Environmental Science

http://ptuas.loremate.com/evs/node/2 March 7, 2012

Very Short Answer Type Questions Q. 1. Explain with diagram the structure and function of environment? Ans. Environment is a collective term for all the conditions in which an organism lives. It includes biotic and abiotic components whereas habitat is a place where an organism lives. The different components of environment are inter-linked and interdependent.

The organisms interact with physical environment composed of atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere Environment is usually divided into two parts, physical and biotic. The physical environment consists of (i) forces of nature like wind and gravity (ii) conditions like temperature and light (iii) time and (iv) nonliving materials like soil and water. The biotic environment is made up of all living beings including their reactions, interactions and interrelated actions. Q. 2. What is biosphere? Ans. Biosphere. The entire inhabiated part of earth and its atmosphere including the living components is called biosphere. The three main sub-divisions of biosphere are hydrosphere, lithosphere and atmosphere. 1. Hydrosphere. It includes all the water components of oceans, seas, rivers and other inland water. 2. Lithosphere. It comprises the solid components of the earths crust which support life. 3. Atmosphere. It is formed of gaseous cover which envelops the hydrosphen and lithosphere. Q. 3. What are the components of environment? Differentiate between the two. Ans. Components of environment. 1. Biotic components 2. Abiotic components Difference between Biotic and Abiotic components Q. 4. Define

parabiosphere and eubiosphere. Give examples. Ans. Biosphere. It is the part of earth above and below the surface which support life is called biosphere. Biosphere is recognised as a combination of eubiosphere a parabiosphere. Parabiosphere. It is that part of biosphere which is not inhabited and is harsh to life. Examples: Regions of volcanoes, cold ice caps, arid hot deserts, heavily polluted areas of a land and water. Eubiosphere. The regions which support life which comprises hydrosphere, lithosphere and atmosphere. Q. 5. Explain how the three components of biosphere interact to support and influence life. Ans. Atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere interact and influence life. Illustrations. For example, a tree serves as a food for leaf eating insect which in turn serves as a food for bird and so on. At the same time that tree is being held in position by the pedosphere and supported by the water (contained in the soil) and the air of the atmosphere. By transpiring water into the atmosphere it lowers the temperature of the atmosphere and animals by breathing pass out CO2 which is used by plants during photosynthesis. It thus, becomes clear that the biotic and abiotic components of the atmosphere, lithosphere and the hydrosphere interact and influence the performance of each component directly or indirectly. Q. 6. Explain the terms : Habitat, Ecological niche, Ecosystem, Biome. Ans. Habitat. It is the place or locality in which an organism lives. Ecological niche. A restricted situation or a set of area where individual is confined are called ecological niche. It is the address of organism. Ecosystem. Interaction between abiotic and biotic components of an area constitute ecosytem. Bionic. A distinct large area with relatively homogeneous climate, flora and fauna (plants and animals, respectively) is called a. biome that means biological home. For example, desert is a biome for cacti or forest is a biome for lion or lake or pond is a biome for water hyacinth. Short Answer Type Questions Q. 1. What is meant by environmental impact assessment? Now is it conducted? Ans. In a natural state, living organisms on earth live in equilibrium with their environment. The populations and activities of every species are governed by the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA). It is one of the proven management tool to integrate environment concern in developing project and for improved decision making. Its objective to make assessments and address environment problem and concern at

an early stage of project planning and design. Procedure for Conducting Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) 1. Any person or group of persons who desire to underline any new project in any part of India or the expansion or modernization of any existing industry/ project listed in the schedule shall submit an application to the secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forest (MOEF) New Delhi on prescribed form. 2. The project can be rejected due to submission of insufficient or inadequate data and plans may be reviewed as and when submitted with complete data and plans. Submission of incomplete data plan for the second time would itself a sufficient reason for the Impact Assessment Agency to reject the case. 3. The project authorities will intimate the location of the project site to the central government. The MOEF while initiating any investigation and surveys, the central government in the MOEF will convey a decision regarding suitability or otherswise of the proposal site within a maximum period of 30 days. The said clearance shall be granted for a sanctioned capacity and shall be valid for a period of 5 yrs for commencing the construction, operation! timing. 4. The expert committee setup by IAA announces the project proposal through public media invites objection giving minimum of 60 days for filing objections. The prospective affected parties may file objections before the EAC (Environment Appraisal Committee.) 5. The Impact Assessment Agency shall prelare a set of recommendation based on technical assessment of documents and data, furnished by the project authorities, supplemented by data collected during visits to sites/factories undertaken, and details of public hearing. V 6. The assessment should be completed within a period of 90 days from receipt of request documents and data from project authorities and compilation of public hearing and decision conveyed within 30 days thereafter. 7. The clearance granted shall be valid for a period of 5 years for commencement of the construction/operation of the project. 8. The project authority shall submit a half yearly report to the IAA. 9. If no comments from the IAA are recited within the time limit, the project would be deemed to have been approved as proposed by project authorities. Q. 2. How does value education help environmental protection? Ans. Effectiveness of Environmental Education. Environmental educators have formulated a basic framework for how to improve environmental education. 1. Reinforce individuals for positive environmental behaviour over an extended period of time for the welfare of all. 2. Provide students with positive, informal experiences outdoors to increase their environmental sensitivity and attitude towards environment. 3. Focus instruction on the concepts of ownership and empowerment. Ownership means that the learner has some personal interest in the environmental issues being discussed or the problem faced. Perhaps the student can relate more readily to concepts of solid waste disposal if there is a landfill in the neighbourhood. Empowerment gives learners the sense that they can make changes

