Final Exam Questions “ Ecology and Sustainable Development”

Block 1

1 Subject and problems of ecology.

Ecology, also called bioecology, bionomics, or environmental biology, study
of the relationships between organisms and their environment. Some of the
most pressing problems in human affairs—expanding populations, food
scarcities, environmental pollution including global warming, extinctions
of plant and animal species, and all the attendant sociological and political
problems—are to a great degree ecological.

The word ecology was coined by the German zoologist Ernst Haeckel, who
applied the term oekologie to the “relation of the animal both to its organic as
well as its inorganic environment.” The word comes from the Greek oikos,
meaning “household,” “home,” or “place to live.” Thus, ecology deals with the
organism and its environment. The concept of environment includes both other
organisms and physical surroundings. It involves relationships between
individuals within a population and between individuals of different
populations. These interactions between individuals, between populations, and
between organisms and their environment form ecological systems,
or ecosystems. Ecology has been defined variously as “the study of the
interrelationships of organisms with their environment and each other,” as “the
economy of nature,” and as “the biology of ecosystems.”

Ecology can also be considered to be the study of the factors that influence
the distribution and abundance of organisms. Ecology originally developed
from natural history, which deals with the richness and environmental
relationships of life, but in a non-quantitative manner.

Although mostly a biological subject, ecology also draws upon other

sciences, including chemistry, physics, geology, mathematics, computer
science, and others. Often, ecologists must also deal with socioeconomic
issues, because of the rapidly increasing importance of human impacts on the
environment. Because it draws upon knowledge and information from so
many disciplines, ecology is a highly interdisciplinary field.
One core goal of ecology is to understand the distribution and abundance of
living things in the physical environment. For instance, your backyard or
neighborhood park probably has a very different set of plants, animals, and
fungi than the backyard of a fellow Khan Academy learner on the opposite
side of the globe. These patterns in nature are driven by interactions among
organisms as well as between organisms and their physical environment.

Problems
Ecology and economy are very closely connected. First economy influenced
the state of our environment. Now we have to face degradation of soils,
water, atmosphere and forests. Millions of trees are dying in Germany’s
Black Forest and thousands of lakes in Sweden are so acidic that nothing can
live in them. In Scotland farmers complain that acid rains kill their fish.
Forests in Denmark, France, Northern Italy, Greece and Norway are
damaged.
1. Every year the atmosphere is polluted by about 1000 tons of industrial
 dust and other harmful substances. Big cities suffer from
smog. Transportation is one of the main offenders in poisoning the
environment. Cars with their engines have become the main source
of pollution in industrial countries. Vast forests are cut down in
Africa, South America and Asia for the needs of industries in Europe
and the USA. The loss of the forests upsets the world's oxygen
balance. As a result, some species of animals, birds, fish and plants
have disappeared andcontinue disappearing. Many of them are on the
brink of extinction, many have been written down into the "Red Book
of Nature". People continue to kill animals to wear fur coats. We kill
many animals just for their fur. Some of these animals, such as the
fox, are in danger of extinction. Every hour some kinds of animals
and plants die. Rivers and lakes dry up. One of the most recent
examples is the Aral Sea, which has become much smaller due to
man's activity. The pollution of the air and the world's oceans and the
thinning of the ozone layer are other problems arising from man's
careless attitude towards ecology. The protection of the environment
is a universal concern. Active measures should be taken to create an
international system of ecological security. Some progress has been
made in this direction. 159 countries, all members of the United
Nations Organization, have set up environmental protection
agencies. A lot of conferences have been held by these agencies to
discuss ecological problems, some of which are of extreme urgency.
2. In Russia and the former Soviet republics there are some areas
where the environment is in a very poor state. The Aral Sea, Lake
Baikal, the Kuzbass, Semipalatinks and Chernobyl are some of those
areas. For decades nuclear weapons were tested near
Semipalatinks. The ground is contaminated with radiation
there. More
than twenty years ago a pulp and paper factory was built on the shore
of Lake Baikal. As a result of the pollution, more than 50 per cent of
the world's purest water has been ruined. The whole ecological
system of the lake has changed greatly. In 1986, a nuclear power
station at Chernobyl, which is near Kiev, exploded, producing highly
dangerous radioactive fallout not only in the vicinity of the accident
but because of prevailing winds, across the continent of
Europe. Affected countries protested, while citizens increased the
pressure on their governments to curtail the manufacture of such
lethal industrial and military by-products. After the disaster in
Chernobyl the inhabitants of the nearby towns and villages had to be
evacuated. Some of them died and some have become
invalids. Ecological catastrophes do a lot of harm to Nature, but they
are much more dangerous for Man. The question is whether mankind
is going to live or die.

2. History of ecological knowledge.

Ecology had no firm beginnings. It evolved from the natural history of the
ancient Greeks, particularly Theophrastus, a friend and associate of Aristotle.
Theophrastus first described the interrelationships between organisms and
between organisms and their nonliving environment. Later foundations for
modern ecology were laid in the early work of plant and animal
physiologists.
In the early and mid-1900s two groups of botanists, one in Europe and the
other in the United States, studied plant communities from two different
points of view. The European botanists concerned themselves with the study
of the composition, structure, and distribution of plant communities. The
American botanists studied the development of plant communities, or
succession (see community ecology: Ecological succession). Both plant and
animal ecology developed separately until American biologists emphasized
the interrelation of both plant and animal communities as a biotic whole.
During the same period, interest in population dynamics developed. The
study of population dynamics received special impetus in the early 19th
century, after the English economist Thomas Malthus called attention to the
conflict between expanding populations and the capability of Earth to supply
food. In the 1920s the American zoologist Raymond Pearl, the American
chemist and statistician Alfred J. Lotka, and the Italian mathematician Vito
Volterra developed mathematical foundations for the study of populations,
and these studies led to experiments on the interaction of predators and prey,
competitive relationships between species, and the regulation of populations.
Investigations of the influence of behaviour on populations were stimulated
by the recognition in 1920 of territoriality in nesting birds. Concepts of
instinctive and aggressive behaviour were developed by the Austrian
zoologist Konrad Lorenz and the Dutch-born British zoologist Nikolaas
Tinbergen, and the role of social behaviour in the regulation of populations
was explored by the British zoologist Vero Wynne-Edwards.
While some ecologists were studying the dynamics of communities and
populations, others were concerned with energy budgets. In 1920 August
Thienemann, a German freshwater biologist, introduced the concept of
trophic, or feeding, levels (see trophic level), by which the energy of food is
transferred through a series of organisms, from green plants (the producers)
up to several levels of animals (the consumers). An English animal
ecologist, Charles Elton (1927), further developed this approach with the
concept of ecological niches and pyramids of numbers. In the 1930s,
American freshwater biologists Edward Birge and Chancey Juday, in
measuring the energy budgets of lakes, developed the idea of primary
productivity, the rate at which food energy is generated, or fixed,
by photosynthesis. In 1942 Raymond L. Lindeman of the United States
developed the trophic-dynamic concept of ecology, which details the flow of
energy through the ecosystem. Quantified field studies of energy
flow through ecosystems were further developed by the brothers Eugene
Odum and Howard Odum of the United States; similar early work on the
cycling of nutrients was done by J.D. Ovington of England and Australia.
(See community ecology: Trophic pyramids and the flow of
energy; biosphere: The flow of energy and nutrient cycling.)
The study of both energy flow and nutrient cycling was stimulated by the
development of new materials and techniques—radioisotope tracers,
microcalorimetry, computer science, and applied mathematics—that enabled
ecologists to label, track, and measure the movement of particular nutrients
and energy through ecosystems. These modern methods (see below Methods
in ecology) encouraged a new stage in the development of ecology—systems
ecology, which is concerned with the structure and function of ecosystems.
 3. Methods and approaches in studying of modern ecology.

