Environmental, Health and safety engineering

Department of Polymer Engineering

 Introduction to ecology of environment
 Impact of polymer technology on ecology
system
 Effects of polymer pollutants on human
environments and their Health
 Use of hazardous polymer chemicals in
polymer industry
 Measure of control, understanding of
ecological testing
An Introduction
Greek origin
 OIKOS = household
 LOGOS = study of…
 Study of the “house/environment” in which we live.

 The study of interactions that take place

between organisms and their environment.
 It explains how living organisms affect each
other and the world they live in.

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 A community of interdependent organisms
and the interactions with the physical
environment in which they live.

 It can also be defined as the abiotic and biotic

factors and the interactions between them.

 The interaction between organisms and the

environment is the key!
1- Population Ecology
Study of population growth and factors that
affect growth
2- Community Ecology
Study of interactions among species,
ecological succession
3- Ecosystems and the Biosphere
Study of cycling of materials and energy
through ecosystems
 Organism
 Species
 Population
 Community
 Niche
 Habitat
 Organism: Any living biological entity, such as
an animal, plant, fungus, or bacterium
 Label: The organisms of the same type
(species)
 Circle: individuals of the same species
(Population)
 Draw interactions between the populations
(Community)
 Sometimes people confuse these terms.

 Figure out the differences between the

terms.
 Habitat
Place where an organism or a community of
organisms lives, including all living and nonliving
factors or conditions of the surrounding
environment.

 Niche:
The role of the organism. This is largely to do with
the trophic level of the organism.
For example: plants produce food for the rest of the
food chain.
 Biotic Factor: A living, biological factor that
may influence an organism or a system.
Example: insect, bacteria, growth-rate, etc

 Abiotic factor: A non-living, physical factor

that may influence an organism or a system
Examples: Temperature, salinity, pH, light
 Plants
 animals
 fungi
 bacteria are all biotic or living factor
 An abiotic factor can limit the population size if
there is too much or too little of it. Even if there is
the right amount of other factors
 Examples to consider:
Sunlight
Precipitation
Salinity
Nutrients in the soil
 Ecostems are often broken up and described
according to feeding relationships.
Trophic level:
 The position of an organism in a food chain
or
 A group of organisms that occupy the same
place in a food chain
Be able to give an example of each!
 Primary producers (autotrophs)
 Primary consumers (herbivores)
 Secondary consumers(carnivores)
 Tertiary consumers (top carnivores)
 Decomposers
Producer
• Autotroph - “self” + “feed”
• An organism that obtains organic food
molecules without eating other organisms
but by using energy from the sun or
inorganic molecules to make organic
molecules
Remember: This trophic level supports all of the
others
• The role of producers is to convert energy into a
form useable for other organisms
• Some examples of autotrophs include plants,
algae, and even some bacteria
lMost producers are photosynthetic
(e.g. algae, mosses, diatoms, some
bacteria, plants etc.) but some are
chemosynthetic (e.g. hydrothermal vent
bacteria)
(H2)
• Heterotroph - “other” + “feed”
• An organism that obtains its nutrition by
eating other organisms
• Primary consumer (herbivore):
Eats producers e.g Rabbits, cattle, horses, sheep
and deer are all herbivores
• Secondary consumer (carnivore):
Eats primary consumers e.g. Bear, lions, and
wolves
Tertiary consumer (Omnivores )are animals
that feed on both plants and animals. Examples
of omnivores are humans and bears.

Saprobes: are organisms that get nutrients by

breaking down the remains of dead plants and
animals. Examples of saprobes are bacteria and
fungi.
 The role of the consumer is to transfer energy
from one trophic level to the next.
 Notice that consumers have different names,
depending on what they eat:
 Herbivores: plant eaters
 Carnivores: meat eaters
 Omnivores: eat plants and animals
An organism that obtains energy by breaking
down dead organic matter, including dead plants,
dead animals and animal waste, into more simple
substances
Examples include: bacteria and fungi
Interconnects all trophic levels since the organic
material making up all living organisms is
eventually broken down
lRole of decomposers is to return valuable
nutrients to the system so they can be used again