“Environment is a science, connected with both physical and social sciences and hence it deals with both living and non-living organisms”. Explain & Illustrate

Introduction:

The science of environment studies is a multi-disciplinary science because it comprises various branches of studies like chemistry, physics, medical science, life science, agriculture, public health, sanitary engineering etc. It is the science of physical phenomena in the environment. It studies of the sources, reactions, transport, effect and fate of physical a biological species in the air, water, soil and the effect of from human activities upon these.

Environment:

The environment is defined as sum total of living and non-living components, surrounding an organism. All the organisms are dependent on the environment from which they derive their food, energy, water, oxygen, shelter and other needs. The relationship between organism and environment are highly complex. All of the biotic and a biotic factors that act on an organism, population, or ecological community and influence its survival and development. Biotic factors include the organisms themselves, their food, and their interactions. Biotic factors include such items as sunlight, soil, air, water, climate, and pollution. Organisms respond to changes in their environment by evolutionary adaptations in form and behavior.

1. “We shall never understand the natural environment until we see it as a living organism” (Paul Brooks).

2. Environment “…includes the physical world, the social world of human relations and the built world of human creation.

3.Prior to the late 1960s, state common law doctrines comprised the primary legal instruments for resolving environmental disputes.

4. A surrounding area: environs, locale, locality, neighborhood, precinct (used in plural), surroundings, vicinity.

Environmental science:

Environmental science is the study of the environment and the interconnecting systems it contains, as well as the way people interact with their natural surroundings and use natural resources. It is the study of the interaction of the living and non-living components of the environment with special emphasis on the impact of humans on these components. Environmental science is a multi-disciplinary science that teaches us to protect and sustain our natural resources of land, water, air and vegetation. Strides made in industry, agriculture, and technologies for improving human life quality have been made possible by relying on resources available in land, water and vegetation.

In common usage, “environmental science” and “ecology” are often used interchangeably, but technically, ecology refers only to the study of organisms and their interactions with each other and their environment. Ecology could be considered a subset of environment science, which also could involve purely chemical or public health issues.

Ecology:

Ecology is not synonymous with environment, environmentalism, or environmental science. Ecology is closely related to the disciplines of physiology, evolution, genetics and behavior. In practice, there is considerable overlap between the work of ecologists and other environmental scientists. Ecology is the study of the interactions between organisms and their environment. Ecologists might investigate the relationship between populations of organisms

1.Environmental science including but not limited to ecology, physics, chemistry, biology, soil science, geology, atmospheric science and geography

2.Events that spurred this development included the publication of Rachael Carson’s landmark environmental book Silent Spring.

3. The IISc undergraduate programmer on Environmental Sciences provides an integrated and interdisciplinary approach

1.Ecology (from Greek: ?????, “house”; -?????, “study of”)

2. The word “ecology” (“Ökologie”) was coined in 1866 by the German scientist Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919)

3. Ancient Greek philosophers such as Hippocrates and Aristotle laid the foundations of ecology in their studies on natural history.

4. Modern ecology transformed into a more rigorous science in the late 19th century.

and some physical characteristic of their environment or two populations of different organisms through some symbiotic or competitive relationship. For example, an interdisciplinary analysis of an ecological system which is being impacted by one or more stressors might include several related environmental science fields. Ecology is the scientific study of the relationship that living organisms have with each other and with their abiotic environment. Ecology includes the study of plant and animal populations, plant and animal communities and ecosystem, Allee (1949), considered ecology as “the science of inter-relations batwing living organisms and their environment, including both the physical and biotic environments, and emphasizing inter-species as well as intra-species relations.

Ecosystem:

An ecosystem is a natural unit consisting of all plants, animals and micro-organisms (biotic factors) in an area functioning together with all of the non-living physical (abiotic) factors of the environment. These biotic and abiotic components are regarded as linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Ecosystems are defined by the network of interactions among organisms, and between organisms and their environment. A stable, self-supporting ecological unit resulting from an interaction between biotic community and its abiotic environment is called ecosystem. Tansley (in 1935) defined the Eco-system as ‘the system resulting from the integrations of all the living and non-living actors of the environment’. Thus he regarded the eco-systems as including not only the organism complex but also the whole complex of physical factors forming the environment.

1Abiotic including plants, animals and microorganisms

2. Abiotic mainly including substratum, water, minerals, carbon dioxide and oxygen

3. Ecosystem must also receive a constant supply of energy (light).

4. The concept of the ecosystem was first introduced in 1935 to describe habitats within biomes that form an integrated whole and a dynamically responsive system having both physical and biological complexes.

Physical science:

Physical science is the study of physics and chemistry of nature. Compare life science any of the sciences concerned with nonliving matter, energy, and the physical properties of the universe, such as physics, chemistry, astronomy, and geology.