There are three broad approaches to the science of ecology – theoretical

ecology, empirical ecology, and applied ecology. These three areas of
ecology rarely talk to each other, although one might hope that they could in
future evolve into a seamless thread of science.
Theoretical ecology deals with the mathematical world that has too often
only a tangential concern with ecological problems. It has its own journals
and a whole set of elegant discussions that have few connections to the real
world. It is most useful for exploring what might be if we make certain
mathematical assumptions. It is without question the most prestigious part of
the broad science of ecology, partly because it involves elegant mathematics
and partly because it does not get involved in all the complexities of real-
world ecological systems. It is the physics of ecology. As such it carries on in
its own world and tends to be ignored by most of those working in the other
two broad areas of ecology.
Empirical ecology has set itself the task of understanding how the natural
world works at the level of individuals, populations, communities and
ecosystems. In its pure form it does not care about solving practical
ecological or environmental problems, but its practitioners assume probably
correctly that the information they provide will in fact be useful now or in the
future. It seeks generality but rarely finds it because all individuals and
species differ in how they play the ecological game of survival. If it has a
mantra, it is “the devil is in the details”. The problem is the details of
empirical ecology are boring to politicians, business people, and to much of
the television generation now operating with a 7 second or 140 character
limit on concentration.
Applied ecology is where the action is now, and if you wish to be relevant
and topical you should be an applied ecologist, whether a conservation
biologist, a forester, or an agricultural scientist. The mantra of applied
ecologists is to do no harm to the environment while solving real world
problems. Applied ecologists are forced to put the human imprint into
empirical ecology, so they are very much concerned with declining
populations and extinctions of plants and animals. The main but not the sole
impact of humans is on climate change, so much of applied ecology traces
back to the impacts of climate change on ecosystems, all added to by the
increasing human population with its rising expectations. But applied
ecologists are always behind the environmental problems of the day because
the issues multiply faster than possible solutions can be evaluated. This ought
to make for high employment for applied ecologists but in fact the opposite
seems to be happening because governments too often avoid long-term
problems beyond their 4-year mandate. If you do not agree, think climate
change.
So, the consequence is that we have three independent worlds out there.
Applied ecologists are too busy to apply the successful paradigms of
empirical ecology to their problems because they are under strict time limits
by their line managers who need to suggest immediate action on problems.
They must therefore fire off solutions like golf balls in all directions, hoping
that some might actually help solve problems. Empirical ecologists may not
be helpful for applied ecologists if they are overwhelmed by the details of
their particular system of study and are constrained by the ‘publish or perish’
mentality of the granting agencies.

4. Main concepts of ecology: population, community, environment.

To give definitions.

Ecology is the study of the interactions of living organisms with their

environment. Within the discipline of ecology, researchers work at four
specific levels, sometimes discretely and sometimes with overlap. These
levels are organism, population, community, and ecosystem. In ecology,
ecosystems are composed of dynamically-interacting parts, which include
organisms, the communities they comprise, and the non-living (abiotic)
components of their environment. Ecosystem processes, such as primary
production, pedogenesis (the formation of soil), nutrient cycling, and various
niche construction activities, regulate the flux of energy and matter through
an environment. These processes are sustained by organisms with specific
life-history traits. The variety of organisms, called biodiversity, which refer
to the differing species, genes, and ecosystems, enhances certain ecosystem
services.

Population Ecology

A population is a group of interbreeding organisms that are members of the

same species living in the same area at the same time. Organisms that are all
members of the same species, a population, are called conspecifics. A
population is identified, in part, by where it lives; its area of population may
have natural or artificial boundaries. Natural boundaries might be rivers,
mountains, or deserts, while examples of artificial boundaries include mowed
grass or manmade structures such as roads. The study of population ecology
focuses on the number of individuals in an area and how and why population
size changes over time. Population ecologists are particularly interested in
counting the Karner blue butterfly, for example, because it is classified as
federally endangered. However, the distribution and density of this species is
highly influenced by the distribution and abundance of wild lupine.
Researchers might ask questions about the factors leading to the decline of
wild lupine and how these affect Karner blue butterflies. For example,
ecologists know that wild lupine thrives in open areas where trees and shrubs
are largely absent. In natural settings, intermittent wildfires regularly remove
trees and shrubs, helping to maintain the open areas that wild lupine requires.
Mathematical models can be used to understand how wildfire suppression by
humans has led to the decline of this important plant for the Karner blue
butterfly.

Community Ecology
A biological community consists of the different species within an area,
typically a three-dimensional space, and the interactions within and among
these species. Community ecologists are interested in the processes driving
these interactions and their consequences. Questions about conspecific
interactions often focus on competition among members of the same species
for a limited resource. Ecologists also study interactions among various
species; members of different species are called heterospecifics. Examples of
heterospecific interactions include predation, parasitism, herbivory,
competition, and pollination. These interactions can have regulating effects
on population sizes and can impact ecological and evolutionary processes
affecting diversity.
For example, the larvae of the Karner blue butterfly form mutualistic
relationships with ants. Mutualism is a form of a long-term relationship that
has coevolved between two species and from which each species benefits.
For mutualism to exist between individual organisms, each species must
receive some benefit from the other as a consequence of the relationship.
Researchers have shown that there is an increase in the probability of
survival when Karner blue butterfly larvae (caterpillars) are tended by ants.
This might be because the larvae spend less time in each life stage when
tended by ants, which provides an advantage for the larvae. Meanwhile, the
Karner blue butterfly larvae secrete a carbohydrate-rich substance that is an
important energy source for the ants. Both the Karner blue larvae and the ants
benefit from their interaction.

Environmental Ecology
Environmental Ecology is the branch of biology which studies the interactions
among organisms and their environment. Objects of study include interactions of
organisms with each other and with abiotic components of their environment.
Environmental Science is a broader field as it incorporates elements of earth
and life science. Whereas Ecology is primarily focused on how the organisms
interact with each other and as well with their surroundings. The people who
study ecology are called ecologists.

They focus on the specifications or interactions with the group that includes the
preference of the food, eating habits, and migration. Ecologists study issues of
the population size, diversity, distribution, and dominance of specific
organisms. Some of the key issues studies by ecologists are –
 A broader study of the processes of Life, the interactions as well as the
adaptations of the specific species.
 Biodiversity within an ecosystem.
 The abundance and the distribution of the organisms within an
environment.
 Progression of changes in the ecosystem.
 The influence of the environmental factors on the organism’s population.

5. Main concepts of ecology: ecosystem, biosphere,

environmental protection. To give definitions.

An ecosystem is a community of living organisms in conjunction with

the nonliving components of their environment, interacting as
a system. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through
nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the system
through photosynthesis and is incorporated into plant tissue. By feeding on
plants and on one-another, animals play an important role in the movement
of matter and energy through the system. They also influence the quantity of
plant and microbial biomass present. By breaking down dead organic
matter, decomposers release carbon back to the atmosphere and
facilitate nutrient cycling by converting nutrients stored in dead biomass back
to a form that can be readily used by plants and other microbes.
Ecosystems are controlled by external and internal factors. External factors
such as climate, parent material which forms the soil and topography, control
the overall structure of an ecosystem but are not themselves influenced by the
ecosystem. Unlike external factors, internal factors are controlled, for
example, decomposition, root competition, shading, disturbance, succession,
and the types of species present.

Ecosystem ecology
Ecosystem ecology is the integrated study of living (biotic) and non-living
(abiotic) components of ecosystems and their interactions within an
ecosystem framework. This science examines how ecosystems work and
relates this to their components such as chemicals, bedrock, soil, plants,
and animals.
Ecosystem ecology examines physical and biological structures and
examines how these ecosystem characteristics interact with each other.
Ultimately, this helps us understand how to maintain high quality water and
economically viable commodity production. A major focus of ecosystem
ecology is on functional processes, ecological mechanisms that maintain the
structure and services produced by ecosystems. These include primary
productivity (production of biomass), decomposition,
and trophic interactions.
Studies of ecosystem function have greatly improved human understanding
of sustainable production of forage, fiber, fuel, and provision of water.
Functional processes are mediated by regional-to-local
level climate, disturbance, and management. Thus ecosystem ecology
provides a powerful framework for identifying ecological mechanisms that
interact with global environmental problems, especially global warming and
degradation of surface water.
This example demonstrates several important aspects of ecosystems:

1. Ecosystem boundaries are often nebulous and may fluctuate in time

2. Organisms within ecosystems are dependent on ecosystem level
biological and physical processes
3. Adjacent ecosystems closely interact and often are interdependent for
maintenance of community structure and functional processes that
maintain productivity and biodiversity
Ecosystem services are ecologically mediated functional processes
essential to sustaining healthy human societies.[6] Water provision and
filtration, production of biomass in forestry, agriculture, and fisheries,
and removal of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) from
the atmosphere are examples of ecosystem services essential to public
health and economic opportunity. Nutrient cycling is a process
fundamental to agricultural and forest production.

Biosphere
The biosphere (from Greek βίος bíos "life" and σφαῖρα sphaira "sphere"),
also known as the ecosphere (from Greek οἶκος oîkos "environment" and
σφαῖρα), is the worldwide sum of all ecosystems. It can also be termed the
zone of life on Earth, a closed system (apart from solar and cosmic
radiation and heat from the interior of the Earth), and largely self-regulating.
By the most general biophysiological definition, the biosphere is the
global ecological system integrating all living beings and their relationships,
including their interaction with the elements of
the lithosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. The biosphere is
postulated to have evolved, beginning with a process of biopoiesis (life
created naturally from non-living matter, such as simple organic compounds)
or biogenesis (life created from living matter), at least some 3.5 billion years
ago.
In a general sense, biospheres are any closed, self-regulating systems
containing ecosystems. This includes artificial biospheres such as Biosphere
2 and BIOS-3, and potentially ones on other planets or moons.
Environmental protection
Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural
environment by individuals, organizations and governments. Its objectives
are to conserve natural resources and the existing natural environment and,
where possible, to repair damage and reverse trends.
Due to the pressures of overconsumption, population growth and technology,
the biophysical environment is being degraded, sometimes permanently. This
has been recognized, and governments have begun placing restraints on
activities that cause environmental degradation. Since the
1960s, environmental movements have created more awareness of the
multiple environmental problems. There is disagreement on the extent of
the environmental impact of human activity and even scientific
dishonesty occurs, so protection measures are occasionally debated.

