Chapter 1: Components of the Environment

The Atmosphere
The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, commonly known as air that surrounds the planet.
Earth and is retained by Earth's gravity. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by
creating pressure allowing for liquid water to exist on the Earth's surface, absorbing ultraviolet
solar radiation, warming the surface through heat retention (greenhouse effect), and reducing
temperature extremes between day and night (the diurnal temperature variation).
Atmosphere meaning 'ball' or 'sphere' is a layer or a set of layers of gases surrounding a planet or
other material body, which is held in place by the gravity of that body. An atmosphere is more
likely to be retained if the gravity it is subject to is high and the temperature of the atmosphere is
low.

Composition

The three major constituents of Earth's atmosphere are nitrogen, oxygen, and argon. Water vapor
accounts for roughly 0.25% of the atmosphere by mass. The concentration of water vapor (a
greenhouse gas) varies significantly from around 10 ppm by volume in the coldest portions of
the atmosphere to as much as 5% by volume in hot, humid air masses, and concentrations of
other atmospheric gases are typically quoted in terms of dry air (without water vapor).The
remaining gases are often referred to as trace gases, among which are the greenhouse gases,
principally carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. Besides argon, already
mentioned, other noble gases, neon, helium, krypton, and xenon are also present. Filtered air
includes trace amounts of many other chemical compounds. Many substances of natural origin
may be present in locally and seasonally variable small amounts as aerosols in an unfiltered air
sample, including dust of mineral and organic composition, pollen and spores, sea spray, and
volcanicash. Various industrial pollutants also may be present as gases or aerosols, such as
chlorine (elemental or in compounds), fluorine compounds and elemental mercury vapor. Sulfur
compounds such as hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide (SO 2) may be derived from natural
sources or from industrial air pollution.

Major constituents of dry air, by volume

Gas Volume(A)

Name Formula in ppmv in %

Nitrogen N2 780,840 78.084

Oxygen O2 209,460 20.946

Argon Ar 9,340 0.9340

Carbon dioxide CO2 413.32 0.041332

Neon Ne 18.18 0.001818

Helium He 5.24 0.000524

Methane CH4 1.87 0.000187

Krypton Kr 1.14 0.000114

Not included in above dry atmosphere:

Water vapor(C) H2O 0–30,000(D) 0–3%(D)

notes:

(A)
volume fraction is equal to mole fraction for ideal gas only,
    also see volume (thermodynamics)
(B)
ppmv: parts per million by volume
(C)
Water vapor is about 0.25% by mass over full atmosphere
(D)
Water vapor strongly varies locally

Stratification (Structure)

Earth's atmosphere can be divided (called atmospheric stratification) into five main layers.
Excluding the exosphere, the atmosphere has four primary layers, which are the troposphere,
stratosphere, mesosphere, and thermosphere. From highest to lowest, the five main layers are:

 Exosphere: 700 to 10,000 km

 Thermosphere: 80 to 700 km
 Mesosphere: 50 to 80 km
 Stratosphere: 12 to 50 km
 Troposphere: 0 to 12 km

Troposphere

The troposphere is the lowest layer of Earth's atmosphere. It extends from Earth's surface to an
average height of about 12 km, although this altitude varies from about 9 km at the geographic
poles to 17 km at the Equator, with some variation due to weather.

Although variations do occur, the temperature usually declines with increasing altitude in the
troposphere because the troposphere is mostly heated through energy transfer from the surface.
Thus, the lowest part of the troposphere (i.e. Earth's surface) is typically the warmest section of
the troposphere. This promotes vertical mixing (hence, the origin of its name in the Greek word
tropos, meaning "turn"). The troposphere contains roughly 80% of the mass of Earth's
atmosphere. The troposphere is denser than all its overlying atmospheric layers because a larger
atmospheric weight sits on top of the troposphere and causes it to be most severely compressed.

Nearly all atmospheric water vapor or moisture is found in the troposphere, so it is the layer
where most of Earth's weather takes place. It has basically all the weather-associated cloud genus
types generated by active wind circulation, although very tall cumulonimbus thunder clouds can
penetrate the tropopause from below and rise into the lower part of the stratosphere.

Stratosphere

The stratosphere is the second-lowest layer of Earth's atmosphere. It lies above the troposphere
and is separated from it by the tropopause. This layer extends from the top of the troposphere at
roughly 12 km above Earth's surface to the stratopause at an altitude of about 50 to 55 km.

The atmospheric pressure at the top of the stratosphere is roughly 1/1000 the pressure at sea
level. It contains the ozone layer, which is the part of Earth's atmosphere that contains relatively
high concentrations of that gas. The stratosphere defines a layer in which temperatures rise with
increasing altitude. This rise in temperature is caused by the absorption of ultraviolet radiation
(UV) radiation from the Sun by the ozone layer, which restricts turbulence and mixing. Although
the temperature may be −60 °C (−76 °F; 210 K) at the tropopause, the top of the stratosphere is
much warmer, and may be near 0 °C.

The stratospheric temperature profile creates very stable atmospheric conditions, so the
stratosphere lacks the weather-producing air turbulence that is so prevalent in the troposphere.
Consequently, the stratosphere is almost completely free of clouds and other forms of weather.
However, polar stratospheric or nacreous clouds are occasionally seen in the lower part of this
layer of the atmosphere where the air is coldest.

Mesosphere

The mesosphere is the third highest layer of Earth's atmosphere, occupying the region above the
stratosphere and below the thermosphere. It extends from the stratopause at an altitude of about
50 km to the mesopause at 80–85 km above sea level.

Temperatures drop with increasing altitude to the mesopause that marks the top of this middle
layer of the atmosphere. It is the coldest place on Earth and has an average temperature around
−85 °C (−120 °F; 190 K).

Thermosphere

The thermosphere is the second-highest layer of Earth's atmosphere. It extends from the
mesopause (which separates it from the mesosphere) at an altitude of about 80 km up to the
thermopause at an altitude range of 500–1000 km.
The temperature of the thermosphere gradually increases with height. Unlike the stratosphere
beneath it, wherein a temperature inversion is due to the absorption of radiation by ozone, the
inversion in the thermosphere occurs due to the extremely low density of its molecules.

