ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

Environment literally means surrounding and everything that affect an organism

during its lifetime is collectively known as its environment.In another words Environment is sum total
of water, air and land interrelationships among themselves and also with the human being, other living
organisms and property.
It includes all the physical and biological surrounding and their interactions.
Environmental studies provide an approach towards understanding the environment of our
planet and the impact of human life upon the environment. Thus environment is actually
global in nature, it is a multidisciplinary subject including physics, geology, geography, history,
economics, physiology, biotechnology, remote sensing, geophysics, soil science and hydrology
etc.

Scope of Environmental Science

Environmental science is a multidisciplinary science whose basic aspects have a direct relevance
to every section of the society. Its main aspects are:
Conservation of nature and natural resources.
Conservation of biological diversity.
Control of environmental pollution.
Stabilization of human population and environment.
Social issues in relation to development and environment.
Development of non-polluting renewable energy system and providing new
dimension to nations security.
Importance of Environmental Science
Environment belongs to all the living beings and thus is, important for all. Each and every
body of whatever occupation he or she may have, is affected by environmental issues like global
warming, depletion of ozone layer, dwindling forest, energy resources, loss of global biodiversity
etc. Environment study deals with the analysis of the processes in water, air, land, soil and
organisms which leads to pollute or degrade environment. It helps us for establishing standard,
for safe, clean and healthy natural ecosystem. It also deals with important issues like safe and clean
drinking water, hygienic living conditions and clean and fresh air, fertility of land, healthy food and
development. Sustainable environmental law, business administration, environmental protection,
management and environmental engineering are immerging as new career
opportunities for environment protection and managements.
Sustainability- making responsible decision and taking action that as the interest of our environment.
sustainable development- a strategy to improve the quality of life that needs of the present w/o
compramissing the ability of the future generation to meet their own needs.

The Ecological Basis of Environmental Science

Within the community organisms are interacting with one another. This furnishes a particular
relationship known as symbiosis. Contrary to the usual idea that it is a give and take relationship, it
actually means living together. A non-feeding relationship is one in which the organisms are connected to
one another outside of food requirement. The mutualistic relationship between plants and animals
where the former supplies oxygen and the latter provide the carbon dioxide is a very good example of
non-feeding relationship; hence it is called mutualism, both sides are either equally or unequally
benefited. If and when the situation requires that food be the center of the interaction between
organisms it is considered to be a feeding relationship. Among this are;
1. Predation is an interaction where one acts as hunter-predator and the other the hunted-prey.
2. Parasitism is characterized by an interaction where the parasite is benefited by destroying the
other which is incidentally, the host.
3. Commensalism is a community relationship where one of the parties is benefited without
harming the host or unaffected. Related to this is amensalism where one is harmed the other is
unaffected.
4. Competition is one which the opposite parties are affected by the presence of the other
organism
5. Decomposition is a kind of relationship where microorganisms like bacteria decompose organic
materials. Extending this group are the detritivores which are dead eaters rather than
decomposers.

Considering these relationships, when

organisms are arranged as to what eats what and then connect it with arrows, lines interconnecting
organisms will be produced. This is commonly known as food web. (see figure) A single line connecting
organisms will refer to food chain. From the figure if the line from grass to hawk is followed notice that
there will be a single line of connection between the organisms that is grass- grasshopper- garter snakehawk. It particularly shows the food source and followed by the consumers. In both interconnections, it is
noticeable that the relationship always begins with plant being the producer and is followed by the
herbivore.
In regards to the energy of the organisms and the amount it passes from one organism to another, the
greatest will be found in plants which is the first trophic level or the level of producer. The amount of
energy will decrease as it is being passed from one organism to another. (see figure of Fig 2B) It can be
compared to a pyramid where the base is occupied by the plants, followed by the herbivore, then
carnivore. The omnivores may occupy the first trophic level if it takes plant as food.

