Environmental Science 10.01 Lecture Notes PDF (A.Y. 2024-2025)

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE 10.01 LECTURE NOTES A.Y. 2024-2025 | SEMESTER 1 MODULE 1 6. Parsimony - when coming up with a conclusion, we are drawn to the right one. Environment...

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE 10.01 LECTURE NOTES A.Y. 2024-2025 | SEMESTER 1 MODULE 1 6. Parsimony - when coming up with a conclusion, we are drawn to the right one. Environment This is not the last step but the start of an - Coexistence of living and non-living investigation/concept to be explored things; good and bad 7. Empiricism - emphasizes that knowledge - It is both natural and human should be based on empirical evidence - It is something we live in and belong to Science vs Bad Science vs Pseudoscience Environmentalism - A general term used to refer to concern for the environment - Involves social and political movements to promote environmental practices and philosophies - A belief system and advocacy Environmental Science - A systematic study of the environment - A pure and applied science - Utilizes scientific thinking and a methodical framework in tackling environmental problems - Interdisciplinary “Science and pseudoscience come from the same Science paradigms, but differ in degree of examination” - Science is a methodical approach to -Karl Popper studying the natural world - Science is a way of producing knowledge Homeopathy as Pseudoscience methodically and logically - Homeopathy is a system of health care - Science is a process of discovery—a based on the idea that “like cures like” – continuing process whose essence is substances that cause the same change in ideas symptoms as an illness can cure that illness. Scientific Method - Homeopathy claims to stimulate healing - The scientific method is not always responses to diseases by administering performed uniformly or chronologically. It substances that mimic the symptoms of varies with every experiment and every those diseases in healthy people. discipline Red Flags of Pseudoscience 7 Basic Principles of Science 1. Testable Questions - the questions that 1. It didn’t evolve. It remained mired in the you come up with need to be tested same 18th century alchemical thinking. and/or experimented with 2. Claims that substances get stronger as 2. Uniformitarianism - starting our they become more diluted. framework with phenomena that has 3. Claims that water retains a memory of the already occurred before substances in it. 3. Elusive Proof - good science seeks to be 4. Any apparent effect of homeopathy is improved upon due to the placebo effect. But the 4. Repeatability - things that can be underlying disease doesn’t get any better. repeated are essential so that they can be 5. Results of clinical trials on homeopathy validated are not good. 5. Uncertainty - science is probabilistic. Though evidence is empirical, there is always a degree of uncertainty  Conservation Preservation Responsible use Protecting the of natural environment resources from harmful Environment as a human activities resource Environment as (utilitarian, having intrinsic anthropocentric) value Stage 1 (1800s): Pragmatic, utilitarian conservation - The environment should be conserved because it contains resources that are useful to us Science and Technology - “The first principle of conservation is - A basis for new science is also a product development and use of the natural of science resources now existing on this continent for the benefit of the people who live here Science and Objectivity now” - Gifford Pinchot - It is impossible for scientists to be 100% free from biases Stage 2 (1900s): Biocentric Preservation - Scientists should acknowledge, identify, - Nature deserves to exist for its own sake and admit their biases (inherent value), regardless of its - The choice to think scientifically is also a usefulness to us (instrumental value) personal and value choice - Other organisms have a fundamental right to exist - The Land Ethic: “We should care for the land because it’s the right thing to do.” In environmental science, we look at the “We abuse land because we regard it as a interaction and linkages between natural and commodity belonging to us. When we see human systems using a scientific framework. land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and How do we depend on the environment? How do respect.” we influence the environment? Stage 3: Modern Environmentalism To solve the complex issues facing our - A movement spurred by the undesirable environment, we need the foundation of scientific effects of pollution after industrial knowledge, but we also need to draw insights from expansion following WWII many fields of expertise. - Modern environmentalism considers environmental resources and pollution Science, Politics, and Society - Science can become politicized Stage 4: Environmental quality tied to social - The interdisciplinary nature of progress environmental science requires us to - Social justice and environmental equity understand the role of science in society are closely linked. - Social justice is an integral factor in How have the paradigms shifted over time? decision-making for sustainability and - The earliest scientific studies of environmental policy. environmental degradation were - Environmental issues require global action performed by 18th century colonizers to mitigate (e.g. climate change) - Environmental stewardship as economic - Increase participation of developing necessity countries in environmental leadership - Global environmentalism Sustainable Development Levels of