This layer is completely cloudless and free of water vapor. However, non-hydro meteorological
phenomena such as the aurora borealis and aurora australis are occasionally seen in the
thermosphere.

Exosphere

The exosphere is the outermost layer of Earth's atmosphere (i.e. the upper limit of the
atmosphere). It extends from the exobase, which is located at the top of the thermosphere at an
altitude of about 700 km above sea level, to about 10,000 km where it merges into the solar
wind.

This layer is mainly composed of extremely low densities of hydrogen, helium and several
heavier molecules including nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide closer to the exobase. The
atoms and molecules are so far apart that they can travel hundreds of kilometers without
colliding with one another. Thus, the exosphere no longer behaves like a gas, and the particles
constantly escape into space. These free-moving particles follow ballistic trajectories and may
migrate in and out of the magnetosphere or the solar wind.

The exosphere is located too far above Earth for any meteorological phenomena to be possible.
However, the aurora borealis and aurora australis sometimes occur in the lower part of the
exosphere, where they overlap into the thermosphere. The exosphere contains most of the
satellites orbiting Earth.

Other layers

Within the five principal layers above, that are largely determined by temperature, several
secondary layers may be distinguished by other properties:

The ozone layer is contained within the stratosphere. In this layer ozone concentrations are
about 2 to 8 parts per million, which is much higher than in the lower atmosphere but still very
small compared to the main components of the atmosphere. It is mainly located in the lower
portion of the stratosphere from about 15–35 km, though the thickness varies seasonally and
geographically. About 90% of the ozone in Earth's atmosphere is contained in the stratosphere.

The ionosphere is a region of the atmosphere that is ionized by solar radiation. It is responsible
for auroras. During daytime hours, it stretches from 50 to 1,000 km and includes the mesosphere,
thermosphere, and parts of the exosphere.

The planetary boundary layer is the part of the troposphere that is closest to Earth's surface
and is directly affected by it, mainly through turbulent diffusion. During the day the planetary
boundary layer usually is well-mixed, whereas at night it becomes stably stratified with weak or
intermittent mixing. The depth of the planetary boundary layer ranges from as little as about 100
metres on clear, calm nights to 3,000 m or more during the afternoon in dry regions.

Circulation

The circulation of the atmosphere occurs due to thermal differences when convection becomes a
more efficient transporter of heat than thermal radiation. On planets where the primary heat
source is solar radiation, excess heat in the tropics is transported to higher latitudes. When a
planet generates a significant amount of heat internally, such as is the case for Jupiter,
convection in the atmosphere can transport thermal energy from the higher temperature interior
up to the surface.

Importance
For geologist, the atmosphere acts to shape a planetary surface. Wind picks up dust and other
particles which, when they collide with the terrain, erode the relief and leave deposits (eolian
processes).
For a meteorologist, the composition of the Earth's atmosphere is a factor affecting the climate
and its variations.
For a biologist or paleontologist, the Earth's atmospheric composition is closely dependent on the
appearance of the life and its evolution.
The Hydrosphere
Hydrosphere is the combined mass of water found on, under, and above the surface of a planet,
minor planet or natural satellite. Although the Earth's hydrosphere has been around for longer
than 4 billion years, it continues to change in size. This is caused by seafloor spreading and
continental drift, which rearranges the land and ocean.
It has been estimated that there are 1,386 million cubic kilometers of water on Earth. This
includes water in liquid and frozen forms in groundwater, oceans, lakes and streams. Saltwater
accounts for 97.5% of this amount, whereas fresh water accounts for only 2.5%. Of this fresh
water, 68.9% is in the form of ice and permanent snow cover in the Arctic, the Antarctic and
mountain glaciers; 30.8% is in the form of fresh groundwater; and only 0.3% of the fresh water
on Earth is in easily accessible lakes, reservoirs and river systems.
Water Cycle
The water cycle refers to the transfer of water from one state or reservoir to another. Reservoirs
include atmospheric moisture (snow, rain and clouds), streams, oceans, rivers, lakes,
groundwater, subterranean aquifers, polar ice caps and saturated soil. Solar energy, in the form of
heat and light (insolation), and gravity cause the transfer from one state to another over periods
from hours to thousands of years. Most evaporation comes from the oceans and is returned to the
earth as snow or rain. Sublimation refers to evaporation from snow and ice. Transpiration refers
to the expiration of water through the minute pores or stomata of trees. Evapotranspiration is the
term used by hydrologists in reference to the three processes together, transpiration, sublimation
and evaporation.
Specific Fresh Water Availability
"Specific water availability is the residual (after use) per capita quantity of fresh water." [Fresh
water resources are unevenly distributed in terms of space and time and can go from floods to
water shortages within months in the same area. In 1998 76% of the total population had a
specific water availability of less than 5.0 thousand m³ per year per capita. Already by 1998,
35% of the global population suffered "very low or catastrophically low water supplies" and
Shiklomanov predicted that the situation would deteriorate in the twenty-first century with "most
of the Earth's population will be living under the conditions of low or catastrophically low water
supply" by 2025. There is only 2.5% of fresh water in the hydrosphere