Fig 2A
Fig 2B The pyramid of energy

The progress of the interaction in an ecosystem is greatly affected by the availability of both biotic and
abiotic factors. The effect of these factors may support growth and development (positive) or they may
hinder or limit. What may be beneficial for others are limiting to some organisms. Take for example
water, it is beneficial for plants found in marshes but detrimental to many terrestrial plants. That is on a
negative effect. Take for example the availability of food. Growth and development follow the abundance
of food. It is limiting to growth of the organisms if the supply is limited. This is known as the Law of
limiting factors.

1. Identify the Filipino name of the following:

Hornbill

Stink badger

Mouse deer

Bearcat

Purple crab

Birdwing

Peacock

Porcupine

Horned frog
Bearded pig
2. Using the above organisms given above make your own food chain and food web.

The Ecosystems at Work

The Hierarchy of the Living Organisms?

Foremost

in the proper functioning of the ecosystem is the role being played by the biotic
factors. As it has been said it is consist of both plants and animals. In the attempt to become familiar
with these living organisms, it necessitates that the hierarchy (the biological organization) be
distinguished and from such, the ecosystem can be determined. The foundation of life refers to the
living component of life itself which is the protoplasm. The study on biology will tell us that this living

substance is made up of its cytoplasm, its organelle and the nucleus. The cell which is the basic unit of
life will combine with other cells of the same structure and function to form the tissues. Among
animals are the four fundamental tissues such as the epithelial tissues, muscular tissues, the connective
tissues and the nervous tissues. In plants, these are the epidermal tissues, fundamental tissues and the
vascular tissues. A combination of these tissues will form the organs of both plants and animals and
when these organs are group in accordance to their function it will form the systems which in finality
will compose the organisms themselves.

Since the organism is already formed, it will have to interact with other organisms whether or
not they are of the same species. Whence these organisms are grouped in accordance to species
(organisms that can mate and functionally reproduce), interaction is expected. Humans, dogs, cats,
lizards, butterfly, snakes are examples of species. Taking these functional groups of interacting
organisms (species) together will form the population. Each population, as it will be discussed later, has
characteristics of its own. A particular population will necessarily find its niche (role) in the very core of
interaction with other population. In turn the populations will have an interaction with other
populations forming the community. This will form the ecosystem which is strengthened by the stability
of the interacting member populations. The ecosystems are grouped to form the biomes, that is, the
same ecosystems will be grouped as one like trees for example. All tree ecosystems are grouped
together and is called forest biome. Depending on the kind of trees and their location, for example the
trees are found in the tropics, and then it will be considered as tropical forest biome. These different
biomes taken together in turn will finally compose the biosphere.

The Biomes

There are in general two kinds of biomes, the terrestrial and the aquatic biomes. It is definite that
the terrestrial biome will refer to the organization in the land and the aquatic, in the water. These will be
discussed separately in the following readings. Biomes are often known in English by local names, as an
example to this is the temperate grassland biome (shrubland) which in Central Asia will refer to steppe,
in North America is prairie; and in South America it is pampas. Tropical grasslands in Australia is known
as savanna (savannah), and veld in Southern Africa.
The Terrestrial Biomes
Climate is a major factor in determining the terrestrial biomes. Among the important climatic
factors are;

Latitude (Arctic, boreal, temperate, subtropical, tropical)

Humidity ( humid, semihumid, semiarid, and arid)
Seasonal variation - rainfall may be distributed evenly throughout the year or be marked by
seasonal variations (dry summer, wet winter)
o Most regions of the earth receive most of their rainfall during the summer months;
Mediterranean climate regions receive their rainfall during the winter months.
Elevation - Increasing elevation causes a distribution of habitat types similar to that of
increasing latitude.

The most widely used systems of classifying biomes correspond to latitude (or temperature
zoning) and humidity. Biodiversity generally increases away from the poles towards the equator and
increases with humidity.

