present in stratosphere, because of which UV rays are more incident on earth’s surface, and there is increased risk of skin cancer.

Phytoremediation (method to lessen soil pollution) is the recent technique which is quite prevalent in the foreign countries, with the help of it harmful pollutants are removed from the soil and accumulated in the non-edible part of the plants.

 

Ecology and environment is a very wide topic, thus, as per requirement, the picked topic can be studied in detail. It is important for senior secondary, graduate and post graduate students and for competitive level too.