Physico-Chemical Properties of Water

Water is a polar inorganic compound that is at room temperature a tasteless and odorless liquid,
which is nearly colorless apart from an inherent hint of blue. It is by far the most studied
chemical compound and is described as the "universal solvent" and the "solvent of life". It is the
most abundant substance on Earth and the only common substance to exist as a solid, liquid, and
gas on Earth's surface. It is also the third most abundant molecule in the universe.
Water molecules form hydrogen bonds with each other and are strongly polar. This polarity
allows it to dissociate ions in salts and bond to other polar substances such as alcohols and acids,
thus dissolving them. Its hydrogen bonding causes its many unique properties, such as having a
solid form less dense than its liquid form, a relatively high boiling point of 100 °C for its molar
mass, and a high heat capacity.
Physical Properties
Water is the chemical substance with chemical formula H2O; one molecule of water has two
hydrogen atoms covalently bonded to a single oxygen atom. Water is a tasteless, odorless liquid
at ambient temperature and pressure. Liquid water has weak absorption bands at wavelengths of
around 750 nm which cause it to appear to have a blue colour. This can easily be observed in a
water-filled bath or wash-basin whose lining is white. Large ice crystals, as in glaciers, also
appear blue.
Unlike other analogous hydrides of the oxygen family, water is primarily a liquid under standard
conditions due to hydrogen bonding. The molecules of water are constantly moving in relation to
each other, and the hydrogen bonds are continually breaking and reforming at timescales faster
than 200 femto seconds (2×10−13 seconds). However, these bonds are strong enough to create
many of the peculiar properties of water, some of which make it integral to life.
Water, Ice, and Vapor
Within the Earth's atmosphere and surface, the liquid phase is the most common and is the form
that is generally denoted by the word "water". The solid phase of water is known as ice and
commonly takes the structure of hard, amalgamated crystals, such as ice cubes, or loosely
accumulated granular crystals, like snow. Aside from common hexagonal crystalline ice, other
crystalline and amorphous phases of ice are known. The gaseous phase of water is known as
water vapor (or steam). Visible steam and clouds are formed from minute droplets of water
suspended in the air.
Water also forms a supercritical fluid. The critical temperature is 647 K and the critical pressure
is 22.064 MPa. In nature this only rarely occurs in extremely hostile conditions. A likely
example of naturally occurring supercritical water is in the hottest parts of deep water
hydrothermal vents, in which water is heated to the critical temperature by volcanic plumes and
the critical pressure is caused by the weight of the ocean at the extreme depths where the vents
are located. This pressure is reached at a depth of about 2200 meters: much less than the mean
depth of the ocean (3800 meters).
Heat Capacity and Heats of Vaporization and Fusion
Water has a very high specific heat capacity of 4.1814 J/(g·K) at 25 °C – the second highest
among all the heteroatomic species (after ammonia), as well as a high heat of vaporization
(40.65 kJ/mol or 2257 kJ/kg at the normal boiling point), both of which are a result of the
extensive hydrogen bonding between its molecules. These two unusual properties allow water to
moderate Earth's climate by buffering large fluctuations in temperature. Most of the additional
energy stored in the climate system since 1970 has accumulated in the oceans.
The specific enthalpy of fusion (more commonly known as latent heat) of water is 333.55 kJ/kg
at 0 °C: the same amount of energy is required to melt ice as to warm ice from −160 °C up to its
melting point or to heat the same amount of water by about 80 °C. Of common substances, only
that of ammonia is higher. This property confers resistance to melting on the ice of glaciers and
drift ice. Before and since the advent of mechanical refrigeration, ice was and still is in common
use for retarding food spoilage.
The specific heat capacity of ice at −10 °C is 2.03 J/(g·K) and the heat capacity of steam at
100 °C is 2.08 J/(g·K).
Density of Water and Ice
The density of water is about 1 gram per cubic centimetre (62 lb/cu ft): this relationship was
originally used to define the gram. The density varies with temperature, but not linearly: as the
temperature increases, the density rises to a peak at 3.98 °C (39.16 °F) and then decreases; this is
unusual. Regular, hexagonal ice is also less dense than liquid water—upon freezing, the density
of water decreases by about 9%.
These effects are due to the reduction of thermal motion with cooling, which allows water
molecules to form more hydrogen bonds that prevent the molecules from coming close to each
other. While below 4 °C the breakage of hydrogen bonds due to heating allows water molecules
to pack closer despite the increase in the thermal motion (which tends to expand a liquid), above
4 °C water expands as the temperature increases. Water near the boiling point is about 4% less
dense than water at 4 °C (39 °F).
Under increasing pressure, ice undergoes a number of transitions to other polymorphs with
higher density than liquid water, such as ice II, ice III, high-density amorphous ice (HDA), and
very-high-density amorphous ice (VHDA)

Melting Point

The melting point of ice is 0 °C (32 °F; 273 K) at standard pressure; however, pure liquid water
can be supercooled well below that temperature without freezing if the liquid is not mechanically
disturbed. It can remain in a fluid state down to its homogeneous nucleation point of about 231 K
(−42 °C; −44 °F). The melting point of ordinary hexagonal ice falls slightly under moderately
high pressures, by 0.0073 °C (0.0131 °F)/atm or about 0.5 °C (0.90 °F)/70 atm as the
stabilization energy of hydrogen bonding is exceeded by intermolecular repulsion, but as ice
transforms into its polymorphs (see crystalline states of ice) above 209.9 MPa (2,072 atm), the
melting point increases markedly with pressure, i.e., reaching 355 K (82 °C) at 2.216 GPa
(21,870 atm) (triple point of Ice VII).

Electrical Conductivity

Pure water containing no exogenous ions is an excellent insulator, but not even "deionized"
water is completely free of ions. Water undergoes auto-ionization in the liquid state, when two
water molecules form one hydroxide anion (OH−) and one hydronium cation (H3O+).

Because water is such a good solvent, it almost always has some solute dissolved in it, often a
salt. If water has even a tiny amount of such an impurity, then the ions can carry charges back
and forth, allowing the water to conduct electricity far more readily.

In pure water, sensitive equipment can detect a very slight electrical conductivity of 0.05501 ±
0.0001 μS/cm at 25.00 °C. Water can also be electrolyzed into oxygen and hydrogen gases but in
the absence of dissolved ions this is a very slow process, as very little current is conducted. In
ice, the primary charge carriers are protons (see proton conductor).Ice was previously thought to
have a small but measurable conductivity of 1×10 −10 S/cm, but this conductivity is now thought
to be almost entirely from surface defects, and without those, ice is an insulator with an
immeasurably small conductivity.