Another issue is whether environmental protection relates to preservation,

conservation, or both. Preservation refers to the protection of an ecosystem or
natural environment from change, while conservation is generally associated
with the sustainable use of natural resources. The objective of conservation is
to ensure the maintenance of a stock of renewable resources that is being
exploited for human purposes rather than the protection of the natural
environment from any anthropogenic modifications. The exploitation of
natural resources for human purposes is not environmental protection as it is
not associated with the prevention of unwanted changes. The change
associated with exploitation is deliberate and wanted, at least by those doing
the exploitation. However, measures that are put in place to
prevent overexploitation of natural resources do constitute environmental
protection. They are designed to prevent exploitation beyond a point that is
deemed desirable or sustainable. For example, catch quotas in fisheries and
air pollution limits are environmental protection measures because, while
they accept some environmental degradation, they aim to limit it.
6. Autecology, synecology demecology, global ecology.
To give definitions.
In accordance with the above levels of organization of life, ecology is divided
into autecology, demecology and synecology. If an individual organism is
studied, its individual relations with the environment, vital functions and
behavior, it is taken as if isolated from other components of the system and is
considered to be out of the system (aut means out).Thus, autecology studies
interaction of a particular organism with the environment. Sometimes
autecology is given a somewhat broader view, including into its objectives
the study of particular groups of organisms of the same species. An
integrated study of 'groups of organisms that make up certain unity" is the
subject of synecology, (from Greek. syn means together) and demecology is
population ecology.
Autecology is an approach in ecology that seeks to explain the distribution
and abundance of species by studying interactions of individual organisms
with their environments.
Global ecology is the study of the interactions among the Earth's ecosystems,
land, atmosphere and oceans. Unlike population ecology,
community ecology and ecosystem ecology - whose focuses range from
individual species to regions - global ecology investigates problems that are
occurring on a much larger scale.
7. Ecological factors: abiotic, biotic, anthropogenous and etc.
To give definitions and examples (Caracal and others).
Together, abiotic and biotic factors make up an ecosystem. Abiotic factors
are the non-living parts of an environment. These include things such as
sunlight, temperature, wind, water, soil and naturally occurring events such
as storms, fires and volcanic eruptions. Biotic factors are the living parts of
an environment, such as plants, animals and micro-organisms. Together,
they are the biological factors that determine a species' success. Each of
these factors impacts others, and a mix of both is necessary for an
ecosystem to survive.

Abiotic factors can be climatic, related to weather, or edaphic, related to

soil. Climatic factors include air temperature, wind and rain. Edaphic
factors include geography such as topography and mineral content, as well
as soil temperature, texture, moisture level, pH level and aeration.

Climatic factors greatly impact which plants and animals can live within an
ecosystem. Prevailing weather patterns and conditions dictate the conditions
under which species will be expected to live. The patterns not only help to
create the environment but also impact water currents. Changes in any of
these factors, such as those that occur during occasional fluctuations such as
El Niño, have a direct impact and can have both positive and negative
effects.

All living organisms, from microscopic organisms to humans, are biotic

factors. Microscopic organisms are the most plentiful of these and are
widely distributed. They are highly adaptable, and their reproduction rates
are rapid, allowing them to create a large population in a short time. Their
size works to their advantage; they can be dispersed over a large area
quickly, either through abiotic factors such as wind or water currents, or by
traveling in or on other organisms. The simplicity of the organisms also
aids in their adaptability. The conditions needed for growth are few, so they
can easily thrive in a greater variety of environments.

Biotic factors impact both their environment and each other. The presence
or absence of other organisms influences whether a species needs to
compete for food, shelter and other resources. Different species of plants
may compete for light, water and nutrients. Some microbes and viruses can
cause diseases that may be transmitted to other species, thus lowering the
population. Beneficial insects are the primary pollinators of crops, but
others have the potential to destroy crops. Insects also may carry diseases,
some of which can be transmitted to other species.

Anthropogenic factors constitute the primary deterministic causes of

species declines, endangerment and extinction: land development,
overexploitation, species translocations and introductions, and pollution. The
primary anthropogenic factors produce ecological and genetic effects
contributing to extinction risk.
8. Limiting ecological factors. Laws: Yu.Libikh's minimum,
Independence of factors of V. Williams, V. Shelford's law of tolerance.
Liebig law of the minimum, often simply called Liebig's law or the law of
the minimum, is a principle developed in agricultural science by Carl
Sprengel (1840) and later popularized by Justus von Liebig. It states that
growth is dictated not by total resources available, but by the scarcest
resource (limiting factor). The law has also been applied to biological
populations and ecosystem models for factors such as sunlight or mineral
nutrients. This was originally applied to plant or crop growth, where it was
found that increasing the amount of plentiful nutrients did not increase plant
growth. Only by increasing the amount of the limiting nutrient (the one most
scarce in relation to "need") was the growth of a plant or crop improved. This
principle can be summed up in the aphorism, "The availability of the most
abundant nutrient in the soil is only as good as the availability of the least
abundant nutrient in the soil." Or, to put it more plainly, "A chain is only as
strong as its weakest link."
Williams' Law of Independence of Environmental Factors: living
conditions are equivalent, and no environmental factor can be completely
replaced by another. There are leading (necessary) and secondary (related)
factors. A set of factors and their significance depends on the environment. In
nature, there is a change in leading factors. The degree of importance of
environmental factors depends on the habitat. There are 4 habitats on Earth:
water, ground-air, soil and the body of living organisms. In the aquatic
environment, the main factor is oxygen dissolved in water (at least 5 mg / l).
In ground-air, the main factor is temperature. In the soil environment -
oxygen, chemical composition. In living organisms - an abundance of food.
When factors interact, the effect of compensation acts: the deficiency of one
is compensated by the excess of the other (in the north: cold - a lot of light).
Shelford's law of tolerance is a principle developed by American zoologist
Victor Ernest Shelford in 1913. It states that an organism's success is based
on a complex set of conditions and that each organism has a certain
minimum, maximum, and optimum environmental factor or combination of
factors that determine success. C. The further elaboration on the theory of
tolerance is credited to Ronald Good.

 Points out the second limitation of Liebig's law of the minimum - that
factors act in concert rather than in isolation. A low level of one
factor can sometimes be partially compensated for by appropriate
levels of other factors.
A corollary to this is that two factors may work synergistically (e.g. 1
+ 1 = 5), to make a habitat favorable or unfavorable.
 Geographic distribution of sugar maple.
It cannot tolerate average monthly high temperatures above 24–27 °C
or winter temperatures below −18 °C. The western limit is determined
by dryness, and this coincides with the western limits of forest
vegetation in general.
Because temperature and rainfall interact to determine the availability
of water, sugar maple tolerates lower annual precipitation at the edge
of its northern range (by about 50 cm).
 Good restated the theory of tolerance as: Each and every species is
able to exist and reproduce successfully only within a definite range
of environmental conditions.
 The law of tolerance, or theory of tolerance, is best illustrated by a
bell shaped curve.
The range of the optimum.
 Tolerance ranges are not necessarily fixed. They can change as:
Seasons change.
Environmental conditions change.
Life stage of the organism changes.
Example – blue crabs. The eggs and larvae require higher salinity
than adults.
 The range of the optimum may differ for different processes within
the same organism.
Photosynthesis and growth in the pea plant
9. Concepts of an ecological niche and ecological area.

In ecology, a niche is the match of a species to a specific environmental

condition. It describes how an organism or population responds to the
distribution of resources and competitors (for example, by growing when
resources are abundant, and when predators, parasites and pathogens are
scarce) and how it in turn alters those same factors (for example, limiting
access to resources by other organisms, acting as a food source for predators
and a consumer of prey). "The type and number of variables comprising the
dimensions of an environmental niche vary from one species to another [and]
the relative importance of particular environmental variables for a species
may vary according to the geographic and biotic contexts".