Biological System - Sustainable development pertains to (in order of simplest to most complex) “development that meets the needs of the present, without compromising the 1. Atom ability of future generation to meet their - The smallest and most own needs” fundamental unit of matter 2. Molecule MODULE 2 - Two or more atoms that are chemically bonded together The Earth’s Subsystems 3. Macromolecule - Earth as a complex interrelated system - Large molecules formed by individual molecules linked by System polymerization - An interconnected set of elements that is 4. Organelle coherently organized in a way that - A subcellular structure that has achieves something one or more specific jobs to - A system must consist of three kinds of perform in the cell things: elements, interconnections, and a 5. Cell function or purpose - Fundamental unit of structure and function in living organisms 6. Tissue Closed System Open System - Groups of cells with similar structure and perform a specific There is a flow of Energy and function energy but materials are free 7. Organ materials are the flowing in and out - Collection of tissues grouped same of the system together performing a common Ecosystems are and specific functions open systems 8. Organ System - Functionally related system - Groups of organs that work Static System Dynamic System together to carry out broader functions Energy and Energy and 9. Organism materials stay the materials are - a living thing that can function on same constantly its own changing 10. Population - Collection of individual species living within a specific area Simple System Complex System 11. Community - Sum of populations inhabiting Few variables Has many 12. Ecosystem Easy to predict interdependent - All living things in a particular area variables which interacting with each other and makes it hard to their abiotic environment predict 13. Biosphere - The sum of all ecosystems in Systems Thinking Earth - Cognitive paradigm that involves an implicit tendency to recognize various Principle of Emerged Properties phenomena as a set of interconnected - New properties arise as a result of the components arrangement - Systems Thinking: Avoids individual aspects that does not see the bigger Ecosystem picture - All living things in a particular area interacting with each other and their abiotic environment Ecosystems in Campus What happens to energy that is transferred? - Human-controlled ecosystems - Production: energy is converted into Pollinator Pockets (all around biomass campus), Aquarium (SEC-A), Cats - Biomass: organic matter in living things, (all around campus) fixed in carbon - Remaining 40% SOM Forest, Eagle Pond Difference between Primary and Secondary What do all Ecosystems have in Common? Primary Production Secondary Production - There’s a transfer of energy; One-Way Energy Flow Photosynthesis Food chain - Cycling of Materials Energy from sun Energy from converted into plants converted Ecosystem Energy Flow biomass by into biomass by - Energy is the ability to do work plants consumers - Energy powers life across trophic - Energy in ecosystems flows one-way levels through biotic and abiotic means - ex. Potential Energy, Kinetic Energy Food Webs and Trophic Levels - fixed by organisms - Food Chain: a linked feeding series - sun —> photosynthesis —> primary - Food Web: interconnected food webs producers (plants) estimating the feeding series in an - abiotic energy exchange ecosystem Radiation: heats up the ground Conduction: movement of heat What else can transfer with each trophic level? through its most adjacent - Pollutants material - Nutrients Convection: through a medium - Mercury - persistent pollutant that can be (through H2O + air) found in the mine tailings - A constant supply of energy is required to - Transfer of contamination to one maintain ecological processes organism to another Solar Energy: for photosynthesis Chemical Energy: for Bioaccumulation chemosynthesis - pollutants accumulate within an organism over time Why is ecosystem energy flow a one-way process? Biomagnification - Because ecosystem energy flow is - pollutants are transferred across trophic governed by the Laws of levels Thermodynamics Economic systems are Dynamic Systems 1. First Law - Ecosystems are always changing - Law of Conservation of Energy 2. Second Law Ecological Succession - Entropy in the universe is - How ecosystems recover from always increasing disturbance over long periods of time - When energy is transferred, (hundreds to thousands of years) some of it is always released as Primary Succession heat ○ a new ecosystem Secondary Succession The 10% Rule ○ Reestablishment of an - Only about 10% of the energy in one ecosystem after disturbance trophic level is represented in the next higher level Trophic Level: place in the food chain Trophic: related to food Greek ‘trophikos’: nourishment STAGES OF ECOLOGICAL SUCCESSION - In the surfaces, there’s quick exchange General stages of succession pools - It’s also important to note that all of them 1. Pioneer species (after 100 years) are happening at the same time - Small autotrophs, tolerant to continuously changes in environment (e.g., mossess) Why is the water cycle important? 