Polarity and Hydrogen Bonding

An important feature of water is its polar nature. The structure has a bent molecular geometry for
the two hydrogens from the oxygen vertex. The oxygen atom also has two lone pairs of
electrons. One effect usually ascribed to the lone pairs is that the H–O–H gas phase bend angle is
104.48°, which is smaller than the typical tetrahedral angle of 109.47°. The lone pairs are closer
to the oxygen atom than the electrons sigma bonded to the hydrogens, so they require more
space. The increased repulsion of the lone pairs forces the O–H bonds closer to each other.

Cohesion and Adhesion

Water molecules stay close to each other (cohesion), due to the collective action of hydrogen
bonds between water molecules. These hydrogen bonds are constantly breaking, with new bonds
being formed with different water molecules; but at any given time in a sample of liquid water, a
large portion of the molecules are held together by such bonds.

Water also has high adhesion properties because of its polar nature. On extremely clean/smooth
glass the water may form a thin film because the molecular forces between glass and water
molecules (adhesive forces) are stronger than the cohesive forces. In biological cells and
organelles, water is in contact with membrane and protein surfaces that are hydrophilic; that is,
surfaces that have a strong attraction to water. Irving Langmuir observed a strong repulsive force
between hydrophilic surfaces. To dehydrate hydrophilic surfaces—to remove the strongly held
layers of water of hydration—requires doing substantial work against these forces, called
hydration forces. These forces are very large but decrease rapidly over a nanometer or less. They
are important in biology, particularly when cells are dehydrated by exposure to dry atmospheres
or to extracellular freezing.

Surface Tension
This paper clip is under the water level, which has risen gently and smoothly. Surface tension
prevents the clip from submerging and the water from overflowing the glass edges.

Water has an unusually high surface tension of71.99 mN/m at 25 °C which is caused by the
strength of the hydrogen bonding between water molecules. This allows insects to walk on water.

Capillary Action

Because water has strong cohesive and adhesive forces, it exhibits capillary action. Strong
cohesion from hydrogen bonding and adhesion allows trees to transport water more than 100 m
upward.
Water as a Solvent

Water is an excellent solvent due to its high dielectric constant. Substances that mix well and
dissolve in water are known as hydrophilic ("water-loving") substances, while those that do not
mix well with water are known as hydrophobic ("water-fearing") substances. The ability of a
substance to dissolve in water is determined by whether or not the substance can match or better
the strong attractive forces that water molecules generate between other water molecules. If a
substance has properties that do not allow it to overcome these strong intermolecular forces, the
molecules are precipitated out from the water. Contrary to the common misconception, water and
hydrophobic substances do not "repel", and the hydration of a hydrophobic surface is
energetically, but not entropically, favorable.

When an ionic or polar compound enters water, it is surrounded by water molecules (hydration).
The relatively small size of water molecules (~ 3 angstroms) allows many water molecules to
surround one molecule of solute. The partially negative dipole ends of the water are attracted to
positively charged components of the solute, and vice versa for the positive dipole ends.

In general, ionic and polar substances such as acids, alcohols, and salts are relatively soluble in
water, and non-polar substances such as fats and oils are not. Non-polar molecules stay together
in water because it is energetically more favorable for the water molecules to hydrogen bond to
each other than to engage in van der Waals interactions with non-polar molecules.

An example of an ionic solute is table salt; the sodium chloride, NaCl, separates into Na+cations
and Cl−anions, each being surrounded by water molecules. The ions are then easily transported
away from their crystalline lattice into solution. An example of a nonionic solute is table sugar.
The water dipoles make hydrogen bonds with the polar regions of the sugar molecule (OH
groups) and allow it to be carried away into solution.

Chemical Properties

At standard conditions, water is a polar liquid that slightly dissociates disproportionately into a
hydroniumion and hydroxide ion.2 H2O ⇌ H3O+ OH−

The ionic product of pure water,Key has a value of about 10−14 at 25 °C. Pure water has a
concentration of the hydroxide ion (OH−) equal to that of the hydrogen ion (H+), which gives a
pH of 7 at 25 °C.

Geochemistry

Action of water on rock over long periods of time typically leads to weathering and water
erosion, physical processes that convert solid rocks and minerals into soil and sediment, but
under some conditions chemical reactions with water occur as well, resulting in metasomatism or
mineral hydration, a type of chemical alteration of a rock which produces clay minerals. It also
occurs when Portland cement hardens.
Water ice can form clathrate compounds, known as clathrate hydrates, with a variety of small
molecules that can be embedded in its spacious crystal lattice. The most notable of these is
methane clathrate, 4CH4·23H2O, naturally found in large quantities on the ocean floor.

Acidity in Nature

Rain is generally mildly acidic, with a pH between 5.2 and 5.8 if not having any acid stronger
than carbon dioxide. If high amounts of nitrogen and sulfur oxides are present in the air, they too
will dissolve into the cloud and rain drops, producing acid rain.

Occurrence

Water is the most abundant substance on Earth and also the third most abundant molecule in the
universe,after H2 and CO. 0.23 ppm of the earth's mass is water and 97.39% of the global water
volume of 1.38×109 km3 is found in the oceans.

Acid-base Reactions

Water is amphoteric: it has the ability to act as either an acid or a base in chemical reactions.
According to the Brønsted-Lowry definition, an acid is a proton donor and a base is a proton
acceptor.

When reacting with a stronger acid, water acts as a base; when reacting with a stronger base, it
acts as an acid. For instance, water receives an H+ ion from HCl when hydrochloric acid is
formed:

HCl (acid) + H2O(base) ⇌ H3O++ Cl−

In the reaction with ammonia, NH3, water donates a H+ ion, and is thus acting as an acid:

NH3(base)+H2O(acid)⇌NH+4+OH−

The Cryosphere

Cryosphere is an all-encompassing term for those portions of Earth's surface where water is in
solid form, including sea ice, lake ice, river ice, snow cover, glaciers, ice caps, ice sheets, and
frozen ground (which includes permafrost). Thus, there is a wide overlap with the hydrosphere.
The cryosphere is an integral part of the global climate system with important linkages and
feedbacks generated through its influence on surface energy and moisture fluxes, clouds,
precipitation, hydrology, atmospheric and oceanic circulation. Through these feedback
processes, the cryosphere plays a significant role in the global climate and in climate model
response to global changes. The term deglaciation describes the retreat of cryospheric features.
Cryology is the study of cryospheres.