The concept of ecological niche is central to ecological biogeography, which

focuses on spatial patterns of ecological communities. "Species distributions
and their dynamics over time result from properties of the species,
environmental variation..., and interactions between the two—in particular
the abilities of some species, especially our own, to modify their
environments and alter the range dynamics of many other species."Alteration
of an ecological niche by its inhabitants is the topic of niche construction.
Biotic factors affecting a species' niche include food availability and
predators. Abiotic factors affecting ecological niche include temperature,
landscape characteristics, soil nutrients, light and other non-living factors.
An example of an ecological niche is that of the dung beetle. The dung
beetle, as its name suggests, consumes dung both in larval and adult form.
Dung beetles store dung balls in burrows, and females lay eggs within
them.
This allows hatched larvae immediate access to food. The dung beetle in
turn influences the surrounding environment by aerating soil and
rereleasing beneficial nutrients. Therefore, the dung beetle performs a
unique role in its environment.
Importance of Ecological Niches
Ecologists use the concept of the ecological niche to help understand how
communities relate to environmental conditions, fitness, trait evolution and
predator-prey interactions in communities. This becomes ever more
important as climate change affects community ecology.
Ecological niches allow species to exist in their environment. Under the
right conditions, the species will thrive and play a unique role. Without the
ecological niches, there would be less biodiversity, and the ecosystem
would not be in balance.
Examples of Ecological Niches
Several examples of ecological niches exist in various ecosystems.
For example, in the jack pine forest of Michigan, the Kirtland’s warbler
occupies an area ideally suited for the bird. The birds prefer nesting on the
ground between the trees, not in them, among small undergrowth.
But the jack pine tree must be only up to eight years old and around 5 feet
tall. Once the tree ages or grows taller, the Kirtland’s warbler will not
thrive. These highly specialized kinds of niches can be put at great risk due
to human development.
Desert plants such as succulents adapted to arid ecological niches by storing
water in their leaves and growing long roots. Unlike most plants, succulents
open up their stomata only at night so as to reduce water loss from
scorching daytime heat.
10. Ecology laws: System developments at the expense of environment;
Haeckel's biogenic law. To give definitions.
Commoner is best known for his four “laws of ecology”, which he outlined
in the first chapter of The Closing Circle. These are:
1) Everything is connected to everything else;
2) Everything must go somewhere;
3) Nature knows best; and
4) There is no such thing as a free lunch.

The first law states what Commoner called “a simple fact about ecosystems”
– all healthy ecosystems are interconnected and self-stabilising: if any part of
a natural ecosystem is damaged or overstressed it can trigger far wider
problems. For example, the burning of fossil fuels is overloading the global
carbon cycle, which in turn is triggering dramatic changes to climate, global
ice cover, weather patterns, ocean acidification, farming yields, sea levels,
government budgets and worldwide refugee figures. Any society that ignores
Commoner’s first law – that everything is connected to everything else –
invites ecological and social turmoil.
Of the second law – everything must go somewhere – Commoner said: “One
of the chief reasons for the present environment crisis is that great amounts of
materials have been extracted from the Earth, converted into new forms, and
discharged into the environment without taking into account that ‘everything
must go somewhere’. The result, too often, is the accumulation of harmful
amounts of material in places where, in nature, they do not belong.”
Commoner’s third law of ecology – nature knows best – is not an example of
naive, green romanticism, but a rejection of what he called “one of the most
pervasive features of modern technology ... the notion that it is intended to
‘improve on nature’”. Rather, he said: “Stated baldly, the third law of
ecology holds that any major man-made change in a natural system is likely
to be detrimental to that system.”
Commoner said he borrowed his fourth law – there is no such thing as a free
lunch – from economic science: “In ecology, as in economics, the law is
intended to warn that every gain is won at some cost. In a way, this
ecological law embodies the previous three laws. Because the global
ecosystem is a connected whole, in which nothing can be gained or lost and
which is not subject to overall improvement, anything extracted from it by
human effort must be replaced. Payment of this price cannot be avoided; it
can only be delayed. The present environmental crisis is a warning that we
have delayed nearly too long.”

Biogenetic law, also called Recapitulation Theory, postulation, by Ernst

Haeckel in 1866, that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny—i.e., the
development of the animal embryo and young traces the evolutionary
development of the species. The theory was influential and much-popularized
earlier but has been of little significance in elucidating either evolution or
embryonic growth.

Since embryos also evolve in different ways, the shortcomings of the theory
had been recognized by the early 20th century, and it had been relegated to
"biological mythology"by the mid-20th century.

Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919) attempted to synthesize the ideas of Lamarckism

and Goethe's Naturphilosophie with Charles Darwin's concepts. While often
seen as rejecting Darwin's theory of branching evolution for a more linear
Lamarckian view of progressive evolution, this is not accurate: Haeckel used
the Lamarckian picture to describe the ontogenetic and phylogenetic history
of individual species, but agreed with Darwin about the branching of all
species from one, or a few, original ancestors.Since early in the twentieth
century, Haeckel's "biogenetic law" has been refuted on many fronts.
Haeckel formulated his theory as "Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny". The
notion later became simply known as the recapitulation theory. Ontogeny is
the growth (size change) and development (structure change) of an individual
organism; phylogeny is the evolutionary history of a species. Haeckel
claimed that the development of advanced species passes through stages
represented by adult organisms of more primitive species.Otherwise put, each
successive stage in the development of an individual represents one of the
adult forms that appeared in its evolutionary history.
For example, Haeckel proposed that the pharyngeal grooves between the
pharyngeal arches in the neck of the human embryo not only roughly
resembled gill slits of fish, but directly represented an adult "fishlike"
developmental stage, signifying a fishlike ancestor. Embryonic pharyngeal
slits, which form in many animals when the thin branchial plates separating
pharyngeal pouches and pharyngeal grooves perforate, open the pharynx to
the outside. Pharyngeal arches appear in all tetrapod embryos: in mammals,
the first pharyngeal arch develops into the lower jaw (Meckel's cartilage), the
malleus and the stapes.
Haeckel produced several embryo drawings that often overemphasized
similarities between embryos of related species. Modern biology rejects the
literal and universal form of Haeckel's theory, such as its possible application
to behavioural ontogeny, i.e. the psychomotor development of young animals
and human children.
11. Ecology laws: A.Grigoryeva-M.Budyko's geographical ash value;
Physical and chemical unity of live substance; B. Commoner's laws.
To give definitions.
Barry Commoner, “a leader among a generation of scientist-activists” (New
York Times) and possibly “the greatest environmentalist of the 20th
century”.

Credited as a founder of the modern environmental movement, Commoner

was among the world’s best known ecologists in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. He
was famous for his public campaigns against nuclear testing, chemical
pollution and environmental decay. Commoner is best known for his four
“laws of ecology”, which he outlined in the first chapter of The Closing
Circle. These are: 1) Everything is connected to everything else; 2)
Everything must go somewhere; 3) Nature knows best; and 4) There is no
such thing as a free lunch.

The first law states what Commoner called “a simple fact about ecosystems”
– all healthy ecosystems are interconnected and self-stabilising: if any part of
a natural ecosystem is damaged or overstressed it can trigger far wider
problems. For example, the burning of fossil fuels is overloading the global
carbon cycle, which in turn is triggering dramatic changes to climate, global
ice cover, weather patterns, ocean acidification, farming yields, sea levels,
government budgets and worldwide refugee figures. Any society that ignores
Commoner’s first law – that everything is connected to everything else –
invites ecological and social turmoil.

Of the second law – everything must go somewhere – Commoner said: “One

of the chief reasons for the present environment crisis is that great amounts of
materials have been extracted from the Earth, converted into new forms, and
discharged into the environment without taking into account that ‘everything
must go somewhere’. The result, too often, is the accumulation of harmful
amounts of material in places where, in nature, they do not belong.”

Commoner’s third law of ecology – nature knows best – is not an example

of naive, green romanticism, but a rejection of what he called “one of the
most pervasive features of modern technology ... the notion that it is intended
to ‘improve on nature’”. Rather, he said: “Stated baldly, the third law of
ecology holds that any major man-made change in a natural system is likely
to be detrimental to that system.”

Commoner said he borrowed his fourth law – there is no such thing as a free
lunch – from economic science: “In ecology, as in economics, the law is
intended to warn that every gain is won at some cost. In a way, this
ecological law embodies the previous three laws. Because the global
ecosystem is a connected whole, in which nothing can be gained or lost and
which is not subject to overall improvement, anything extracted from it by
human effort must be replaced. Payment of this price cannot be avoided; it
can only be delayed. The present environmental crisis is a warning that we
have delayed nearly too long.”

12. Ecology laws: The law of emergent; B. Commoner's laws.

To give definitions.

Barry Commoner, “a leader among a generation of scientist-activists” (New

York Times) and possibly “the greatest environmentalist of the 20th century”
(Ralph Nader), died in New York on September 30, aged 95.

Credited as a founder of the modern environmental movement, Commoner

was among the world’s best known ecologists in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. He
was famous for his public campaigns against nuclear testing, chemical
pollution and environmental decay.
Commoner is best known for his four “laws of ecology”, which he outlined
in the first chapter of The Closing Circle. These are:
1) Everything is connected to everything else;
The first law states what Commoner called “a simple fact about
ecosystems” – all healthy ecosystems are interconnected and self-
stabilising: if any part of a natural ecosystem is damaged or
overstressed it can trigger far wider problems. For example, the
burning of fossil fuels is overloading the global carbon cycle, which
in turn is triggering dramatic changes to climate, global ice cover,
weather patterns, ocean acidification, farming yields, sea levels,
government budgets and worldwide refugee figures. Any society that
ignores Commoner’s first law – that everything is connected to
everything else – invites ecological and social turmoil.