2. Early successful species undergo (after - Water is important in regulating 100 more years): temperature - Photosynthesis and respiration - Makes water available for all living where energy flow begins organisms - Decomposition where nutrients - Regulates weather and climate are returned to the soil - Transports chemicals and materials 3. Middle successional species (after - Sculpts landscapes, weathers, and rocks another 100 years) - Small, rapidly growing organism Water Cycle 4. Late successional species (100 years - The largest reservoir of water is the ocean, more or later) but other water reservoirs/bodies are - Organisms have higher biomass, rivers, lakes, and etc. more diverse - From your hydrosphere reservoir, aided by - Establishment of trophic levels the sun, the water goes through a process and more complex food webs of evaporation. Then, goes to the - More efficient nutrient cycling atmosphere, where there’s enough water - Energy flow and increase in vapor in gaseous form, these water vapor biomass across trophic levels particles will inevitably band together to 5. Climax Community (hundreds and form clouds in a process called hundreds of years later) condensation. As more water vapor - Mature, stable ecosystem accumulates, there’s a change of state to - Complex food webs liquid or ice form, then eventually it will rain - Energy flow down in a process called precipitation. - Nutrient and material cycling And with this, it can go back to water bodies or land in the geosphere.’ BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES The Law of Conservation of Matter - In a close system (like the Earth), matter cannot be created or destroyed - The Earth, or biosphere, is a functionally closed systems 6 Fundamental Building Blocks of Life - SPONCH ○ Sulfur, Phosphorus, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Carbon, Hydrogen How Biogeochemical Cycles Work Human Impacts to The Hydrologic Cycle - These chemicals can be stored in reservoir, but because of process these Deforestation chemicals can be exchanged through - When deforestation happens, the other parts of your system, atmosphere biosphere slowly declines soil and water, but what’s important is the - Once precipitation occurs, there biopart will be infiltrated soil, but uptake - There’s always a part that goes through will disappear which will lead the biotic community more water to reach the soil - These processes take a longer period of surface and there will not be time compared to processed in the enough absorption by the surface of our atmosphere biosphere  - If there’s more water and less ○ Deep in geosphere, fossil fuels uptake with no trees or are stored, consisting of old vegetation, flooding will occur organic matter, which humans - Because there’s no transpiration, burn to convert into carbon and water runs off the system causes imbalance - The imbalance makes for less water available for condensation to occur, making less precipitation possible - In the long term overtime, if there’s a forest system that’s run-off, it’s possible the local water cycle will lead to an imbalance which occurs flooding Dams - Human-made barrier systems to prevent flow of water so that it Why is nitrogen important? can accumulate - Nitrogenous bases in DNA - It is an impact because it’s - 78% of the Earth’s atmosphere is N2 intended to block water off - Essential for plant structure and function, - Fish won’t be able to migrate due component of chlorophyll to blockage - Most of nitrogen comes in the form of N2 - Because the sediments can’t be - N2 can’t be intake by organisms transferred after the dam, due to - Bacteria in the soil converts N2 into a type blockage, erosion can happen of compound that can be accessible in because there’s not enough the biosphere and different organisms, in sediments transferred which a process called nitrogen fixation makes level of riverbed deeper - Through decomposition, nitrogen comes back into the soil Why is carbon important? - It's essential for photosynthesis; a product of respiration - Anchor of all organic substances - Fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas are made up of carbon. Unfortunately fossil fuels, power daily activities in the form of oil and gas - Rocks deep in the ocean, marine sediments, is a storage unit in gigatons per year. - Deep-ocean is the largest carbon reservoir Two Simultaneous Cycle Fast Carbon Cycle ○ Exchange between biosphere Why is phosphorus important? and atmosphere through - Sugar-phosphate backbone of nucleic respiration acids (building blocks of DNA) ○ Energy pyramid; carbon through - Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) biomass - Components of cell membranes, bones, ○ Photosynthesis teeth, etc. Slow Carbon Cycle - It doesn’t have a significant atmospheric ○ Happens in the sediments component because of its underground chemical/molecular conditions of not ○ When there’s decomposing occurring in a gaseous phase aquatic particles ○ It is solid and cannot be in liquid ○ Undergo tectonic processes, will form return carbon in rocks through uplift, will form mountains  - An organism refers to an individual in - Has their largest reservoir in the space and time, but a species is an geosphere, stored in rocks and lowest evolutionary survivor that consists of part of crops organisms that share a similar genetic - It can be used as a weathering agent make-up where they can inter-breed one through precipitation of water another that is viable to do the same to others. - Organisms has one lifespan, while species are generational Ecological Niche - A species’ role or function in an ecosystem is what you call its niche - Sum of all the adaptations of the organism - Examples: habitat, way of obtaining food, relationships with other species or with abiotic factors, environmental conditions, and services provided to the community 1. Fundamental VS. Realized Niche Fundamental Niche: the total environment a species can Eutrophication potentially exploit - Excessive plant and algal growth