Earth's Lithosphere
Earth's lithosphere includes the crust and the uppermost mantle, which constitute the hard and
rigid outer layer of the Earth. The lithosphere is subdivided into tectonic plates. The uppermost
part of the lithosphere that chemically reacts to the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere
through the soil forming process is called the pedosphere.
The pedosphere is the outermost layer of the Earth that is composed of soil and subject to soil
formation processes. It exists at the interface of the lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and
biosphere.The pedosphere is the skin of the Earth and only develops when there is a dynamic
interaction between the atmosphere (air in and above the soil), biosphere (living organisms),
lithosphere (unconsolidated regolith and consolidated bedrock) and the hydrosphere (water in, on
and below the soil). The pedosphere is the foundation of terrestrial life on Earth. The pedosphere
acts as the mediator of chemical and biogeochemical flux into and out of these respective
systems and is made up of gaseous, mineralic, fluid and biologic components.
Rocks
A rock is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is
categorized by the minerals included, its chemical composition and the way in which it is
formed. Rocks are usually grouped into three main groups: igneous rocks, metamorphic rocks
and sedimentary rocks. Rocks form the Earth's outer solid layer, the crust.
Igneous Rock
Igneous rock (derived from the Latin word igneus, meaning of fire, from ignis meaning fire) is
formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or lava. This magma may be derived
from partial melts of pre-existing rocks in either a planet's mantle or crust. Typically, the melting
of rocks is caused by one or more of three processes: an increase in temperature, a decrease in
pressure, or a change in composition.
Igneous rocks are divided into two main categories:

Plutonic or intrusive rocks result when magma cools and crystallizes slowly within the Earth's
crust. A common example of this type is granite.

Volcanic or extrusive rocks result from magma reaching the surface either as lava or
fragmental ejecta, forming minerals such as pumice or basalt.
About 64.7% of the Earth's crust by volume consists of igneous rocks, making it the most
plentiful category. Of these, 66% are basalts and gabbros, 16% are granite, and 17%
granodiorites and diorites. Only 0.6% is syenites and 0.3% peridotites and dunites. The oceanic
crust is 99% basalt, which is an igneous rock of mafic composition. Granites and similar rocks,
known as meta-granitoids, form much of the continental crust.Over 700 types of igneous rocks
have been described, most of them having formed beneath the surface of Earth's crust. These
have diverse properties, depending on their composition and the temperature and pressure
conditions in which they were formed.
Sedimentary Rock
Sedimentary rocks are formed at the earth's surface by the accumulation and cementation of
fragments of earlier rocks, minerals, and organisms or as chemical precipitates and organic
growths in water (sedimentation). This process causes clastic sediments (pieces of rock) or
organic particles (detritus) to settle and accumulate, or for minerals to chemically precipitate
(evaporite) from a solution. The particulate matter then undergoes compaction and cementation
at moderate temperatures and pressures (digenesis).
Before being deposited, sediments are formed by weathering of earlier rocks by erosion in a
source area and then transported to the place of deposition by water, wind, ice, mass movement
or glaciers (agents of denudation).
About 7.9% of the crust by volume is composed of sedimentary rocks, with 82% of those being
shales, while the remainder consists of limestone (6%), sandstone and arkoses (12%).
Sedimentary rocks often contain fossils. Sedimentary rocks form under the influence of gravity
and typically are deposited in horizontal or near horizontal layers or strata and may be referred to
as stratified rocks. A small fraction of sedimentary rocks deposited on steep slopes will show
cross bedding where one layer stops abruptly along an interface where another layer eroded the
first as it was laid atop the first.

Metamorphic Rock
They are formed by subjecting any rock type—sedimentary rock, igneous rock or another older
metamorphic rock—to different temperature and pressure conditions than those in which the
original rock was formed. This process is called metamorphism, meaning to "change in form".
The result is a profound change in physical properties and chemistry of the stone. The original
rock, known as the protolith, transforms into other mineral types or other forms of the same
minerals, by recrystallization. The temperatures and pressures required for this process are
always higher than those found at the Earth's surface: temperatures greater than 150 to 200 °C
and pressures of 1500 bars.
Metamorphic rocks compose 27.4% of the crust by volume.
The three major classes of metamorphic rock are based upon the formation mechanism. An
intrusion of magma that heats the surrounding rock causes contact metamorphism—a
temperature-dominated transformation. Pressure metamorphism occurs when sediments are
buried deep under the ground; pressure is dominant, and temperature plays a smaller role. This is
termed burial metamorphism, and it can result in rocks such as jade. Where both heat and
pressure play a role, the mechanism is termed regional metamorphism. This is typically found in
mountain-building regions.
Depending on the structure, metamorphic rocks are divided into two general categories. Those
that possess a texture are referred to as foliated; the remainders are termed non-foliated. The
name of the rock is then determined based on the types of minerals present. Schists are foliated
rocks that are primarily composed of lamellar minerals such as micas. A gneiss has visible bands
of differing lightness, with a common example being the granite gneiss. Other varieties of
foliated rock include slates, phyllites, and mylonite. Familiar examples of non-foliated
metamorphic rocks include marble, soapstone, and serpentine. This branch contains quartzite—a
metamorphosed form of sandstone—and hornfel

Human Use
The use of rocks has had a huge impact on the cultural and technological development of the
human race. Rocks have been used by humans and other hominids for at least 2.5 million years.
Lithic technology marks some of the oldest and continuously used technologies. The mining of
rocks for their metal ore content has been one of the most important factors of human
advancement, which has progressed at different rates in different places in part because of the
kind of metals available from the rocks of a region.

Disintegration of Rocks /Origin and Development of Soil from Weathering

Soil is derived from rocks through a number of sequential or spontaneous steps. Soil forming
rocks are of three types:

1. Primary rocks, formed due to solidification of molten magma and referred to as igneous
rocks, eg granite , basalt
2. sedimentary rocks, the mechanical and chemical break down and redistribution of
primary rocks give rise to sedimentary rocks, eg Sandstone, shale and limestone

3. Metamorphic rocks, formed due to influence of heat and /or pressure on the above type of
rocks, slate, marble and gneiss.