1. Forest Biome refers to that organization where the main components will be the vegetation and
in this case the trees. As is it has been mentioned above, the location will distinguish the forest
biomes and there are several types,
a. tropical rainforest is characteristically found in the tropical region. These are the tropic of
Cancer and the tropic of Capricorn. Whatever group of trees found inside these tropics is
considered as tropical rainforest. The soil of the rainforest is always wet brought about by
the circulation of water inside. Due to the thickness of plants particularly trees, the
evaporating water cannot escape so it precipitates in the leaves and returns to the ground
as drops. The tropical rainforest receives an equal amount of sunlight and rain so that it is a
perfect environment for the growth of plants. This perfect condition supports a very diverse
community of organisms from different types of trees to different types of grass, form
different types of birds to different types of insects. Due to its biodiversity, it is always the
source of different needs of man from food, shelter and clothing to its medicine. No wonder
then it is considered as the most abused biome.
b. Coniferous forest is characteristically composed of cone bearing trees such as pine trees. It
is usually found in colder regions..
2. Grasslands are characterized as lands dominated by grasses rather than large shrubs or trees.
When mountains rose in western North America it created a continental climate favorable to
grasslands. This led to the decline of Ancient forests as grasslands became widespread. The
result of overuse and consumption of the grassland by agricultural practices results to
formation of deserts such as what happened in the Great Dust Bowl during the American
Depression in mid 1920s.
a. Tropical grasslands or savannas is grassland with scattered individual trees
b. Temperate grasslands are characterized by having grasses as the dominant vegetation,
whereas trees and large shrubs are absent.

3. Desert is a barren area of land where little precipitation occurs and consequently living
conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected
surface of the ground to the processes of denudation. Deserts are formed
by weathering processes as large variations in temperature between day and night put strains
on the rocks which consequently break in pieces. An example of this is the dust bowl desert.
4. Tundra is the coldest of all the biomes. It comes from the Finnish word tunturi, meaning
treeless plain, noted for its frost-molded landscapes, extremely low temperatures, little
precipitation, poor nutrients, and short growing seasons. Dead organic material functions as a

nutrient pool. The two major nutrients are nitrogen and phosphorus. Nitrogen is created by
biological fixation, and phosphorus is created by precipitation.

The Aquatic Biome

1. Freshwater biome has a low salt concentration usually less than 1%. Plants and animals in
freshwater regions are adjusted to the low salt content and would not be able to survive in areas of high
salt concentration (i.e., ocean).It covers about 1/5 of the Earth and they are vital to survival because
this is the source of drinking water for humans and animals. There are different types of freshwater
regions:
a. with water current
Rivers
Streams
Swamps
Bogs
b. without water current
Lakes
Marsh

2. Marine biome cover about three-fourths of the Earth's surface and include oceans, coral reefs,
and estuaries. Marine algae supply much of the world's oxygen supply and take in a huge amount of
atmospheric carbon dioxide. The evaporation of the seawater provides rainwater for the land.

Oceans
Coral reefs
Estuaries

The Biogeochemical cycles

1. Water cycle is also known as hydrologic cycle. The water moves from one reservoir to
another, such as from river to ocean, or from the ocean to the atmosphere, by the physical processes of
evaporation, condensation, precipitation, infiltration, runoff, and subsurface flow. In so doing, the water
goes through different phases: liquid, solid (ice), and gas (vapor).
2. Nitrogen cycle refers to the transformation of nitrogen through biological and physical
processes which includes fixation, ammonification, nitrification, and denitrification. It should also be
noted that the majority of Earth's atmosphere (78%) is nitrogen.
3. Phosphorus cycle is a biogeochemical cycle that describes the movement
of phosphorus through the lithosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. Note that atmosphere is not
included on the path because it does not play a significant role in the movement of phosphorus.
Phosphorus and phosphorus-based compounds are usually solids at the typical ranges of temperature
and pressure found on Earth. The production of phosphine gas occurs only in specialized, local
conditions.
4. Sulfur cycle is the collection of processes by which sulfur moves to and from minerals
(including the waterways) and living systems. Such biogeochemical cycles are important
in geology because they affect many minerals. Biogeochemical cycles are also important for life
because sulfur is an essential element, being a constituent of many proteins. Below are the steps of this
biogeochemical cycle;

