The document discusses environmental science, defining the environment and ecology, and detailing the Gaia hypothesis's significance in understanding human impact on ecosystems. It outlines key ecological laws, principles, and methodologies essential for studying and preserving the environment, emphasizing the interdependence and balance in ecosystems. The text also covers basic biological principles that govern ecosystem functioning, including energy flow, nutrient cycling, and the limits of nature's capacity to support life.

1. GEE-ES (ENVIRONMENTAL
SCIENCE)

2. CHAPTER 1
• ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE: ITS MEANING
AND SCOPE

3. Objectives:
At the end of the chapter, you are expected to:
• Define environment and understand the
various fields and approaches in the study of
the environment and ecological systems,
populations and communities.
• Appreciate the value of the Gaia Hypothesis
and its great relevance in environmental
studies.

4. WHAT IS ENVIRONMENT?
• An environment is a place where an organism
lives.
• The term environment encompasses
everything that surrounds us.
• As Lee and Anes (2008), defined it, the
environment refers to the natural world in
which we live, and all the things that are
produced by people.

5. WHAT IS ECOLOGY?
• The term ecology is derived from okologie, a
word coined by the German zoologist Ernst
Haekel to mean “ the scientific study of the
relationships that exist among the organisms
as well as between organisms and all aspects,
living and non-living, of their environments,
both organic and inorganic.”

6. THE FITNESS OF THE ENVIRONMENT
• The world in which we live is little more than a
lump of rock orbiting the sun. On, or near, its
surface is many different living organisms, all of
which, ultimately, depend upon the Sun’s nuclear
energy. Some of this energy reaches the earth in
the form of sunlight. Green plants converts the
energy of sunlight into chemical energy. Without
plants and their ability to produce foods that store
chemical energy, there would be no animals.

7. THE GAIA/GAEA HYPOTHESIS
• Gaia is an earth goddess of the ancient Greeks.
• What we know as the Gaia Hypothesis was
formulated when its principal author, James
Lovelock, was working for the United States Space
Agency (NASA).
• The great advantage of this approach for non-
scientist is that it helps them to appreciate the
complexity of the environment in which we live in
the harm that is currently being inflated upon it by
human activities.

8. FIELDS OF STUDY
• Environmental Science deals with the complex study
of the environment.
• As such, it is often viewed as an interdisciplinary
subject that encompasses almost all other science.
• Primarily, a very significant field of study that
concerns the interaction of varied organism in the
environment is the science of ecology.
• This is because ecology is viewed today as centered
on study of the ecological systems or ecosystems.

9. • Study of ecosystem is divided into three basic
approaches-
– System ecology
– Theoretical ecology
– Evolutionary ecology

10. • According to Robert Leo Smith his book ecology and
field biology system ecology is concern with the
analysis and understanding of the structure and
function of ecosystem by the use of applied
mathematics.
• It involves the construction of models that represent
the real system for the purpose of experimentation.
• Models can be constructed to provide a simplified
description of the system or to predict changes over
time.

11. • Theoretical Ecology utilizes theories and equations
developed in pure mathematics, physics and even
economics, and apply them to ecological problems.
• Evolutionary Ecology in concerned with the varied
interactions between organisms and their biotic and
abiotic environment as expressed in adaptation.
• Evolutionary adaptations are the results of the
competition among individuals of a particular species
over many generations in response to an ever-
changing environment.

12. DIVISIONS OF ECOLOGY
Autecology and Synecology
• Autecology – the study of individuals or populations of a
single organism or species and their relationship to their
relationship to their environment. It includes physiological
ecology, ethology (or animal behavior) and population
dynamics.
• Synecology which is primarily concerned with the study of
entire plant and animal constituents, including
ecosystems. Usually, synecology is much more complex
than autecology because there are so many variable
factors involved.

13. CHAPTER 2
• BASIC ECOLOGICAL LAWS AND PRINCIPLES

14. OBJECTIVES:
At the end of the chapter, you are expected to:
• State ecological terminologies, principle, laws
and methodologies relevant to environmental
studies.
• Demonstrate mastery of the ecological laws
and principles in relation to the preservation
of the government.

15. BASIC ECOLOGICAL LAWS

16. Fundamental Laws
• Law of Balance
“Each organism in the biosphere affects each
other and therefore provides equilibrium in
nature.”

17. • Law of Sensitivity
“Some microorganisms are sensitive to human
activity; they die or deteriorate at the slightest
danger”

18. • Law of Susceptibility
“Nature has a way of replenishing and
controlling itself.”
• Law of Universality
“The laws of nature apply in an ecosystem, big
or small, land or water, polar or tropical.”

19. • Law of Temporality
“The biotic components have finite natures.
Nothing is permanent and lives forever.”

20. SUBSIDIARY LAWS IN ECOLOGY
1. Everything is related to everything else.
2. Everything must go somewhere.
3. Nature knows best.
4. There is no such thing as free lunch
5. There is strength and stability in the unity of
differences.

21. Core Messages in Environmental Science
1. Law of Balance
2. Diversity and Stability
3. Interdependence
4. Change
5. Pollution
6. Finiteness and Resources
7. Stewardship

22. 1. Law of Balance
Nature has its own laws and processes to maintain
itself.
2. Diversity and Stability
Diversity is essential, it promotes stability.
3. Interdependence
Everything is related to everything else.
4. Change
Everything changes ….some changes enhance the
natural state of the environment, others degrade it

23. 5. Pollution
Pollution is the undesirable accumulation of
substances resulting in diminished utility of
resources.
6. Finiteness and Resources
Most of the earth’s resources are finite. They must
used prudently and wisely.
7. Stewardship
Humans are part of nature. They are not masters,
but are stewards of the earth.

24. BASIC BIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES

25. • First Principle
The ecosystem is the basic unit in ecology. IT
includes both the biological (biotic) and the
physical (abiotic) components that are
inseparably interconnected through energy
flows and biogeochemical cycles.

26. • Second Principle
The flow of energy and the cycling of the
essential nutrients in the ecosystem depend on
the great variety of interactions and structural
relationships among the components of the
ecosystem.

27. • Third Principle
The ecosystem functions in relation to its energy
flow and the cycling of the essential nutrients
through the structural components of the
ecosystem.

28. • Fourth Principle
The total amount of energy that flows in natural
ecosystems is proportional to the amount fixed
by the plants (autotrophs). As energy is
transferred from one feeding (trophic) level to
the next, some of it is lost. This limits the
number and biomass of organisms that can be
maintained at each trophic level.

29. • Fifth Principle
Natural ecosystems undergo ecological
succcession. They pass from led complex stages
to a more diversified and usually stable state.
• Sixth Principle
When an ecosystem is pressured and exploited,
the stability of the ecosystem is disturbed.

30. • Seventh Principle
The population is the functional unit of the
ecosystem. Each species in the population
occupies a definite niche or role within the
system.
• Eighth Principle
A given niche in an ecosystem is never occupied
by a self-maintaining population of more than
one species at the same time.

31. • Ninth Principle
There is a limit to nature’s ability to support life.
Eventually, nature will intervene to reduce a
population that it can no longer sustain.
• Tenth Principle
The ecosystem has historical views; the present
is related to the past and the future is related to
the present.