The predominant soil forming minerals are alimino- silicate minerals (feldspar, micas) which
yield fine grained minerals matter, and silicates (or quartz) which persists in the soil as sand
gravel.

Soil formation occurs in two phases: 1, weathering of rocks and 2.Conversion of raw material
into new body through the action of biosphere.

Weathering

It is the breaking down of rocks, soil, and minerals as well as wood and artificial materials
through contact with the Earth's atmosphere, water, and biological organisms.

Physical Weathering

It is also called mechanical weathering or disaggregation, is the class of processes that causes
the disintegration of rocks without chemical change. The primary process in physical weathering
is abrasion (the process by which clasts and other particles are reduced in size). However,
chemical and physical weathering often goes hand in hand. Physical weathering can occur due to
temperature, pressure, frost etc. For example, cracks exploited by physical weathering will
increase the surface area exposed to chemical action, thus amplifying the rate of disintegration.

Chemical Weathering

It changes the composition of rocks, often transforming them when water interacts with minerals
to create various chemical reactions. Chemical weathering is a gradual and ongoing process as
the mineralogy of the rock adjusts to the near surface environment. New or secondary minerals
develop from the original minerals of the rock. In this the processes of oxidation and hydrolysis
are most important. Chemical weathering is enhanced by such geological agents as the presence
of water and oxygen, as well as by such biological agents as the acids produced by microbial and
plant-root metabolism.

Biological weathering

A number of plants and animals may create chemical weathering through release of acidic
compounds, i.e. the effect of moss growing on roofs is classed as weathering. Mineral
weathering can also be initiated or accelerated by soil microorganisms. Lichens on rocks are
thought to increase chemical weathering rates.

Soil
Soil is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support
life. Earth's body of soil, called the pedosphere, has four important functions:

 as a medium for plant growth

 as a means of water storage, supply and purification
 as a modifier of Earth's atmosphere
 as a habitat for organisms

All of these functions, in their turn, modify the soil.

Soil Formation
The process of soil formation is known as pedogenesis, is the combined effect of physical,
chemical, biological and anthropogenic processes working on soil parent material

Factors

How soil formation proceeds is influenced by at least five classic factors that are intertwined in
the evolution of a soil. They are: parent material, climate, topography (relief), organisms, and
time. When reordered to climate, relief, organisms, parent material, and time, they form the
acronym CROPT.

Parent Material

The mineral material from which a soil forms is called parent material. Rock, whether its origin
is igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic, is the source of all soil mineral materials and the origin
of all plant nutrients with the exceptions of nitrogen, hydrogen and carbon. As the parent
material is chemically and physically weathered, transported, deposited and precipitated, it is
transformed into a soil.
Typical soil parent mineral materials are:

 Quartz: SiO2
 Calcite: CaCO3

 Feldspar: KAlSi3O8

 Mica (biotite): K(Mg,Fe)3AlSi3O10(OH)2

Climate

The principal climatic variables influencing soil formation are effective precipitation (i.e.,
precipitation minus evapotranspiration) and temperature, both of which affect the rates of
chemical, physical, and biological processes. Temperature and moisture both influence the
organic matter content of soil through their effects on the balance between primary production
and decomposition: the colder or drier the climate the lesser atmospheric carbon is fixed as
organic matter while the lesser organic matter is decomposed.

The direct influences of climate include:

 A shallow accumulation of lime in low rainfall areas as caliche

 Formation of acid soils in humid areas
 Erosion of soils on steep hillsides
 Deposition of eroded materials downstream
 Very intense chemical weathering, leaching, and erosion in warm and humid regions
where soil does not freeze

Topography

The topography, or relief, is characterized by the inclination (slope), elevation, and orientation of
the terrain. Topography determines the rate of precipitation or runoff and rate of formation or
erosion of the surface soil profile. The topographical setting may either hasten or retard the work
of climatic forces.
Steep slopes encourage rapid soil loss by erosion and allow less rainfall to enter the soil before
running off and hence, little mineral deposition in lower profiles. In semiarid regions, the lower
effective rainfall on steeper slopes also results in less complete vegetative cover, so there is less
plant contribution to soil formation. For all of these reasons, steep slopes prevent the formation
of soil from getting very far ahead of soil destruction. Therefore, soils on steep terrain tend to
have rather shallow, poorly developed profiles in comparison to soils on nearby, more level

Organisms

Soil is the most abundant ecosystem on Earth, but the vast majority of organisms in soil are
microbes, a great many of which have not been described. There may be a population limit of
around one billion cells per gram of soil, but estimates of the number of species vary widely
from 50,000 per gram to over a million per gram of soil. The total number of organisms and
species can vary widely according to soil type, location, and depth.

Plants, animals, fungi, bacteria and humans affect soil formation. Soil animals, including soil
macro fauna and soil meso fauna, mix soils as they form burrows and pores, allowing moisture
and gases to move about, a process called bio turbation. In the same way, plant roots penetrate
soil horizons and open channels upon decomposition. Plants with deep taproots can penetrate
many meters through the different soil layers to bring up nutrients from deeper in the profile.

Plants have fine roots that excrete organic compounds (sugars, organic acids, mucigel), slough
off cells (in particular at their tip) and are easily decomposed, adding organic matter to soil, a
process called rhizodeposition.

Micro-organisms, including fungi and bacteria, effect chemical exchanges between roots and soil
and act as a reserve of nutrients in a soil biological hotspot called rhizosphere. The growth of
roots through the soil stimulates microbial populations, stimulating in turn the activity of their
predators (notably amoeba), thereby increasing the mineralization rate, and in last turn root
growth, a positive feedback called the soil microbial loop. Out of root influence, in the bulk soil,
most bacteria are in a quiescent stage, forming micro aggregates, i.e. mucilaginous colonies to
which clay particles are glued, offering them a protection against desiccation and predation by
soil micro fauna (bacteriophagous protozoa and nematodes). Micro aggregates (20-250 µm) are
ingested by soil meso fauna and macro fauna, and bacterial bodies are partly or totally digested
in their guts.