Mineralization of organic sulfur into inorganic forms, such as hydrogen sulfide (H2S), elemental
sulfur, as well as sulfide minerals.
Oxidation of hydrogen sulfide, sulfide, and elemental sulfur (S) to sulfate (SO42).
Reduction of sulfate to sulfide.
Incorporation of sulfide into organic compounds (including metal-containing derivatives).

The Water cycle

The Nitrogen cycle

The Phosphorus cycle

Sulfur cycle

Population growth: Causes and Consequences

Looking back at the hierarchy of living organisms, the population lies between the organism and the
community. It refers to a group of organisms belonging to the same species living in a particular place
interacting with one another and therefore able to reproduce to maintain the species. Several
characteristics are mentioned here;
1. Population size refers to the number of individuals within the population itself.
2. Growth pertains to the change of population as to increase or decrease in a certain period of
time. It is affected by four factors namely birth rate and immigration at one end against death
rate and emigration.
Population growth = (Birth rate + immigration) (death rate + emigration)
Country

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

Philippines

81,159
,650

82,841,
520

84,525
,640

84,619
,980

86,241
,700

87,857
,470

89,468
,680

91,077
,290

96,06
1,680

97,976
,600

99,900
,180

101,833
,900

103,775
,000

http://www.indexmundi.com/g/g.aspx?c=rp&v=21

Birth rate is the number of birth per unit time, in the Philippines it is 24.98 births/1,000
population (2012 est.). The 2011 birth rate of the Philippines is 3.19 babies per woman, (CIA
World Fact Book). Hospitals estimate about 200 births an hour across the country
(photoblog.nbcnews.com).
Death rate on the other hand is the number of death per unit of time.
Immigration refers to the number of people entering a country or region where they are not
native in order to settle. Opposite to this definition refers to emigration which refers to number
of people leaving a country or region.
The population growth rate can be determined by getting the difference between population in
different time period / divided by the population in the first time period

That is:
pop. growth rate = Pop t2 Pop t1 / pop. t1
Country

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

Philippines

2.07

2.03

1.99

1.92

1.88

1.84

1.8

1.76

1.99

1.96

1.93

1.9

1.87

http://www.indexmundi.com/g/g.aspx?c=rp&v=24

Related to birth rate is the fertility rate which refers to the number of live births per woman.
3. Density refers to the number of individuals contained in the population as measured in a
particular area. It is simplified by the following formula;
population / area
4. The distribution of population is the pattern of distribution of the individuals in the population
which is affected by food supply. It can be classified as;
a.) random distribution is one where there is no particular pattern of distribution and is
brought about by a very good supply of resources.
b.) uniform pattern shows a specific pattern of distribution. It is brought about by the
interaction of individuals particularly consuming specific supply of food.
c.) clumping is a distribution where the members of the population crowd together to
areas where there is a supply of food when supply is very inadequate.
The following is the profile of the Philippines population

Population

103,775,002 (July 2012 est.)

Age structure

0-14 years: 34.3% (male 18,175,763/female 17,452,488)

15-24 years: 19.1% (male 10,107,717/female 9,753,268)
25-54 years: 36.6% (male 19,065,843/female 18,941,091)
55-64 years: 5.6% (male 2,663,592/female 3,102,247)
65 years and over: 4.3% (male 1,948,152/female 2,564,841) (2012 est.)

Median age

total: 23.1
male: 22.6
female: 23.6 years (2012 est.)

Population
rate

growth

1.873% (2012 est.)

years
years

Birth rate

24.98 births/1,000 population (2012 est.)

Death rate

4.98 deaths/1,000 population (July 2012 est.)