due to Realized Niche: the resources a the increased availability of one or more species actually utilizes in the limiting growth factors needed for presence of other species photosynthesis - Lack of oxygen in aquatic ecosystems 2. Generalist VS. Specialist due to eutrophication can lead to fish kills Generalist: wide tolerance ranges to habitat conditions, can exploit a SUMMARY wide range of resources (broad ecological niche) Ecosystem processes are complex, Specialists: can survive in a very interlinked, and in constant motion limited set of conditions (narrow Biogeochemical cycles maintain the ecological niche) balance of elements that are critical to life on Earth Limiting Factors (Abiotic) Along with energy flow, the cycling of - Environmental conditions that limit the chemical elements sustains growth, abundance, and distribution of an ecosystems organisms or population Ecosystems need time for these processes to stabilize 1. Law of The Minimum Human impacts disrupt ecosystem - There is always a single limiting processes by altering the distribution factor that determines if a species of matter and energy, causing an can thrive in a habitat imbalance 2. Law of Tolerance - Each species has tolerance limits - A range of minimum and maximum levels of an environmental factor that Ecosystem Interactions determine the species’ success - Constantly changing due to different interactions Competitive Exclusion Principle (Biotic) - An organism’s survival depends on its - No two coexisting species can have ability to find and successfully occupy a identical niches for too long place in the ecosystem - Competition occurs in the niche overlap - Eventually, the other species will disappear or develop a new niche  Why do we need to study biodiversity? 1. Resource Partitioning ( +, +) - Biodiversity ensures redundancy in natural Species with similar niches divide or systems segregate a resource within a single - Biodiversity allows ecosystem services to habitat continue 2. CoEvolution (+, =) Ecological complexity when two or more species interact - A complex ecosystem has many so closely together that they affect biological interactions, trophic levels each other’s evolutionary processes available niches and species that occupy these niches 3. Symbiosis (+, -) long-term biological interactions Redundancy symbiosis is beneficial - Several species perform a function (or an examples: mutualism (clownfish & ecosystem service) in a similar way. anemone), commensalism (shark & remora), parasitism (ticks/fleas on Ecosystem Services dogs) - Any positive benefit that wildlife or ecosystems provide to people Biodiversity Conservation Efforts BIODIVERSITY & BIOMES 1. Protection of Habitat Biodiversity RA 7586: National Integrated - Sustains different forms of life Protected Areas (NIPAS) Act. of - Endemic Species: Species that can only 1992 be found in a certain location RA 11038: Expanded NIPAS - Native: Local to the area (ENIPAS) Act of 2018 - Introduced: Species who thrived in a seeks to protect habitat different environment destruction - Invasive: Introduced species that became 2. Protection of Wildlife destructive to the other native species. RA 9147: Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act What is Biodiversity? of 2001 - Biodiversity is the totality of all species on wildlife protection through Earth and the ecosystems in which they captive breeding programs thrive seeks to protect overharvesting - Examples: Genetic Diversity (felis catus), 3. Community-based resource/area Species Diversity (felidae), Ecosystem management Diversity 4. Preserving genetic stock “It contains over 10,000 cell How are diverse ecosystems formed? cultures, oocytes, sperm, and Ecosystems Processes embryos representing nearly Species Interactions and Adaptations 1,000 taxa, including one extinct EP & SIA —> evolution of genes, species, te po’ouli” characteristics, behaviors (a really, really 5. Biodiversity conservation on campus long time) —> Biodiversity Arboretum of 101 Threatened Philippine Trees (EDC-BINHI) How is biodiversity measured? Important to report window - Species richness; number of species in a strikes so scientists can take given area protective measures to prevent - Evenness; the relative abundance of such incidents and see which species in an area birds still perceive windows as - Species diversity; considers both reflection of trees species richness and evenness Pollinator pockets Evenness is more important than dominance of a species due to having less number of individuals depleting the same resources What threatens biodiversity? - H. I. P. P. O ➔ Habitat Destruction: Destructive resource extraction, habitat fragmentation (i.e. dividing habitats into fragments), irresponsible tourism (example: trawling) ➔ Invasive Species: For species that don't necessarily occur or native. There are two kinds of species: Introduced and Invasive. Introduced species are fine, but once they become invasive, they take over natural ecosystems that lead to the destruction or decline of native or endemic species (example: water hyacinths, cane toads, mahogany) ➔ Pollution ➔ Population (of Humans) ➔ Overharvesting: Harvesting too much of endemic and native species. The illegal wildlife trade is a PHP 50B industry (annually)! Why do we need to study biodiversity? - The Philippines is a mega-diverse biodiversity hotspot - The Philippines has over 50,000 plant species (>3,000 endemic) and over 100,000 anima species (>500 endemic) - Endemic: is not naturally found anywhere else in the world - Biodiversity Hotspot area with: high species richness, high threat extinction