Time

Time is a factor in the interactions of all the above. While a mixture of sand, silt and clay
constitute the texture of a soil and the aggregation of those components produces peds, the
development of a distinct B horizon marks the development of a soil or pedogenesis. With time,
soils will evolve features that depend on the interplay of the prior listed soil-forming factors. It
takes decades to several thousand years for a soil to develop a profile, although the notion of soil
development has been criticized, soil being in a constant state-of-change under the influence of
fluctuating soil-forming factors. That time period depends strongly on climate, parent material,
relief, and biotic activity. For example, recently deposited material from a flood exhibits no soil
development as there has not been enough time for the material to form a structure that further
defines soil. The original soil surface is buried, and the formation process must begin anew for
this deposit. Over time the soil will develop a profile that depends on the intensities of biota and
climate. While a soil can achieve relative stability of its properties for extended periods, the soil
life cycle ultimately ends in soil conditions that leave it vulnerable to erosion. Despite the
inevitability of soil retrogression and degradation, most soil cycles are long.

Soil-forming factors continue to affect soils during their existence, even on "stable" landscapes
that are long-enduring, some for millions of years. Materials are deposited on top ] or are blown
or washed from the surface. With additions, removals and alterations, soils are always subject to
new conditions. Whether these are slow or rapid changes depends on climate, topography and
biological activity.

Soil Profile

A soil horizon makes up a distinct layer of soil. The horizon runs roughly parallel to the soil
surface and has different properties and characteristics than the adjacent layers above and below.
The soil profile is a vertical section of the soil that depicts all of its horizons.

A soil horizon is a layer parallel to the soil surface, whose physical, chemical and biological
characteristics differ from the layers above and beneath. Horizons are defined in many cases by
obvious physical features, mainly colour and texture. These may be described both in absolute
terms (particle size distribution for texture, for instance) and in terms relative to the surrounding
material, i.e. ‘coarser’ or ‘sandier’ than the horizons above and below.

Many soils have an organic surface layer, which is denominated with a capital letter (different
letters, depending from the system). The mineral soil usually starts with an A horizon. If a well-
developed subsoil horizon as a result of soil formation exists, it is generally called a B horizon.
An underlying loose, but poorly developed horizon is called a C horizon. Hard bedrock is mostly
denominated R. Most individual systems defined more horizons and layers than just these five.
In the following, the horizons and layers are listed more or less by their position from top to
bottom within the soil profile. Not all of them are present in every soil.

O) Organic Surface Layer: Litter layer of plant residues, the upper part often relatively
undecomposed, but the lower part may be strongly humified.

A) Surface Soil: Layer of mineral soil with most organic matter accumulation and soil life.
Additionally, due to weathering, oxides (mainly iron oxides) and clay minerals are formed and
accumulated. It has a pronounced soil structure. But in some soils, clay minerals, ir on,
aluminium, organic compounds, and other constituents are soluble and move downwards. When
this eluviation is pronounced, a lighter coloured E subsurface soil horizon is apparent at the base
of the A horizon. A Horizons may also be the result of a combination of soil bio turbation and
surface processes that winnow fine particles from biologically mounded top soil. In this case, the
A horizon is regarded as a "biomantle".
B) Subsoil: This layer has normally less organic matter than the A horizon, so its colour is
mainly derived from iron oxides. Iron oxides and clay minerals accumulate as a result of
weathering. In a soil, where substances move down from the topsoil, this is the layer, where they
accumulate. The process of accumulation of clay minerals, iron, aluminium and organic
compounds, is referred to as illuviation. The B horizon has generally a soil structure.

C) Substratum: Layer of non-indurated poorly weathered or unweathered rocks. This layer may
accumulate the more soluble compounds like CaCO 3. Soils formed in situ from non-indurated
material exhibit similarities to this C layer.

R) Bedrock: R horizons denote the layer of partially weathered or unweathered bedrock at the
base of the soil profile. Unlike the above layers, R horizons largely comprise continuous masses
(as opposed to boulders) of hard rock that cannot be excavated by hand. Soils formed in situ
from bedrock will exhibit strong similarities to this bedrock layer.

Importance of Soil in Ecosystem

Soil is important for ecosystem because it performs following function:

Soil as a Medium for Plant Growth

Soil as a Means of Water Storage, Supply and Purification

Soil as a Modifier of Earth's Atmosphere

Soil as a Habitat for Organisms

Around 25% of everything alive on the Earth uses soil as a habitat. Some animals live on top of
the soil (in leaf litter or other organic matter), and others live below the surface. Some things live
in the soil for their entire lives, and others live there for just a part of their lives. There are
billions of microorganisms living in the soil too, but they are too small for us to see. Plants also
live in soil. They depend on soil for air, water and nutrients.

Things living in the soil depend on each other and on non-living soil components like organic
matter and minerals to survive. This interdependence and transfer of food energy is called a soil
food web.

Soil in Forests
Soil is well developed in the forest as suggested by the thick humus layers, rich diversity of large
trees and animals that live there. In forests, precipitation exceeds evapotranspiration which
results in an excess of water that percolates downward through the soil layers. Slow rates of
decomposition leads to large amounts of fulvic acid, greatly enhancing chemical weathering. The
downward percolation, in conjunction with chemical weathering leaches magnesium (Mg), iron
(Fe), and aluminum (Al) from the soil and transports them downward, a process known as
podzolization. This process leads to marked contrasts in the appearance and chemistry of the soil
layers.
Soil in Grasslands and Deserts
Precipitation in grasslands is equal to or less than evapotranspiration and causes soil
development to operate in relative drought. Leaching and migration of weathering products is
therefore decreased. Large amounts of evaporation causes buildup of calcium (Ca) and other
large cations flocculate clay minerals and fulvic acids in the upper soil profile. Impermeable clay
limits downward percolation of water and fulvic acids, reducing chemical weathering and
podzolization. The depth to the maximum concentration of clay increases in areas of increased
precipitation and leaching. When leaching is decreased, the Ca precipitates as calcite (CaCO 3) in
the lower soil levels, a layer known as caliche.
Deserts behave similarly to grasslands but operate in constant drought as precipitation is less
than evapotranspiration. Chemical weathering proceeds more slowly than in grasslands and
beneath the caliche layer may be a layer of gypsum and halite.
 Chapter 2: Biosphere and Biome
Biome

A biome is a community of plants and animals that have common characteristics for the
environment they exist in. They can be found over a range of continents. Biomes are distinct
biological communities that have formed in response to a shared physical climate. Biome is a
broader term than habitat; any biome can comprise variety of habitats.