2) Everything must go somewhere;

Of the second law – everything must go somewhere – Commoner
said: “One of the chief reasons for the present environment crisis is
that great amounts of materials have been extracted from the Earth,
converted into new forms, and discharged into the environment
without taking into account that ‘everything must go somewhere’.
The result, too often, is the accumulation of harmful amounts of
material in places where, in nature, they do not belong.”

3) Nature knows best;

Commoner’s third law of ecology – nature knows best – is not an
example of naive, green romanticism, but a rejection of what he
 called “one of the most pervasive features of modern technology ...
the notion that it is intended to ‘improve on nature’”. Rather, he said:
“Stated baldly, the third law of ecology holds that any major man-
made change in a natural system is likely to be detrimental to that
system.”

4) There is no such thing as a free lunch.

Commoner said he borrowed his fourth law – there is no such thing as
a free lunch – from economic science: “In ecology, as in economics,
the law is intended to warn that every gain is won at some cost. In a
way, this ecological law embodies the previous three laws. Because
the global ecosystem is a connected whole, in which nothing can be
gained or lost and which is not subject to overall improvement,
anything extracted from it by human effort must be replaced. Payment
of this price cannot be avoided; it can only be delayed. The present
environmental crisis is a warning that we have delayed nearly too
long.”

13. Ecology laws: Competitive inhibition; The law of emergent.

To give definitions.
Competitive inhibition is interruption of a chemical pathway owing to one
chemical substance inhibiting the effect of another by competing with it for
binding or bonding. Any metabolic or chemical messenger system can
potentially be affected by this principle, but several classes of competitive
inhibition are especially important in biochemistry and medicine, including
the competitive form of enzyme inhibition, the competitive form of receptor
antagonism, the competitive form of antimetabolite activity, and the
competitive form of poisoning (which can include any of the aforementioned
types).

In competitive inhibition of enzyme catalysis, binding of an inhibitor

prevents binding of the target molecule of the enzyme, also known as the
substrate. This is accomplished by blocking the binding site of the substrate –
the active site – by some means. The Vmax indicates the maximum velocity
of the reaction, while the Km is the amount of substrate needed to reach half
of the Vmax. Km also plays a part in indicating the tendency of the substrate
to bind the enzyme. Competitive inhibition can be overcome by adding more
substrate to the reaction, which increases the chances of the enzyme and
substrate binding. As a result, competitive inhibition alters only the Km,
leaving the Vmax the same. This can be demonstrated using enzyme kinetics
plots such as the Michaelis-Menten or the Lineweaver-Burk plot. Once the
inhibitor is bound to the enzyme, the slope will be affected, as the Km either
increases or decreases from the original Km of the reaction.

Most competitive inhibitors function by binding reversibly to the active site

of the enzyme. As a result, many sources state that this is the defining feature
of competitive inhibitors. This, however, is a misleading oversimplification,
as there are many possible mechanisms by which an enzyme may bind either
the inhibitor or the substrate but never both at the same time. For example,
allosteric inhibitors may display competitive, non-competitive, or
uncompetitive inhibition.
14. Ecology laws: Pressure of the environment of life or limited growth
(Ch.Darvin); The unities "organism- environment ". To give definitions.

One of the key arguments that Darwin makes in his On the Origin of Species
concerns the Struggle for Existence. Individuals are constantly locked in
competition, whether with other members of the same species, different
species that may occupy the same or similar ecological niche, or
environmental factors. Those organisms that survive then reproduce and pass
their traits onto the next generation. Those that do not win out die, and if this
concept is applied to entire species, it may result in extinction due to a failure
to adapt to changing conditions.

The most important aspect of the struggle involves the environmental limits
that all organisms must face. These restrictions, which encompasses
resources such as food, predator and parasite interactions, and climate, drive
natural selection. Without these forces at work, Darwin’s theory would not
stand. Since abundance reduces conflict while scarcity leads to competition,
nature provides the pressure that fuels the engine of evolution.

In one of his examples, Darwin highlights the difference between artificial

and natural selection. Man rarely favors one character over another; “he feeds
a long and a short beaked pigeon on the same food; he does not exercise a
long-backed or long-legged quadruped in any peculiar manner; he exposes
sheep with long and short wool to the same climate” (83). These traits could
all be selected for in a population of wild animals. Man then acts as an
equalizer whereas nature would preferentially pick certain individuals over
others.

In a larger scope, all species would continue to increase in number if they

were able. The fact that we do not see an ever increasing amount of rabbits or
wolves or eagles suggest that their population is kept in check by what the
environment can support. Darwin postulates that growth is capped by the
amount of readily available food and by the increased spread of parasites and
disease among dense groups. Other facts include a corresponding rise in
predator numbers, which all feeds into the Struggle.

This same concept can be applied to humans. Darwin was influenced by the
work of Thomas Malthus, who wrote of the limits of population growth
among mankind. Although society has thus far managed to avoid the famine,
chaos, and destruction that would accompany global overpopulation, our
technological innovation can only take us so far. There comes a point where
all the pesticides and GMO crops and livestock cannot sustain the trajectory
of humanity. We must face up to the challenges of climate change as well,
and change our habit of burning recklessly burning fossil fuels and continued
pollution. Otherwise, these selection pressures will soon act on us in our own
Struggle for Existence.

In biology, the unitary approach makes it explicit why no organism can be

thought of without an environment. An organism as a skin bag is no
functioning system; it may be such only together with the relevant
environmental parts. The same applies to neurophysiology or “cognitive”
brain research: without the rest of the world the nervous system is not a
system at all; neither is the agent of the behavior a part of the body, such as
the brain. In psychology, the theory makes the distinction of psychological
concepts possible without reducing them either to neural or physical
concepts. Psychological concepts do not refer to things but to events and
relations in the dynamic flow of the organism-environment system. This
means also that human traits or individual properties are not located in the
individual but get their content from the social relations.

The organism-environment system theory has also important consequences

for understanding of different kinds of diseases, handicaps, or rehabilitation.
As all properties appear as relations within the unitary system, the disease or
handicap is not simply a property of the individual but also is contextually
understood in relation to the possibility for cooperation. The interpretation of
mental processes or consciousness solely as individual phenomena leads in
the rehabilitation to manipulation of the individual only, whence the
possibilities to influence other factors relevant for human action, such as
human relations or societal problems, are neglected.

15. Fundamental law of ecology. Primary and secondary successions.

Ecological integrity becomes a precondition for human aspirations and a
fundamental principle of law. In other words, ecological law reverses the
principle of human dominance over nature, which the current iteration of.
environmental law tends to reinforce, to a principle of human responsibility
for nature.
Primary Succession can be defined as the process of growth in an area that
was previously uninhabited, barren, unoccupied and there was no initial
vegetation. On the other hand, Secondary Succession can be defined as the
growth of the community in such area which was previously occupied,
inhabited and that has primary vegetation but got disturbed or damaged due
to some external or internal factors. The example of Primary Succession is
the newly formed bare rock, desert, ponds, etc., while the area covered under
deforestation, or affected by natural calamities such as flood, earthquake, etc.
are the examples of Secondary Succession.

The ecological succession can be defined as the gradual and natural process,
of the development of the biological community. The time taken for such
development can be decades or over millions of years. The process begins
with the growth of a pioneering community, initiate from the bare rock, the
lichens, and few plants species.

Block 2

16. Describe theories of the Origin of life on Earth, including Rocks

theory (How Life Started on Earth – Movie).
17. Population: properties and regularities of development.
18. Ecosystems: characteristic and structure. Dynamics of an ecosystem.
19. Autotrophic and heterotrophic ecosystem components.
20. Biosphere and technosphere. Anthropogenous influence on the
biosphere.
21. Basic principles of the doctrine of V.I.Vernadsky about the
biosphere
and a noosphere.
22. An efficiency of ecosystem. Rule 10% and Rule 1%. To explain on an
example.
23. Characteristic, classification and management of natural resources.
Represent table.

Natural resources are resources that exist without actions of humankind. This
includes all valued characteristics such as magnetic, gravitational, electrical
properties and forces, etc. On Earth it
includes sunlight, atmosphere, water, land (includes all minerals) along with
all vegetation, crops and animal life that naturally subsists upon or within the
heretofore identified characteristics and substances.

There are various methods of categorizing natural resources, these include

source of origin, stage of development, and by their renewability.
On the basis of origin, natural resources may be divided into two types:
 Biotic — Biotic resources are obtained from the biosphere (living and
organic material), such as forests and animals, and the materials that can
be obtained from them. Fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum are also
included in this category because they are formed from decayed organic
matter.
 Abiotic – Abiotic resources are those that come from non-living, non-
organic material. Examples of abiotic resources include land,
fresh water, air, rare earth metals and heavy metals including ores, such
as, gold, iron, copper, silver, etc.

