Disna Eheliyagoda. Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management. MEM (Colombo, Sri Lanka) BSc (Sabaragamuwa, Sri Lanka)

Transcription

1 Basic Concepts of Environmental Studies Disna Eheliyagoda Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management MEM (Colombo, Sri Lanka) BSc (Sabaragamuwa, Sri Lanka)

2 What is Environmental Science? The branch of science that deals with the physical, chemical and biological components of the environment and their effects on organisms.

3 It is an Interdisciplinary Science Environmental Science provides an integrated, quantitative and interdisciplinary approach to the study of environmental systems. It is a mixture of traditional science, individual and societal values, and political awareness.

4 Interdisciplinarity is the merging of a wide range of scientific disciplines to understand and manage the complex natural systems and for real world problem solving. Example: Cumulative effort of professionals from different disciplines in EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment).

5 Environmental Science also shows multidisciplinary features Multidisciplinarity is the act of joining together two or more disciplines without integration. Each discipline yields discipline specific results while any integration would be left to a third party observer. Example: AIDS pandemic (medicine, politics, epidemology).

6 Some Components of Environmental Science 1. Atmospheric Sciences 2. Ecology 3. Environmental Chemistry 4. Environmental Geology 5. Environmental Soil Sciences

7 Environmental Science encompasses issues such as: climate change conservation biodiversity water quality groundwater contamination soil contamination use of natural resources waste management sustainable development disaster reduction air pollution noise pollution

8 What is Ecology? Ecology is the scientific study of the interactions between organisms and their environment.

9 Why Study Ecology? Curiosity How does the world around us work? How are we shaped by our surroundings? Need for sustainability Help managing ecosystems/resources in a sustainable way Need to understand complex environmental problems Effects of invasive species on ecosystems

10 Levels of Biological Organization Complexity and Diversity Increases Organic molecules Sub cellular organelles Cells Tissues Organs Organ systems Organism Population Community Ecosystem Biome Biosphere - Biochemistry Cell Biology - Histology Anatomy and Physiology Ecology

11 What is a Species? There is a prolonged debate which still continues on how a species can be defined There are number of different working definitions proposed by biologists for a species Some of them are; Morphological Species Biological/Isolation Species Biological/Reproductive Species Phylogenetic/Evolutionary/Darwinian Species

12 Biological Species Concept The biological species concept is the most widely accepted species concept It defines species in terms of interbreeding Ernst Mayr (1940) defined a species as follows; Species are groups of interbreeding natural populations that are reproductively isolated from other such groups This definition is also referred as Biological/Isolation species

13 Another definition for a biological species exists as; Biological/Reproductive species Species are groups of individuals who are potentially capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring

14 Levels of Ecological Organization Complexity and Diversity Increases Population A group of individuals of a same species living in the same area Community A group of populations of different species in a given area Ecosystem Whole biotic community in a given area plus its abiotic environment Biome Large scale area of similar vegetation and climatic characteristics Biosphere The union of all of the ecosystems/biomes

15 Recent Areas of Ecology Conservation Ecology Deals with application of ecological principles to proper management and resources Resource Ecology Deals with renewable and non-renewable resources and their judicious management Pollution Ecology Deals with problems associated with the movement of pollutants in the environment, environmental deterioration and maintenance of its cleanliness System Ecology Deals with analysis and modeling of ecological systems