Environmental Science & Engineering

Environmental Science & Engineering

Credit: 3.0
Topics
Environment, Ecology and Pollution: Introduction, components of environment,
factors affecting environment. Types and sources of pollution; acid rain &
greenhouse effect; Types and effects of different pollutants and pollution control

Chemistry and characteristics of environmental parameters:Total Solids,

Total Dissolved Solids, Volatile Matters, Fixed Solids, BOD5, COD, ThOD,
TOD, Ammonia, Nitrogen, Protein content, TOC, Chlorides, Alkalinity, pH,
Sulphides, Dissolved Oxygen, Total Coliform Count, Metal content.

Reuse, Recycling and disposal of solid wastes: Waste generation from

leather, footwear and leather goods industries; Utilization of leather wastes;
Disposal of solid wastes
 Environment

 Environment is the sum of all social, economical,

biological, physical or chemical factors which
constitute the surroundings of man, who is both
creator and moulder of his environment.
 Environment is the representative of physical
components of the earth where in man is the
important factor influencing the environment
It consist of air, water, food and sunlight, which are the basic
needs of all living beings and plant life, to carry on their life
functions. It also includes temperature, wind, radiation etc. Two
main aspects of the environment are therefore, considered-
 Abiotic environment
 Biotic environment

Abiotic Environment: All those physical and nonliving chemical

factor that exert an influence on living organisms.
ex: temperature, soil, light, moisture, air currents

Biotic Environment : Consist of living organisms, which both

interact with each other and are inseparably interrelated with
their abiotic environment.
Ecology:
Ecology is the study of interactions among organism or group of
organisms with their environment. The environment consists of
both biotic components (living organisms) and abiotic
components (non – living organisms).
or
Ecology is the study of ecosystems

Ecosystems:
Ecosystem is the basic functional unit of ecology.
The term ecosystem is coined form a Greek word
meaning study of home.
A group of organisms interacting among themselves
and with environment is known as ecosystem. Thus
an ecosystem is a community of different species
interacting with one another and with their non living
environment and one another and with their non-
living environment exchanging energy and matter.

Example
Animals cannot synthesis their food directly
but depend on the plants either directly or indirectly.
 Types of Ecosystem
Natural Ecosystem
Natural ecosystems operate themselves under natural conditions. Based on habitat types, it can
be further classified

1. Terrestrial ecosystem : This ecosystem is related to land.

Example
Grassland ecosystem, forest ecosystem, desert ecosystem, etc.,
2. Aquatic ecosystem : This ecosystem is related to water. It is further sub classified into two
types based on salt content
•(i) Fresh water ecosystem
– (a) Running water ecosystems
•Examples
• Rivers, Streams
• (b) Standing water ecosystems
Examples
Pond, lake

(ii) Marine ecosystem

Example :
Seas and sea shores
3.Man – made (or) Artificial ecosystems
Artificial ecosystem is operated (or) maintained by man
himself.
Example
Croplands, gardens
 Habitat
The “place” where an organism lives is called Habitat.
Habitat can be considered with respect to
• Individual organism
• Population of similar organism
• Community of different populations

At the level of organism: It is only the individual

organism that take things e.g., nutrients, energy, from
its chemical and physical habitat and returns things,
e.g., waste to that habitats
•If suitable nutrients and / or energies are not present, or if
its waste are not removed or suitably transformed within
that habitat, the organism must move to another or perish.

At the level of the population:

•A number of similar organisms both take and contribute
things from and to the population`s habitat.
•The organism within the population are similar, so they
have similar needs; they may therefore compete and/ or
cooperate for individual habitat. As with the individual
organism, conditions may inimical to the population.

At the level of community:

•Indicates a collection of population.
•Some populations e.g., predators, may enhance selective
forces already acting on other populations e.g., prey.
•In addition to antagonistic interactions between two or
more populations in a community, there are also
mutualistic relationships that enhance the habitat i.e.,
reduce its stress.

Niches

•Niche is the organism`s “profession” i.e., what it

does in its habitat. Basic niches in ecosystem
include-
Primary production
Consumption
Decomposition
 STRUCTURE (or) COMPONENTS OF AN ECOSYSTEM

• The term structure refers to the various components.

