1.

environmental science is the field of science that studies the interactions of the physical,
chemical, and biological components of the environment and also the relationships and effects
of these components with the organisms in the environment. The field of environmental science
can be divided into three main goals, which are to learn how the natural world works, to
understand how we as humans interact with the environment, and also to determine how we
affect the environment. The third goal of determining how humans affect the environment also
includes finding ways to deal with these effects on the environment.

2. Ecology

Ecology, or ecological science, is the scientific study of the distribution and abundance of living
organisms and how the distribution and abundance are affected by interactions between the
organisms and their environment.

3. An ecosystem includes all of the living things (plants, animals and organisms) in a given area,
interacting with each other, and also with their non-living environments (weather, earth, sun,
soil, climate, atmosphere). Ecosystems are the foundations of the Biosphere and they determine
the health of the entire earth system.

4. Food chains

Now, we can take a look at how energy and nutrients move through a ecological community.
Let's start by considering just a few who-eats-who relationships by looking at a food chain.

A food chain is a linear sequence of organisms through which nutrients and energy pass as one
organism eats another. Let's look at the parts of a typical food chain, starting from the bottom
the producersand moving upward.

At the base of the food chain lie the primary producers. The primary producers are autotrophs
and are most often photosynthetic organisms such as plants, algae, or cyanobacteria.

The organisms that eat the primary producers are called primary consumers. Primary consumers
are usually herbivores, plant-eaters, though they may be algae eaters or bacteria eaters.

The organisms that eat the primary consumers are called secondary consumers. Secondary
consumers are generally meat-eaterscarnivores.

The organisms that eat the secondary consumers are called tertiary consumers. These are
carnivore-eating carnivores, like eagles or big fish.

Some food chains have additional levels, such as quaternary consumerscarnivores that eat
tertiary consumers. Organisms at the very top of a food chain are called apex consumers.

5. All life needs energy. Whether living organisms make energy themselves or get it from the
food they hunt, they need it to maintain and repair their bodies. Reproduction, hunting, growth,
cell division, and metabolism are all processes that require energy.
The sun is the ultimate source of energy for life on Earth. Without it, nothing would be able to
survive. As a result, living things have evolved special ways to harness the energy of the sun and
use it for their own well-being. They have also developed special relationships and interactions
that allow energy to be transferred. Once the energy has been captured, it gets passed around
through the various organisms in a particular area. This transfer of energy is called a food web.

In their simplest form, food webs are made of food chains. Food chains show a direct transfer of
energy between organisms. A chain might involve a mouse eating some seeds on the forest floor.
Then, a snake comes along and eats the mouse. A while later, an owl eats the snake. With each
step, some of the energy from the sun, which is trapped within the seeds, is getting passed on.

Food chains do not accurately portray the transfer of energy in an ecosystem. This is because
there are often multiple organisms that can be eaten, and many that can do the eating. For
example, the aforementioned mouse might eat seeds, but it also might eat some berries, or
maybe even some grass. The mouse might be eaten by a snake, or the owl, or even a fox. The
snake could be eaten be the owl, but also might get eaten by a fox or a coyote in the forest.
Since each organism can eat multiple things and be eaten by multiple things, a food web is a
much more realistic schematic of the transfer of energy within an ecosystem.

Producers

Often considered the bottom of the food chain, producers are the organisms that make their
own food and serve as the foundation for all food chains and webs. Producers are organisms
such as plants, algae, and even some bacteria. They make their own energy by converting
sunlight into sugars through a process called photosynthesis. They use the sunlight as an energy
source to convert carbon dioxide in the air into glucose (a simple sugar that can easily be broken
down for energy). The producers then store this sugar and use it for energy later on.

In marine ecosystems, the producers are dominated by algae, plant-like organisms. Algae can be
microscopic, like diatoms, or they can be quite large, like the giant kelp found off the coast of
California. Either way, the oceans are the prime spot on the planet for producers. Since water
covers 72 percent of the planet, it only makes sense that most of the oxygen on the earth comes
from the oceans. In fact, the diatoms alone make about 30 percent of it!
Rainforests are another ecosystem that has many producers. Even though rainforests only cover
about six percent of the earth's surface, they produce about 40 percent of the oxygen because
of all the plants that live there. Since rainforests and the oceans are so plentiful in terms of the
number of producers, there are many food webs that exist in each of these ecosystems. The
plants and algae provide energy for many creatures living in these areas.

Primary Consumers

Primary consumers (also called herbivores) are those animals that eat producers. Many times,
primary consumers are also considered prey species because they quite often get eaten by other
animals. Primary consumers living on land include: deer, antelope, chipmunks, mice, many
insects, many birds, horses, and even elephants. Marine primary consumers include: many types
of fish, zooplankton (microscopic animals that float in the water), snails, sea urchins, and krill
(small shrimp-like creatures that are part of the plankton).