Social science:

The social sciences are a group of academic disciplines that study human aspects of the world, in particular those involving social behavior and society. These disciplines, focusing on the study of human social behavior, are clearly distinct from the physical sciences that study non-living systems, by virtue of their subject matter.

Environmental science connected with both physical and social science:

Environmental science and policy brings together the natural and social sciences and applies the principals to environmental problems. It encourages communication between the government, industry, organizations, and citizens in an attempt to improve the quality of the environment.

Physical science is an encompassing term for the branches of natural science and science that study non-living system, in contrast to the life sciences. However the term “physical” create an unintended, somewhat arbitrary distinction, since many branches of physical science also study biological phenomena.

1.The physical sciences to the noumenon in the life sciences.

2. Physics is the “fundamental science” because the other natural sciences (biology, chemistry, geology, etc.)

4. Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publishers 1991.

5. “Social science” is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to anthropology.

6 Sociology (Latin: socius, “companion”; Greek ?????, lógos, “word”, “knowledge”, “study.”).

7. The history of the social sciences begins in the Age of Enlightenment after 1650

The physical sciences- physic, chemistry, geology, astronomy, meteorology and so on are related to the environment. For example, that neither people nor protozoa nor anything else would exist without the sun, water, soil, rocks, nutrients, air, and other nonliving components of our environment. Our bodies follow the laws of physics and chemistry. Many environmental issues such as water pollution, energy conversation, and global climate change are grounded in the physical sciences.

The social sciences are the fields of scholarship study society. Environmental social science is the broad, Trans disciplinary study of interrelation between human and natural environment. Environmental social scientists work within and between the fields of anthropology, communication studies, economics, geography, history, political science, psychology, and sociology; and also in the interdisciplinary fields of environmental studies, human ecology and political ecology, among others.

Some people are interested in social science topics so that they can more effectively study human interactions with the environment and topics like the history of human societies and their relationship with the environment. Social science is also useful for people working in public outreach and communication as they want to be able to effectively convey concepts to members of the public.

1.The branches of science (which are also referred to as “sciences”, “scientific fields”, or “scientific disciplines”)

2. The social sciences are the fields of scholarship that study society.

3 The term “physical” creates an unintended, somewhat arbitrary distinction.

4. In 2003, Banksia International Award for extraordinary contributions to improving our environment on a global level.

5. This is further described for Holistic Management: A New Framework for Decision Making.

Difference between social science and physical science:

The difference between physical and social science is that social science is developed by humans as contrasted with the natural environment. Society acts as wholeness. Physical environment describes the stuff the universe is made from and how it behaves, excluding life and human activities.

Organisms:

An individual form of life, such as a plant, animal, bacterium, protest, or fungus; a body made up of organs, organelles, or other parts that work together to carry on the various processes of life. An individual form of life that is capable of growing, metabolizing nutrients, and usually reproducing. An organism may either be unicellular (single-celled) or be composed of, as in humans, many billions of cells grouped into specialized tissues and organs. The term multicultural (many-celled) describes any organism made up of more than one cell.

Every organism has a variety of adaptations that are suited to its specific living conditions a biotic factors are important to all organisms, because they make photosynthesis happen which is needed for plants to live to make oxygen, and oxygen is needed for humans to live living things interact with their surroundings, responding to changes in conditions around them.

1.In 2002 Thomas Cavalier-Smith proposed a clade, Neomura, which groups together the Archaea and Eukarya.

2. The term “organism” (Greek ?????????? – organismos, from Ancient Greek ??????? – organon, “instrument, implement, tool, organ of sense or apprehension).

3. it first appeared in the English language in 1701 and took on its current definition by 1834 (Oxford English Dictionary).

4 In 2002 Thomas Cavalier-Smith proposed a clade, Neomura, which groups together the Archaea and Eukarya..

Living organisms are organisms that are alive. They don’t necessarily have to breathe or have hearts or brains. Living things are collections of cells and nerves that grow and develop over time. Examples are plants, humans and animals. Living organisms are fungi, bacteria etc.

Non-living organisms are organisms that are not alive. Those have no life at all. Things that are not made up cells or nerves and do not grow. Examples are rocks, shoes, and lotion. Non-living organisms can neither respond nor adapt to their environment. They can be altered by external forces in their environment, but only living organisms can change their habits or metabolisms to adapt to ambient changes. Non- living organisms, that affect living organisms are sunlight, water etc. organisms have five basic needs. They need air, water, nutrients, energy and a place to live. The examples of organisms are animals and plants etc.