Considering their stage of development, natural resources may be referred to

in the following ways:
 Potential resources — Potential resources are those that may be used in
the future—for example, petroleum in sedimentary rocks that, until
drilled out and put to use remains a potential resource
 Actual resources — Those resources that have been surveyed, quantified
and qualified and, are currently used—development, such as wood
processing, depends on technology and cost
 Reserve resources — The part of an actual resource that can be
developed profitably in the future
 Stock resources — Those that have been surveyed, but cannot be used
due to lack of technology—for example, hydrogen

Many natural resources can be categorized as either renewable or non-

renewable:
 Renewable resources — Renewable resources can be replenished
naturally. Some of these resources, like sunlight, air, wind, water, etc. are
continuously available and their quantities are not noticeably affected by
human consumption. Though many renewable resources do not have
such rapid recovery rate, these resources are susceptible to depletion by
over-use. Resources from a human use perspective are classified as
renewable so long as the rate of replenishment/recovery exceeds that of
the rate of consumption. They replenish easily compared to Non-
renewable resources.
 Non-renewable resources – Non-renewable resources either form slowly
or do not naturally form in the environment. Minerals are the most
common resource included in this category. From the human perspective,
resources are non-renewable when their rate of consumption exceeds the
rate of replenishment/recovery; a good example of this are fossil fuels,
which are in this category because their rate of formation is extremely
slow (potentially millions of years), meaning they are considered non-
renewable. Some resources actually naturally deplete in amount without
human interference, the most notable of these being radio-active elements
such as uranium, which naturally decay into heavy metals. Of these, the
metallic minerals can be re-used by recycling them, but coal and
petroleum cannot be recycled. Once they are completely used they take
millions of years to replenish.
Natural resource management is a discipline in the management of natural
resources such as land, water, soil, plants, and animals—with a particular
focus on how management affects quality of life for present and future
generations. Hence, sustainable development is followed according to
judicial use of resources to supply both the present generation and future
generations.
Management of natural resources involves identifying who has the right to
use the resources, and who does not, for defining the boundaries of the
resource. The resources are managed by the users according to the rules
governing of when and how the resource is used depending on local
condition.[31]
A "...successful management of natural resources depends on freedom of
speech, a dynamic and wide-ranging public debate through multiple
independent media channels and an active civil society engaged in natural
resource issues...", because of the nature of the shared resources the
individuals who are affected by the rules can participate in setting or
changing them.[30] The users have rights to devise their own management
institutions and plans under the recognition by the government. The right to
resources includes land, water, fisheries and pastoral rights. The users or
parties accountable to the users have to actively monitor and ensure the
utilisation of the resource compliance with the rules and to impose penalty on
those peoples who violates the rules. These conflicts are resolved in a quick
and low cost manner by the local institution according to the seriousness and
context of the offence. The global science-based platform to discuss natural
resources management is the World Resources Forum, based in Switzerland.

24. Problems of pollution and protection of natural resources:

atmosphere, hydrosphere, soils.

Environment and natural resources preservation is vital to the economic

growth of any country or a region in many ways but also susceptible to the
extent that their utilization, management and sustainability can be affected by
performance and deeds of various actions within the society.

Pollution, also called environmental pollution, the addition of any substance

(solid, liquid, or gas) or any form of energy (such as heat, sound,
or radioactivity) to the environment at a rate faster than it can be dispersed,
diluted, decomposed, recycled, or stored in some harmless form. The major
kinds of pollution, usually classified by environment, are air pollution, water
pollution, and land pollution. Modern society is also concerned about specific
types of pollutants, such as noise pollution, light pollution, and plastic
pollution. Pollution of all kinds can have negative effects on the environment
and wildlife and often impacts human health and well-being.

Environmental issues are harmful effects of human activity on the

biophysical environment. Environmental protection is a practice of protecting
the natural environment on individual, organizational or governmental levels,
for the benefit of both the environment and humans. Environmentalism,
a social and environmental movement, addresses environmental issues
through advocacy, education and activism.

Major current environmental issues may include climate

change, pollution, environmental degradation, and resource depletion etc.
The conservation movement lobbies for protection of endangered species and
protection of any ecologically valuable natural areas, genetically modified
foods and global warming.

Atmosphere
Here are a few ways that we can protect ourselves and other species from the
harmful effects of air pollution.
Use our vehicles less.
We can take public transportation, ride a bike, or walk whenever possible.
This will reduce the amount of pollutants emitted into the air.
Use cleaner fuels and more fuel-efficient products.
Encourage your parents and other grown-ups to use cleaner fuels in their car.
A good choice is E10, a blend of clean-burning ethanol and gasoline. Or,
they can switch to a more fuel-efficient car that gets better gas mileage. On a
smaller scale, they can replace gas-powered lawn mowers with alternatives
such as electric or manual mowers.
Factories can use control devices.
For example, factories can use "scrubbers" on smoke stacks to trap particles
and protect against acid rain. These control devices remove pollution at its
source.

Hydrosphere
Go Native
Use native plants in your landscape. They look great, and don't need much
water or fertilizer. Also choose grass varieties for your lawn that are adapted
for your region's climate, reducing the need for extensive watering or
chemical applications.
Reduce Chemical Use
Use fewer chemicals around your home and yard, and make sure to dispose
of them properly - don't dump them on the ground!
Manage Waste
Properly dispose of potentially toxic substances like unused chemicals,
pharmaceuticals, paint, motor oil, and other substances. Many communities
hold household hazardous waste collections or sites - contact your local
health department to find one near you.
Don't Let It Run
Shut off the water when you brush your teeth or shaving, and don't let it run
while waiting for it to get cold. Keep a pitcher of cold water in the fridge
instead.
Fix the Drip
Check all the faucets, fixtures, toilets, and taps in your home for leaks and fix
them right away, or install water conserving models.
Wash Smarter
Limit yourself to just a five minute shower, and challenge your family
members to do the same! Also, make sure to only run full loads in the dish
and clothes washer.
Water Wisely
Water the lawn and plants during the coolest parts of the day and only when
they truly need it. Make sure you, your family, and your neighbors obey any
watering restrictions during dry periods.
Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle
Reduce the amount of "stuff" you use and reuse what you can. Recycle paper,
plastic, cardboard, glass, aluminum and other materials.
Natural Alternatives
Use all natural/nontoxic household cleaners whenever possible. Materials
such as lemon juice, baking soda, and vinegar make great cleaning products,
are inexpensive, and environmentally-friendly.

Soil
Forest Protection
The natural forest cover in many areas has been decreased due to commercial
activity. One of the purposes this cover provided was the protection of the
soil. Businesses involved in building can conserve by ensuring these areas
are protected.
Buffer Strips
Soil erosion is a large problem that is being battled around the country. This
is particularly an issue where there are natural bodies of water. Buffer strips
come in handy for conservation efforts. They provide protection where
stream banks exist. They can be created with grass, trees and shrubs.
No-Till Farming
There are a number of approaches used when it comes to farming. It is
possible to do this work and still conserve the soil. No-till farming is an
approach that allows crops to remain in place for a season. This keeps the soil
from being left bare and unprotected.
Fewer Concrete Surfaces
Soil requires an adequate amount of water in order to function properly. Lots
of concrete surfaces, especially in residential areas make it difficult for water
to get to the soil. Using paving stones for patios and gardens work to protect
the soil. They are also a tool to prevent soil erosion in specific areas.
Plant Windbreak Areas
Windbreaks are composed of shrubs, plants and trees. They work in
combination and serve a conservation purpose. These will work together to
slow the force of wind over ground areas. This is a method that can also work
to prevent erosion of the soil.
Terrace Planting
This type of planting is done by maximizing the topography of the land. It
benefits from the way the rain water flows naturally. This is a way to protect
the soil from erosion. It is also a proven method to encourage growth from
moist soil areas.
Plant Trees
Simply planting trees is a good conservation method. As the tree grows, its
roots become even more secure in the soil. This soil is protected in numerous
ways because of the trees existence. Erosion is prevented from this planting
process.
Crop Rotation
The way you plant your crops can have an impact on the soil. Crop rotation is
a process that works to conserve soil. It is accomplished by planting and
growing a serious of different crops in the same soil. This process prevents
overgrowth of pathogens and a lack of fertility in the soil, overall.
Water the Soil
This is a simple process that provides a lot of benefits to the soil. Watering
your soil along with plants and vegetables is important. This helps to not only
nourish the soil but to protect it. Moist soil is not in danger of erosion due to
wind activity.
Maintain pH
The pH levels in the soil can be affected by a number of things. Pollutants
and acid are just two examples in this category. Purchasing a soil tester is a
good way to monitor your soil’s levels. This also allows you to learn what
needs to be added to ensure healthy soil and conservation.