The structure of an ecosystem explains the relationship between
the abiotic (non –living) and the biotic (living) components.
• An ecosystem has two major components
 Biotic (living) components
 Abiotic (non living) components
 Biotic components :The living organisms (or) living members in
an ecosystem collectively form its community called biotic
components (or) biotic community.
Examples
Plants (producers), animals (consumers), and microorganisms
(decomposers).
Classification biotic components
 Producer (plants)
 Consumer (Animals)
 Decomposers (Micro-organisms)

I. Producers (Autotrophs)
Producers synthesize their food themselves through
photosynthesis.
Example :
All green plants, trees.
Photosynthesis:
The green pigments called chlorophyll, present in
the leaves of plants, converts CO2 and H2O in the presence of
sunlight into carbohydrates.

6CO2 + 12H2O ----------------------> C6H12O6 + 6O2+6H2O

This process is called photosynthesis

2. Consumers (heterotrophs)
Consumers are those organisms that cannot transform sunlight
energy into chemical energies of organic molecules. They consume
produced organic materials and transform these into living
substances of their own bodies.
Examples
plant eating species
Insects, rabbit, goat, deer, cow, etc.,
Classification of consumers
Consumers are further classified as
(i) Primary consumers (Herbivores)
Primary consumers are also called herbivores,
they directly depend on the plants for their food. So they
are called plant eaters.
Examples :
Insects, rat, goat, deer, cow, horse, etc.,

(II) Secondary consumers (carnivores) (meat eater)

Secondary consumers are carnivores, they feed on primary
consumers. They directly depend on the herbivores for their
food. They transform the chemical energy of other animal tissue
into the chemical energy of their own.
Example
Frog, cat, snakes, foxes, etc.
(iii)
Tertiary consumers (Omnivores)
Tertiary consumers are secondary carnivores or omnivores.
Omnivores transform the chemical energy of both plant and
animal tissue into the chemical energy of their own. They feed on
secondary consumers. They depend on the primary carnivores for
their food.
Examples
Tigers, lions, man etc
3. Decomposers
Decomposers attack the dead bodies of producers and consumers
and decompose them into simpler compounds. During the
decomposition inorganic nutrients are released.
The inorganic nutrients together with other organic substances are
then utilized by the producers for the synthesis of their own food.
Examples
Microorganisms like bacteria and fungi.

Abiotic (non-living) components

The non-living components (physical and chemical)
of ecosystem collectively form a community called abiotic
components (or) abiotic community.
Examples
Climate, soil, water, air, energy, nutrients, etc.,
1. Physical components
They include the energy, climate, raw materials and
living space that the biological community needs. They are
useful for the growth and maintenance of its member.
Example
Air, water, soil, sunlight, etc

2. Chemical Components
They are the sources of essential nutrients
Examples
Organic substances : Protein, lipids, carbohydrates, etc.,
Inorganic substances: All micro (Al, Co, Zu, Cu) and macro
elements (C,H, O, P, N, P, K) and few other elements.

FUNCTION OF AN ECOSYSTEM :
To understand clearly the nature of ecosystem its functioning
should be thoroughly understood. The function of an ecosystem
is to allow flow of energy and cycling of nutrients.
Types of Functions
Functions of an ecosystem are of three types.
1. Primary function
The primary function of all ecosystem is
manufacture of starch (photosynthesis).

2. Secondary function
The secondary function of all ecosystem is distribution energy in
the form of food to all consumers

3.Tertiary Function
All living systems died at a particular stage. These dead
systems are decomposed to initiate third function of ecosystems
namely “cycling”.
The functioning of an ecosystems may be understood
studying the following terms.
•Energy and material flow.
•Food chains
•Food webs
•Food pyramids

ENERGY FLOW IN THE ECOSYSTEMS

Energy is the most essential requirement for all living
organism.
Solar energy is the only source to our planet
Solar energy is transformed to chemical energy in
photosynthesis by the plants called as primary producers.
Though a lot of sunlight falls on the green palnts.
only 1% of it is utilized for photosynthesis. This is the most
essential step to provide energy for all other living organisms in
the ecosystem.
Some amount of chemical energy is used by the plants for their
growth and the remaining is transferred to consumers by the
process of eating.
Thus the energy enters the ecosystems through photosynthesis
and passes through the different tropic levels .