and help resolve environmental problems. 4. Design an exercise in which students thoroughly study the environmental issues and then develop a plan for citizen action to address the issue, complete with an analysis of the social, cultural and ecological consequences of the action. 5. It motivates the learners to guide and motivate the others about sustainability of environment. Q. 3. What is ecology? Explain. Ans. Ecology. The two components of nature, organisms and their environment are not only much complex and dynamic but also interdependent, mutually reactive and interrelated. Ecology, relatively a new science, deals with the various principles which govern such relationships between organisms and their environment. However, the recent development in study of ecology has been the recognition of the fact that biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living) components of nature are not only interrelated but both these components function in an orderly manner as a definite system. Thus structure and functions should be studied together for a complete understanding of this vast nature. In Haeckels definition of ecology, he refers to the surrounding outer world, which we now call the environment of an organism. His organic and inorganic conditions, we call biotic and abiotic environmental factors, respectively. Biotic factors are the other organisms encountered, whether of the same or different species. Abiotic factors are the physical and chemical conditions such as temperature, moisture, respiratory gases, and substrate. Odum with such an approach put forth a new definition of ecology and in his own words As you know ecology is often defined as the study of inter-relationship between organisms and environment. Q. 4. List the basic principles of ecology. Ans. Basic principles of ecology. 1. Environment in a habitat comprise the non-living and living components. 2. Anything and everything that influences the life processes of organism, directly or indirectly, constitutes its environment. 3. An organism cannot exist in vacuum. 4. Sun is only and ultimate source of energy. 5. There is always a range of environmental factors above or below which the performance of a function of a living organism decline. 6. There is a flow of energy in any ecosystem from producer to consumer. 7. Carrying capacity of a habitat is the ability to sustain a set of life. Q. 5. What are the objectives of environmental education? Ans. Objectives of environmental education. The main objectives of environmental education are to help social groups and individuals towards following 1. Awareness. Acquiring an awareness of and sensitivity to the total environment and its allied problems. 2. Knowledge. To gain a variety of experiences and acquire a basic understanding of the

environment and its associated problems. 3. Attitude. Acquire a set of values and feelings of concern for the environment and the motivation for active participation in environmental improvement and protection. 4. Skill. Acquire skills for identifying and solving environmental problems. 5. Evaluation ability. Evaluate environmental measures and education programmes in terms of ecological, economic, social, aesthetic and educational factors. 6. Participation. To provide an opportunity to be actively involved at all levels in working towards the resolution of environmental problems. Long Answer Type Questions Q. 1. What are the two main components of an environment ? Describe the physical factors which affect the distribution of organisms in different habitats. Ans. Abiotic (physical) and Biotic components are the two main components of an environment. Abiotic components or Physical environment. The physical environment embraces everything that is not associated directly with the presence of other organisms. 1. Temperature. The physiological and behavioural adaptations of most animals depend upon the changes in the environmental temperature. The rates of photosynthesis and respiration in plants also fluctuate depending upon the change in temperature. 2. Water. The extent to which an organism is dependent on an abundant water supply depends on its requirements and its ability to conserve it in adverse conditions. Organisms living in dry habitats generally have good water conservation such as in camels. 3. Light. This is essential for all green plants and photosynthetic bacteria, and for all the animals dependent on the plants. Plants have numerous adaptations for obtaining optimum illumination. 4. Humidity. This is important because it can affect the rate at which water evaporates from the surface of an organism, which in turn influence its ability to withstand drought. 5. Wind and air currents. This particularly applies to plants. Only plants with strong root system and tough stems can live in exposed places where winds are fierce. Wind is also instrumental in the dispersal of spores and seeds. 6. pH. This influences the distribution of plants in soil and fresh water ponds. Some plants thrive in acidic condition others in neutral or alkaline conditions. Most are highly sensitive to changes in pH. 7. Soil nutrients. These particularly affect the distribution of plants in the soil. Plants living in soil deficients in a particular element must have special methods of obtaining it. These methods include the harbouring of nitrogen-fixing bacteria and the carnivorous habit. 8. Water currents. Only organisms capable of stemming or avoiding strong currents can survive