Net migration rate

-1.27 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2012 est.)

Urbanization

urban population: 49% of total population (2010)

rate of urbanization: 2.3% annual rate of change (2010-15 est.)

Major
cities
population

MANILA (capital) 11.449 million; Davao 1.48 million; Cebu City 845,000;
Zamboanga 827,000 (2009)

Sex ratio

at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female

under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.76 male(s)/female
total population: 1 male(s)/female (2011 est.)

Infant mortality rate

total: 18.75
deaths/1,000
live
male: 21.21
deaths/1,000
live
female: 16.18 deaths/1,000 live births (2012 est.)

Life expectancy at
birth

total population: 71.94 years

male: 68.99 years
female: 75.03 years (2012 est.)

Total fertility rate

3.15 children born/woman (2012 est.)

births
births

http://www.indexmundi.com/philippines/demographics_profile.html

The population is one great factor to many environmental issues that the Philippines face at
present. The observation of many particularly those in the developed countries is that poor families do
have a larger family size. This is also observed in the poverty stricken areas of the Philippines. This brings
the population even higher. Several reasons that influence the family size are given below;
1. Security in ones old age. In many countries where a facility to take care of the old people is
wanting and especially where the family relationship is very strong like the Philippines, the
security of aged people lies in the hands of the younger relatives particularly the children.
2. Infant and childhood mortality leads the family to higher fertility rates. The death of young
children leads the family to desire more additional children. Related to this is the want to have a
baby girl or a baby boy which sacrifices the economic capacity of the family.

3. Children as an economic asset are another reason for desiring bigger family size. The more
children there are the higher is the possibility to become better financially when these children
grow and land a job. Even in younger age the children are already a house hold help to many
families.
4. Importance of education or the responsibility to send the children to become educated is one
reason that perhaps holds the family to have big family size. Another way at looking at it is that
with proper education, the couple realizes the responsibilities to provide requirements every
child, like food, clothing, health and education.
5. Status of women: opportunities for womens education and career bring the family size smaller
because the women become more focused on their careers rather than taking care of the
family. The opportunity brings the interaction time between parents to a lower number.
6. Availability of contraceptives. This is related to education or the knowledge about
contraceptives. But it should also be taken into consideration that the choice to using these
contraceptives or not still resides in the decision of the couple.

The occurrence of many environmental problems is brought about by two factors one is natural
phenomenon and the other is of anthropogenic origin. The latter refers to the man-made causes of
many environmental issues that human beings are now facing. While many couples believe that a bigger
family is an assurance for better financial status there is also the Brontosaurus principle of Anon which
says that at a certain point the bigger the better but beyond such a point the bigger, the worse. It could
be translated as for everything there is an optimum size. The bigger the family size would mean a
larger cut for the economic needs such as food, shelter, clothing, education, health, If the financial
capacity of the family does not improve while there is a continuous increase in the family size it will
destroy the balance between the supply and demand thus poverty becomes a threat. Likewise in a
larger scale, when the population is getting bigger it would mean greater consumption in everything.
Population is in the center of the environmental issues the world, not only Philippines, is facing at
present, though presentation is still conservative (see concept map).

POPULATION

NEED

CONSUMPTION
Pesticide

FOOD

Greater Harvest

Fertilizer
Waste

Area

SHELTER
Logs

CLOTHING

Waste

Harvest

ENERGY

Kainigin
Deforestation
Degradation
Erosion

NATURAL
RESOURCES

Bibliography

http://www.indexmundi.com/philippines/population_growth_rate.html
http://www.newagepublishers.com/samplechapter/001773.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biogeochemical_cycle
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/exhibits/biomes/index.php
https://www.google.com.ph/search?q=The+Water+cycle&safe=active&es_sm=122&source=lnms&tbm=i
sch&sa=X&ei=UuV1VO7JDZfnuQTFt4LIDQ&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ#safe=active&tbm=isch&q=The+Nitrogen
+cycle