FOOD CHAINS

“There sequence of eating and being eaten in an ecosystem is

known as food chain”
“Transfer of food energy from the plants through a series of
organisms is known as food chain”
When the organisms die, they are all decomposed by
microorganism (bacteria and fungi) into nutrients that can again
be used by the plants. At each and every transfer, nearly 80-90%
of the potential energy gets lost as heat.

A food chain always starts with plant life and ends with animal.
Herbivores
Animal that eat only plants are called herbivores.
Carnivores
Animals that eat other animals are called carnivores
Tropic Levels (T1,T2, T3, T4, T5) (or) Feeding levels
The various steps through which food energy passes in an
ecosystem is called as tropic levels.
The tropic levels are arranged in the following way as

Where ,
The green plants or producers represent first tropic level T1,
The herbiovores or primary consumers represent second tropic
level T2.
The carnivores or secondary consumers represent third tropic
level T3.
The tertiary consumers are fourth tropic level T4.
Finally decomposers represent last tropic level T5
Types of food chain
Food chains are classified into two main types
Grazing food chain
Detritus food chain

1. Grazing food chain

Found in Grassland ecosystems and pond ecosystems.
Grazing food chain starts with green plants (primary
procedures) and goes to decomposer food chain or detritus
food chain through herbivores and carnivores.

2. Detritus food chain

Found in Grassland ecosystems and forest ecosystems.
Detritus food chain starts with dead organic matter (plants and
animals) and goes to decomposer food chain through herbivores
and carnivores.

FOOD WEB

The interlocking pattern of various food chains in an ecosystem is

known as food web.
In a food web many food chains are interconnected, where
different types of organisms are connected at different trophic
levels, so that there is a number of opportunities of eating and
being eaten at each trophic level.
Example
Grass may be eaten by insects, rats, deers, etc., these may be
eaten by carnivores (snake, tiger).
Difference between food chains and food web
In a linear food chains if one species gets affected (or) becomes
extinct, then the species in the subsequent tropic levels are also
affected.
But, in a food web, if one species gets affected, it does”t not
affect other tropic levels so seriously. There are number of options
available at each tropic level.
Significance of food chains and food webs :
1.Food chains and food webs play a very important role
in the ecosystem. Energy flow and nutrient cycling takes
place through them.
2. They maintain and regulate the population size of
different tropic levels, and thus help in maintaining
ecological balance.
3. They have the property of bio magnification. The non
– biodegradable materials keep on passing from one
tropic level to another. At each successive tropic level,
the concentration keep on increasing. This process is
known as bio magnification.
ECOLOGICAL PYRAMIDS
“Graphical representation of structure and function of tropic
levels of an ecosystem, starting with producers at the bottom
and each successive tropic levels forming the apex is known as
an ecological pyramids.”
In food chain starting from the producers to the consumers,
there is a regular decrease in the properties (ie.,, biomass and
number of the organisms). Since some energy is lost as heat in
each tropic levels, it becomes progressively smaller near the
top.
Types of Ecological, pyramids
Ecological pyramids are of three types.
1. Pyramid of numbers.
2. Pyramid of energy.
3. Pyramid of biomass.

I. Pyramids of number:
 The producers in the grasslands are grasses, which
are in size and large in numbers. So the producers
occupy lower tropic level
 The primary consumers (herbivores) are rats. Since
the number of rats are lower Compared to the
grasses, the size of which is lower.
 The secondary consumers (carnivores) are snakes.
Since the number of snakes are lower when
compared to the rats, the size of which is lower.
 The tertiary consumers (carnivores) are eagles.
2. Pyramids of energy:

It represents the amount of energy present in each tropic levels.

The rate of energy flow and the productivity at each successive
tropic level .
At every successive tropic level, there is a heavy loss of energy
(about 90%) in the form of heat. Thus at each next higher tropic
level only 10% of the energy is transferred Hence, there is a
sharp decrease in energy at each and every successive tropic
level as we move from producers to top levels.
3.Pyramids of Biomass:

It represents the total amount of biomass (mass of weight

biological material or organism) present in each tropic levels.
The above figure shows that there is a decrease in the biomass
from the lower tropic level to the higher tropic level.
This because the trees (producers) are maximum in the forest,
which contribute a huge biomass. The next tropic levels are
herbivores (insects, birds) and carnivores (snakes, foxes). top of
the tropic level contains few tertiary consumers and tigers), the
biomass of which is very low.