25. Protection of an animal and plants. Red Book.

Our planet is not safe place for animals and plants. Thousands of planet
species have become extinct and many more are now becoming endangered.

One of the main treats to the survival of many plants and animals is
Idustrialisation. This , which causes pollution and acid rain, which destroys
forests and harm many species of plant harms many planet species.
Another treats is, the human race, ourselves. We are destroying the animals'
natural habitats and polluting the environment so there is nowhere for them
to it is hard for them to find a place to live or find food. We, as a nation, need
to do something fast before it is too late for them.

Firstly, I think we can try The Russian Federation needs to think of a way to
clean up our environment. Less pollution we produced, the means more
increasing the chance animals have of surviving.

Another solution is to create more national parks and conservation areas.

This would be allow animals to live and breed safely in their natural habitats.
As a result, their numbers would increase and species would not die
out thrive.

The Red Book is a list of rare and endangered animals, plants and
mushrooms in Kazakhstan. It has 3 editions, the last of which was published
in 1999.

The modern edition includes:

128 species and subspecies of vertebrates
18 fish and cyclostomes
3 amphibians
10 reptiles
58 birds
40 mammals

Kazakhstan Red Book: animals

The fauna of Kazakhstan is rich and diverse. There are species in it that in the
natural environment number up to ten, or even fewer individuals. All because
of the violation of the ecological balance, pollution of water bodies and soils,
aggressive human activities, senseless extermination, poaching.

Many rare animals of Kazakhstan, today's resident of our country become

known only from photographs that are presented in the Red Book and
accompany articles, online publications on the environmental situation in
Kazakhstan. Some representatives of the fauna can still be found in zoos.
The fauna of Kazakhstan almost every year loses the population. And this
despite the efforts of environmentalists, environmentalists and volunteer
volunteers who are involved in the protection of fauna that is on the verge of
extinction.

We recommend to inquire which animals of Kazakhstan fell into this

category. To help, we offer a small fact-finding tour of the pages of the Red
Book of Kazakhstan. Let's consider what endangered animals of Kazakhstan
require the care and guardianship of people:

Caracal
Қaraқal - from Kazakh ‘black brush’. Our ancestors noted such a detail in
this predator. For a long time the animal was called steppe trot, believing that
it is a representative of a separate branch of this species. However, scientists
have found that Kazakhstan caracal has a greater resemblance to puma and
serval.

This animal is medium in size (up to 85 cm) with a long, up to 35 cm, tail. It
has a thick fur, strong legs. On the ears, a distinctive feature of the caracal is
black tassels.

In Kazakhstan, these representatives of the cat family live in the desert and
semi-desert: you will meet them on the Caspian coast, on the Mangyshlak
peninsula.

Spoonbill
This bird looks like a heron: the same strong long legs, huge beak. By the
way, beak is its distinguishing feature. It is slightly flattened and widened at
the end, giving the impression of a scapula-tongs with which to bake.

Spoonbill is a medium-sized bird. She has white plumage, but the throat has a
yellow spot and the same color has a transverse strip on her neck. For
symmetry, nature gave the spoonbill a yellowish tuft on the head.

This migratory bird loves to settle in reed beds, near steppe lakes, in
riverbeds, where dense shrubs grow. Already in mid-March, the spoonbill
can be seen on Lake Sorkol. There is it on Lake Zhanibek, Kushum and Lake
Markakol.

Kazakhstan Red Book: Animals and Birds

Not all species of endangered birds are represented here. Unfortunately, their
list is very long. Only those species that are usually mentioned in passing are
described. Much more can be said about flamingos, pink and curly pelicans,
yellow heron, white and black storks, marble teal. All of them are objects of
environmental protection of the state.

The knowledge of the nature of the native land, its protection and care for the
flora and fauna is the duty of every citizen. Nature generously endowed
Kazakhstan. There are also snow leopard and red wolf, brown bear and
manul.

But if now you do not take care of the conservation of these species, then
soon you can only read about them in encyclopedias and see rare
photographs.

26. Concept of a sustainable development. Rio-92. Agenda of the XXI

century.
27. Conference Rio+20, describe the basics of Green Economy.
28. Environmental problems of RK. Protections of the Aral and Caspian Sea,
Semipalatinsk nuclear set.
29. Preserving the Environment of Karachaganak. Describe the Eco-friendly
technologies.
30. Ecological policy and nature protection activity of Kazakhstan.
Block 3

31. Draw and explain structure of modern ecology.

32. Graphically present and explain phases of action of an ecological stress
on live organisms.
33. Describe a role of ecological culture and ecological education in modern
society.
34. Types of relationship between living organisms in community (table).

Organisms occupy what are called niches. A niche includes the physical
space in which they live, how they use the resources that are in that space,
and how they interact with other organisms in that space. The interaction
among organisms within or between overlapping niches can be characterized
into five types of relationships: competition, predation, commensalism,
mutualism and parasitism. The last three subtypes are classically defined as
relationships exhibiting symbiosis, but predation and competition can also be
considered as forms of symbiosis. Symbiosis refers to a close relationship in
which one or both organisms obtain a benefit.
Competition & Predation
Predation is when one organism eats another organism to obtain nutrients.
The organism that is eaten is called the prey. Examples of predation are owls
that eat mice, and lions that eat gazelles. Competition is when individuals or
populations compete for the same resource, and can occur within or between
species. When organisms compete for a resource (such as food or building
materials) it is called consumptive or exploitative competition. When they
compete for territory, it is called interference competition. When they
compete for new territory by arriving there first, it is called preemptive
competition. An example is lions and hyenas that compete for prey.
Commensalism
Commensalism is a relationship in which one organism benefits while the
other is neither helped nor harmed. Examples are barnacles that grow on
whales and other marine animals. The whale gains no benefit from the
barnacle, but the barnacles gain mobility, which helps them evade predators,
and are exposed to more diverse feeding opportunities. There are four basic
types of commensal relationships. Chemical commensalism occurs when one
bacteria produces a chemical that sustains another bacteria. Inquilinism is
when one organism lives in the nest, burrow, or dwelling place of another
species. Metabiosis is commensalism in which one species is dependent on
the other for survival. Phoresy is when one organism temporarily attaches to
another organism for the purposes of transportation.
Parasitism
Parasitism is a relationship in which one organism benefits and the other
organism is harmed, but not always killed. The organism that benefits is
called the parasite, and the one that is harmed is the host. Parasitism is
different from parasitoidism, which is when the host is always killed, such as
when one organism lays its egg inside another organism that is later eaten by
the hatchlings. Parasites can be ectoparasites -- such as ticks, fleas, and
leeches -- that live on the surface of the host. Parasites can also be
endoparasites -- such as intestinal worms – that live inside the host.
Endoparasites can be further categorized into intercellular parasites, that live
in the space between cells, or intracellular parasites, which live inside of
cells. There is also something called hyperparasitism, which is when a
parasite is infected by another parasite, such as a microorganism living in a
flea, which lives on a dog. Lastly, a relationship called social parasitism is
exemplified by an ant species that does not have worker ants, living among
another ant species that do, by using the host species’ workers.
Mutualism
Mutualism is a relationship in which both species benefit. Mutualistic
interaction patterns occur in three forms. Obligate mutualism is when one
species cannot survive apart from the other. Diffusive mutualism is when one
organism can live with more than one partner. Facultative mutualism is when
one species can survive on its own under certain conditions. On top of these,
mutualistic relationships have three general purposes. Trophic mutualism is
exemplified in lichens, which consist of fungi and either algae or
cyanobacteria. The fungi's partners provide sugar from photosynthesis and
the fungi provide nutrients from digesting rock. Defensive mutualism is when
one organism provides protection from predators while the other provides
food or shelter: an example is ants and aphids. Dispersive mutualism is when
one species receives food in return for transporting the pollen of the other
organism, which occurs between bees and flowers.

35. Draw and explain the scheme of transfer of substance and energy in
natural ecosystems.

Energy is transferred between organisms in food webs from producers to

consumers. The energy is used by organisms to carry out complex tasks.
The vast majority of energy that exists in food webs originates from the sun
and is converted (transformed) into chemical energy by the process of
photosynthesis in plants. A small proportion of this chemical energy is
transformed directly into heat when compounds are broken down during resp
iration in plants. The majority of the chemical energy stored in plants is
transformed into other forms by an assortment of consumers, such as cows,
rabbits, horses, sheep, caterpillars and other insects eating plants.
Energy moves life. The cycle of energy is based on the flow of energy
through different trophic levels in an ecosystem. Our ecosystem is
maintained by the cycling energy and nutrients obtained from different
external sources. At the first trophic level, primary producers use solar
energy to produce organic material through photosynthesis.