particularly in rivers and streams. For this reason animals incapable of actively swimming generally live under stones or in burrows and crevices in the bank. 9. Topography. When looking at the distribution of organisms one finds all the difference between, for example, the centre and edge of a stream, the topside and under-side of a stone, a north-facing and south-facing wall. This may be explained by differences in illumination, temperature, moisture, etc. Minor topographical differences may be just as important in influencing the distribution of organisms as wide geographical separation. 10. Background. The distribution of organisms whose shape or colouration are such that they are camouflaged when viewed against a particular background is related to the general texture and pattern of the environment. A good example of cryptic colouration is provided by the white and black varieties of the peppered moth which are protected against light and dark coloured tree trunks respectively. Q. 2. What do you understand by environmental health ? Explain. Ans. Environmental health. The mad rat race among nations over the globe for development jeopardised the health of man itself. Progress in agriculture and industry is taken a general criterion of development of any country. This craze resulted into unlimited exploitation of every bit of natural resource. The splendid plentifulness of nature is a heritage that should be conserved for future generations and not to be spoiled. Such activities of man had adverse effect on all forms of living organisms in the biosphere. The earth planet along with atmosphere (air, land, water) that sustains life is called the biosphere. Biosphere extends into about 7 km of the earth surface itself downward into the ocean to depths of about 10.67 km and vertically into the air to about 10 km. where life is found to exists. Unlimited exploitation of nature by man disturbed the delicate ecological balance between living and non-living components of the biosphere. The unfavourable conditions created by man himself threatened the survival not only of man himself but also other living organisms. The pollution in air, water, land has health effects. The health status of individual, a community or a nation is determined by the interplay and integration of two ecological universes The internal environment of man himself and the external environment which surround him. The word sanitation is The science of safeguarding health. Actually it is a way of life. It is the quality of living that is expressed in the clean neighbourhood and the clean community. So, being a way of life, it must come from the people, nourished by knowledge and grow as an obligation and an ideal in human relations. Q. 3. What is environmental education? Why there is need for environmental education? Ans. Environmental education is fast emerging as one of the most important disciplines in the world. The first seeds of enviror1mental education were planted roughly a century ago and are found in the works of Marsh, Muir, Thoreau and Leopold. Their writings served to bring the worlds attention to the depletion of natural resources and the often detrimental impact of humans on the environment. Nature education expanded the teaching of biology, botany and other natural science out into the natural world, where students learned through direct observation. Teacher training programmes were developed to meet the increasing demand. The Conservation Education Association found to consolidate these efforts and help solidify citizen support for natural resource management goals. The third pillar of modern EE is outdoor education which refers more to the method of teaching than to the subject taught. The idea is to hold class-rooms outdoors, the topics are not restricted to only environmental issues but include art, music and other subjects. The EE programmes should be incorporated in all public school curricula.

Environmental Education EE is also defined as, education process dealing with peoples relationships and their natural and man made surroundings and includes the relation of population, pollution, resources allocation and depletion, conservation, transportation, technology and rural and urban planning to the total human environment. Need for Environmental Education Most people recognise the urgent need for environmental education, but only some have clear ideas about what needs to be done, and very few have either the actual experience or the knowledge about the courses that need to be taught. The chief objective of environmental education is that individual and social groups should acquire awareness and knowledge, develop attitudes, skills and abilities and participate in solving real-life environmental problems. The perspective should be integrated, inter-disciplinary and holistic in character. The public in rural, tribal, slum and urban areas, women and students and teachers in schools, colleges and universities as well as planners and decision and policy makers, programme implementors and R & D workers need to be educated about environment. The area of environmental education includes both, formal and non-formal education. In the formal education four distinct but interrelated components are recognised : awareness, real-life situation, conservation and sustainable development. These are to be suitably matched with Primary, Lower Secondary, Higher Secondary, College and Higher University levels. Under the University system, there should be four major areas Environmental Engineering, Conservation and Management, Environmental Health and Social Ecology. The non-formal education must cater to adult education, rural youth and non-student youth, tribals and forest dwellers, children public representatives, senior executives and administrators and foundation courses for probationary officers from different services including armed forces and trained manpower (teachers, professionals, technicians, legal experts etc.) There are several governmental and non-governmental organisations and to generate awareness towards environment. Dept. of Environment was set up in 1982 and Environmental Information System (ENVIS) for this purpose. There is a Centre for Environmental Education (CEE) at Ahmedabad. There are over 200 non governmental organisations involved in environmental education, nature conservation, pollution control, afforestation and social forestry, rural development, wildlife conserciation, waste utilisation, ecodevelopment and floristic and faunal studies.