Even though primary consumers are eating plants, they are still getting their energy from the
sun. It was the sun that allowed the plants to grow. As the primary consumers are eating the
plants, they break them down and release their energy. However, since some of the sun's energy
was used by the plant itself, primary consumers do not get 100 percent of the sun's energy. In
fact, they only get 10 percent of the energy. This is called the 10 percent rule , only 10 percent of
the energy available gets passed onto the next level of consumers.

Secondary Consumers

Secondary consumers are animals that eat other animals. These animals eat meat and are often
called predators, because they hunt their prey. Terrestrial secondary consumers include: lions,
snakes, hawks, hyenas, coyotes, wolves, and spiders. Those that live in the oceans include: killer
whales, bluefish, sharks, lobsters, sea stars, sea anemones, and sea turtles.

Like the primary consumers, the secondary consumers are also getting energy from the sun,
albeit indirectly. The secondary consumers are eating the primary consumers that ate the
producers. As a result, the amount of energy transferred to the secondary consumers is even
smaller than that obtained by the primary consumers. Due to the 10 percent rule, the amount of
energy available to the secondary consumers is only 1 percent of the original sun's energy. This
means that secondary consumers have to eat more often or take down larger prey in order to
meet all of their energy demands.
A special group of consumers that bridges the primary and secondary consumers is called the
omnivore group. These are animals that eat both plants and animals, so they fit into both
categories. Most of the time, omnivores are meat-eaters, but when conditions are tough and
meat is scarce (like during the winter), they can switch to eating plant matter. Bears, pigs, and
even humans are considered omnivores.

The energy transfer in a food web for omnivores would be the same as for primary or secondary
consumers. If the omnivore is eating plant matter, it is getting 10 percent of the sun's energy. If
the omnivore is eating meat, it is only getting 1 percent. Obviously, it makes more sense for
omnivores to eat plant matter, but they compensate by eating a lot of meat.

Tertiary Consumers and More

Sometime food webs can have more than two levels of consumers. You'll recall from the
example of the forest ecosystem that the owl could serve as a secondary consumer, eating the
mouse. However, because owls also eat snakes, it might eat that instead of the mouse. This
changes the owl's position in the food web from a secondary consumer to a tertiary consumer,
or an animal that eats secondary consumers (tertiary means 'third'). It is also possible that some
food webs may have four or five levels of consumers. It all depends upon how much energy is
available to be transferred up that high.

6. The Four Laws of Ecology (Barry Commoner 1917-2012)

The Four Laws of Ecology, with various simple explanations given on different web sites, and
which can be applied to ones daily life, are:

Everything Is Connected To Everything Else. There is one ecosphere for all living organisms and
what affects one, affects all. Humans and other species are connected/dependent on other
species. With this in mind it becomes hard to practice anything other than compassion and
harmlessness.

Everything Must Go Somewhere. There is no waste in nature, and there is no away to which
things can be thrown. Everything, such as wood smoke, nuclear waste, carbon emissions, etc.,
must go somewhere.

Nature Knows Best. Humankind has fashioned technology to improve upon nature, but such
change in a natural system is, says Commoner, likely to be detrimental to that system. The
Creation, one can argue, has an intelligence, and to tinker with that unintellectually we get
global warming pollution, etc.

There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. Exploitation of nature will inevitably involve the
conversion of resources from useful to useless forms. In nature, both sides of the equation must
balance, for every gain there is a cost, and all debts are eventually paid.

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At this current time, the world around us is changing at a very rapid pace. Some changes are
beneficial, but many of the changes are causing damage to our planet. The field of
environmental science is a valuable resource for learning more about these changes and how
they affect the world we live in.

Let's examine a major change that is currently occurring and its relationship to environmental
science. The large change is the dramatic increase in the number of humans on earth. For most
of human history, the population has been less than a million people, but the current population
has skyrocketed to over seven billion people. This equals out to seven thousand times more
people!

Due to this increase in the human population, there has also been an increase in pressure on the
natural resources and ecosystem services that we rely on for survival. Natural resources include
a variety of substances and energy sources that we take from the environment and use. Natural
resources can be divided into renewable and nonrenewable resources. Renewable natural
resources are substances that can be replenished over a period of time, such as sunlight, wind,
soil, and timber. On the other hand, nonrenewable natural resources are substances that are in
finite supply and will run out. Nonrenewable resources include minerals and crude oils.

Due to the increase in the human population, natural resources are being used up at a more
rapid rate than in the past. Although renewable natural resources can be replenished, when they
are used too rapidly, they cannot be replenished fast enough to meet human demand. Even
worse, when nonrenewable natural resources are used too rapidly, they become closer to
running out completely and being gone forever.

Natural resources have been referred to as the 'merchandise' produced by the environment, and
in this respect, ecosystem services are the 'facilities' that we rely on to help produce the
merchandise. Ecosystem services are the environment's natural processes that provide us with
the resources we need to support life. Common ecosystem services include water and air
purification, nutrient cycling, climate regulation, pollinating of plants, and the recycling of waste.
Just like some natural resources, ecosystem services are also limited and can be used up if not
regulated.