The herbivores at the second trophic level, use the plants as food which
gives them energy. A large part of this energy is used up for the metabolic
functions of these animals such as breathing, digesting food, supporting
growth of tissues, maintaining blood circulation and body temperature.
The carnivores at the next trophic level, feed on the herbivores and derive
energy for their sustenance and growth. If large predators are present, they
represent still higher trophic level and they feed on carnivores to get energy.
Thus, the different plants and animal species are linked to one another
through food chains.
Decomposers which include bacteria, fungi, molds, worms, and insects
break down wastes and dead organisms, and return the nutrients to the soil,
which is then taken up by the producers. Energy is not recycled during
decomposition, but it is released.
TO UNDERSTAND
A general energy flow scenario follows:

 Solar energy is fixed by the photoautotrophs, called primary producers,

like green plants. Primary consumers absorb most of the stored energy in
the plant through digestion, and transform it into the form of energy they
need, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP), through respiration. A part
of the energy received by primary consumers, herbivores, is converted
to body heat (an effect of respiration), which is radiated away and lost
from the system. The loss of energy through body heat is far greater
in warm-blooded animals, which must eat much more frequently than
those that are cold-blooded. Energy loss also occurs in the expulsion
of undigested food (egesta) by excretion or regurgitation.
 Secondary consumers, carnivores, then consume the primary consumers,
although omnivores also consume primary producers. Energy that had
been used by the primary consumers for growth and storage is thus
 absorbed into the secondary consumers through the process of digestion.
As with primary consumers, secondary consumers convert this energy
into a more suitable form (ATP) during respiration. Again, some energy
is lost from the system, since energy which the primary consumers had
used for respiration and regulation of body temperature cannot be utilized
by the secondary consumers.
 Tertiary consumers, which may or may not be apex predators, then
consume the secondary consumers, with some energy passed on and
some lost, as with the lower levels of the food chain.
 A final link in the food chain are decomposers which break down
the organic matter of the tertiary consumers (or whichever consumer is at
the top of the chain) and release nutrients into the soil. They also break
down plants, herbivores and carnivores that were not eaten by organisms
higher on the food chain, as well as the undigested food that is excreted
by herbivores and carnivores. Saprotrophic bacteria and fungi are
decomposers, and play a pivotal role in the nitrogen and carbon cycles.
The energy is passed on from trophic level to trophic level and each time
about 90% of the energy is lost, with some being lost as heat into the
environment (an effect of respiration) and some being lost as incompletely
digested food (egesta). Therefore, primary consumers get about 10% of the
energy produced by autotrophs, while secondary consumers get 1% and
tertiary consumers get 0.1%. This means the top consumer of a food
chain receives the least energy, as a lot of the food chain's energy has been
lost between trophic levels. This loss of energy at each level limits typical
food chains to only four to six links.

36. Cycling of chemical elements in the biosphere. To draw the diagram

on a nitrogen example.

In ecology and Earth science, a biogeochemical cycle or substance turnover or cycling of

substances is a pathway by which a chemical substance moves through biotic (biosphere) and
abiotic (lithosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere) compartments of Earth. There are
biogeochemical cycles for the chemical elements calcium, carbon, hydrogen, mercury, nitrogen,
oxygen, phosphorus, selenium, and sulfur; molecular cycles for water and silica; macroscopic
cycles such as the rock cycle; as well as human-induced cycles for synthetic compounds such as
polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB). In some cycles there are reservoirs where a substance remains for
a long period of time (such as an ocean or lake for water).
Ecological systems (ecosystems) have many biogeochemical cycles operating as a part of the
system, for example the water cycle, the carbon cycle, the nitrogen cycle, etc. All chemical
elements occurring in organisms are part of biogeochemical cycles. In addition to being a part of
living organisms, these chemical elements also cycle through abiotic factors of ecosystems such as
water (hydrosphere), land (lithosphere), and/or the air (atmosphere).[1]

The living factors of the planet can be referred to collectively as the biosphere. All the nutrients—
such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur—used in ecosystems by living organisms
are a part of a closed system; therefore, these chemicals are recycled instead of being lost and
replenished constantly such as in an open system.[1]
The flow of energy in an ecosystem is an open system; the sun constantly gives the planet energy
in the form of light while it is eventually used and lost in the form of heat throughout the trophic
levels of a food web. Carbon is used to make carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, the major sources
of food energy. These compounds are oxidized to release carbon dioxide, which can be captured
by plants to make organic compounds. The chemical reaction is powered by the light energy of the
sun.

Sunlight is required to combine carbon with hydrogen and oxygen into an energy source, but
ecosystems in the deep sea, where no sunlight can penetrate, obtain energy from sulfur. Hydrogen
sulfide near hydrothermal vents can be utilized by organisms such as the giant tube worm. In the
sulfur cycle, sulfur can be forever recycled as a source of energy. Energy can be released through
the oxidation and reduction of sulfur compounds (e.g., oxidizing elemental sulfur to sulfite and
then to sulfate).

Although the Earth constantly receives energy from the sun, its chemical composition is essentially
fixed, as additional matter is only occasionally added by meteorites. Because this chemical
composition is not replenished like energy, all processes that depend on these chemicals must be
recycled. These cycles include both the living biosphere and the nonliving lithosphere,
atmosphere, and hydrosphere.

37. Ecological pyramids (number, biomass, energy). Represent

diagrams.
38. To present examples by types of pollutants of environment
(mechanical, chemical, biological, physical). Table.
 39. Analyses the main directions of transport negative influence on
environment. Diagram.
40. Renewable resources. SWOT analysis.
41. Non-renewable resources. SWOT analysis.
42. Cycling of chemical elements in the biosphere. To draw the diagram
on a carbon example.
43. Cycling of chemical elements in the biosphere. To draw the diagram
on a phosphorus example.
44. A water cycle in the biosphere. To draw the diagram.

45. Environmental pollution and principles of classification of polluting

substances. To explain the diagram.
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment
that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of chemical
substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light. Pollutants, the components
of pollution, can be either foreign substances/energies or naturally occurring
contaminants. Pollution is often classed as point source or nonpoint source
pollution. In 2015, pollution killed 9 million people in the world.

Major forms of pollution include: Air pollution, light

pollution, littering, noise pollution, plastic pollution, soil
contamination, radioactive contamination, thermal pollution, visual
pollution, water pollution.

The major forms of pollution are listed below along with the
particular contaminant relevant to each of them:
 Air pollution: the release of chemicals and particulates into the
atmosphere. Common gaseous pollutants include carbon
monoxide, sulfur dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and nitrogen
oxides produced by industry and motor vehicles.
Photochemical ozone and smog are created as nitrogen oxides
and hydrocarbons react to sunlight. Particulate matter, or fine dust is
characterized by their micrometre size PM10 to PM2.5.
 Electromagnetic pollution: the overabundance of electromagnetic
radiation in their non-ionizing form, like radio waves, etc., that people
are constantly exposed at, especially in large cities. It's still unknown
whether or not those types of radiation have any effects on human health,
though.
 Light pollution: includes light trespass, over-
illumination and astronomical interference.
 Littering: the criminal throwing of inappropriate man-made objects,
unremoved, onto public and private properties.
 Noise pollution: which encompasses roadway noise, aircraft
noise, industrial noise as well as high-intensity sonar.
 Plastic pollution: involves the accumulation of plastic products
and microplastics in the environment that adversely affects wildlife,
wildlife habitat, or humans.
 Soil contamination occurs when chemicals are released by spill or
underground leakage. Among the most significant soil
contaminants are hydrocarbons, heavy
metals, MTBE,[22] herbicides, pesticides and chlorinated hydrocarbons.
 Radioactive contamination, resulting from 20th century activities
in atomic physics, such as nuclear power generation and nuclear weapons
research, manufacture and deployment. (See alpha emitters and actinides
in the environment.)
 Thermal pollution, is a temperature change in natural water bodies
caused by human influence, such as use of water as coolant in a power
plant.
 Water pollution, by the discharge of wastewater from commercial
and industrial waste (intentionally or through spills) into surface waters;
discharges of untreated domestic sewage, and chemical contaminants,
such as chlorine, from treated sewage; release of waste and contaminants
into surface runoff flowing to surface waters (including urban runoff and
agricultural runoff, which may contain
chemical fertilizers and pesticides; also including human feces from open
defecation – still a major problem in many developing
countries); groundwater pollution from waste disposal and leaching into
the ground, including from pit latrines and septic
tanks; eutrophication and littering.

A pollutant is a waste material that pollutes air, water, or soil. Three factors
determine the severity of a pollutant: its chemical nature, the concentration
and the persistence.
Pollution control is a term used in environmental management. It means the
control of emissions and effluents into air, water or soil. Without pollution
control, the waste products from overconsumption, heating, agriculture,
mining, manufacturing, transportation and other human activities, whether
they accumulate or disperse, will degrade the environment. In the hierarchy
of controls, pollution prevention and waste minimization are more desirable
than pollution control. In the field of land development, low impact
development is a similar technique for the prevention of urban runoff.
Examples
 Recycling
 Reusing
 Waste minimisation
 Mitigating
 Preventing
 Compost