Environmental science deals with both living and non-living organisms:

Living organisms depend on one another for food and shelter. The leaves of plants provide food and a home for grass-hoppers, caterpillars, and other insects. Many birds depend on insects for food. Dead plants and animals decay and become part of the soil. The features of the environment that are alive, or were once alive, are called biotic. Biotic factors are not the only things in the environment that are important to life. Most plants can’t grow without sunlight, air, water, and soil. Animals can’t survive without air, water, or the warmth that the sunlight provides. The non-living, physical features of the environment are called abiotic.

1.Prior to the late 1960s, state common law doctrines comprised the primary legal instruments for resolving environmental disputes.

2. In Pennsylvania v. Union Gas Co. (1989), the Court held Congress was authorized under the Commerce Clause to waive a state’s sovereign immunity from suit.

3. The totality of surrounding conditions and circumstances affecting growth or development: ambiance, atmosphere, climate, medium, milieu, mise en scène, surroundings, world.

Air is invisible and plentiful, so it is easily overlook as an abiotic factor of the environment. The air that surrounds earth is called the atmosphere. Air contains 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen, 0.94 percent argon, 0.03 percent carbon dioxide, and trace amounts of other gases. Some of these gases provide substances that support life.

Water is essential to life on earth. It is a major ingredient of the fluid inside the cells of all organisms. Respiration, digestion, photosynthesis, and many other important life processes can take place only in the presence of water. Examples include amphibians and primitive plants such as most mosses and liverworts. These are confined to places where water is in plentiful supply or they must be able to tolerate periods of desiccation. Lichens can survive total water loss and rapidly regain activity upon rewetting. Such organisms must be able to minimize the damage caused to cellular structures when water is lost.

Soil is considered an abiotic factor because most of it is made up of non-living rock and mineral particles. Soil also contains living organisms and the decaying remains of dead organisms. Soil life includes bacteria, fungi, insects, and worms. The decaying matter found in soil is called humus. Soils contain different combinations of sand, clay, and humus. Soil supports plant growth.

All life requires energy, and sunlight is the energy source for almost all life on earth.

1 Biologically, the most important spectral range is 300–800 nanometers, incorporating ultraviolet, visible, and infrared radiation

2. Photosynthetic organisms can exist within a wide range of light intensities. Full sunlight in the tropics is around 2000 ?mol photons • m?2 • s?1.

3. Photosynthetic organisms have survived in locations where the mean light is as low as 0.005% of this value.

4 Light absorbed by pigment molecules (chlorophylls, carotenoids, and phycobilins) is converted into chemical energy through photosynthesis

5. Absorption and reflectance of infrared radiation by greenhouse gases such as CO2 and water vapor regulate temperature.

During photosynthesis, producers convert light energy into chemical energy that is stored in sugar molecules. Consumers are organisms that can’t make their own food. Energy is passed to consumers when they eat producers or other consumers. Light energy supports almost all life on earth. In addition to providing energy, light is important in providing an organism with information about its surroundings. The human eye, for example, is able to respond to wavelengths of light between 400 and 700nm the visible range. Within this range, sensitivity is greatest in the green part of the spectrum. This is the portion of the spectrum that plants absorb least, and so is the principal part of the spectrum to be reflected.

Sunlight supplies life on earth with light energy for photosynthesis and heat energy for warmth. Most organisms can survive only if their body temperatures stay within the range of 0°C to 50°C.

For most organisms, temperature and precipitation are the two most important components of climate. The average temperature and rainfall in an area influence the type of life found there. At low temperature, the membrane structure becomes rigid and liable to break. At high temperature, organisms alter the composition of the lipids in their membranes, whose melting temperature is thereby changed.

Human alter their environment in ways that exceed the impact of all other organisms.

1. Temporal variation in light also provides an important stimulus.

2. Ultraviolet radiation has the ability to break chemical bonds and so may lead to damage to proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids.

3. Homeohydric organisms possess a waterproof layer that restricts the loss of water from the cells.

4. The atmospheric constituents with the most direct biological importance are oxygen (O2) and carbon dioxide (CO2).

5. Oxygen makes up approximately 20% of the atmosphere and is due to the occurrence of oxygenic photosynthesis.

6. Nitrogen is also required by all organisms but cannot be used by most in the gaseous form.

For example, the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere contributes to climate alterations over the entire planet. This is turn has impact on the distribution of all other species.

So a particular environmental factor dominates the growth and development of organisms, it is often found that the adaptation and gross features of the landscape will be the same, even when the actual species are different. Thus, Mediterranean vegetation is not only around the Mediterranean Sea but also in California and South Africa, where the conditions of hot dry summers and warm wet winter occur. Regions with similar environmental conditions are classed as biomes. The occurrence of such global vegetation type clearly illustrates the role played by the environment in determining the form and function of individual species.

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