Biosphere

The biosphere also known as the ecosphere is the worldwide sum of all ecosystems. It can also
be termed the zone of life on Earth, a closed system (apart from solar and cosmic radiation and
heat from the interior of the Earth), and largely self-regulating. By the most general bio
physiological definition, the biosphere is the global ecological system integrating all living
beings and their relationships, including their interaction with the elements of the lithosphere,
geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. The biosphere is postulated to have evolved, beginning
with a process of biopoiesis (life created naturally from non-living matter, such as simple organic
compounds) or biogenesis (life created from living matter), at least some 3.5 billion years ago.

. Ecosystem

An ecosystem is a community of living organisms in conjunction with the nonliving components

of their environment, interacting as a system. These biotic and abiotic components are linked
together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the system through
photosynthesis and is incorporated into plant tissue.
Components of the Ecosystem

A. Structural Components

a. Abiotic: Abiotic components include ambient temperature, amount of sunlight, and pH of the
water and soil in which an organism lives.

b. Biotic:

I. Producers (autographs) are typically plants or algae. Plants and algae do not usually eat other
organisms, but pull nutrients from the soil or the ocean and manufacture their own food using
photosynthesis. For this reason, they are called primary producers. In this way, it is energy from
the sun that usually powers the base of the food chain. An exception occurs in deep-sea
hydrothermal ecosystems, where there is no sunlight. Here primary producers manufacture food
through a process called chemosynthesis.

II. Consumer (heterotrophs) are species that cannot manufacture their own food and need to
consume other organisms. Animals that eat primary producers (like plants) are called herbivores.
Animals that eat other animals are called carnivores, and animals that eat both plant and other
animals are called omnivores.

III. Decomposers (detritivores) break down dead plant and animal material and wastes and
release it again as energy and nutrients into the ecosystem for recycling. Decomposers, such as
bacteria and fungi (mushrooms), feed on waste and dead matter, converting it into inorganic
chemicals that can be recycled as mineral nutrients for plants to use again.

B. Functional Aspect

a. Nutrient Cycling A nutrient cycle (or ecological recycling) is the movement and exchange of
organic and inorganic matter back into the production of matter. Energy flow is a unidirectional
and noncyclic pathway, whereas the movement of mineral nutrients is cyclic. Mineral cycles
include the carbon cycle, sulfur cycle, nitrogen cycle, water cycle, phosphorus cycle, oxygen
cycle, among others that continually recycle along with other mineral nutrients into productive
ecological nutrition.

b. Energy Flow

Energy flow, also called the calorific flow, refers to the flow of energy through a food chain, and
is the focus of study in ecological energetics.

A general energy flow scenario follows:

 Solar energy is fixed by the photoautotrophs, called primary producers, like green plants.
Primary consumers absorb most of the stored energy in the plant through digestion, and
 transform it into the form of energy they need, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP),
through respiration. A part of the energy received by primary consumers, herbivores, is
converted to body heat (an effect of respiration), which is radiated away and lost from the
system. The loss of energy through body heat is far greater in warm-blooded animals,
which must eat much more frequently than those that are cold-blooded. Energy loss also
occurs in the expulsion of undigested food (egesta) by excretion or regurgitation.
 Herbivores also consume primary producers. Energy that had been used by the primary
consumers for growth and storage is thus absorbed into the secondary consumers through
the process of digestion. As with primary consumers, secondary consumers convert this
energy into a more suitable form (ATP) during respiration. Again, some energy is lost
from the system, since energy which the primary consumers had used for respiration and
regulation of body temperature cannot be utilized by the secondary consumers.
 Tertiary consumers, which may or may not be apex predators, then consume the
secondary consumers, with some energy passed on and some lost, as with the lower
levels of the food chain.
 Final link in the food chain are decomposers which break down the organic matter of the
tertiary consumers (or whichever consumer is at the top of the chain) and release
nutrients into the soil. They also break down plants, herbivores and carnivores that were
not eaten by organisms higher on the food chain, as well as the undigested food that is
excreted by herbivores and carnivores. Saprotrophic bacteria and fungi are decomposers,
and play a pivotal role in the nitrogen and carbon cycles.

The energy is passed on from trophic level to trophic level and each time about 90% of the
energy is lost, with some being lost as heat into the environment (an effect of respiration) and
some being lost as incompletely digested food (egesta). Therefore, primary consumers get about
10% of the energy produced by autotrophs, while secondary consumers get 1% and tertiary
consumers get 0.1%. This means the top consumer of a food chain receives the least energy, as a
lot of the food chain's energy has been lost between trophic levels. This loss of energy at each
level limits typical food chains to only four to six links.

Biogeochemical Cycle

It is a pathway by which a chemical substance moves through biotic (biosphere) and abiotic
(lithosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere) compartments of Earth. There are biogeochemical
cycles for the chemical elements calcium, carbon, hydrogen, mercury, nitrogen, oxygen,
phosphorus, selenium, and sulfur; molecular cycles for water and silica; macroscopic cycles such
as the rock cycle; as well as human-induced cycles for synthetic compounds such as
polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB). In some cycles there are reservoirs where a substance remains
for a long period of time (such as an ocean or lake for water).

The Carbon Cycle

It is the biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged among the biosphere, pedosphere,
geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere of the Earth. Carbon is the main component of
biological compounds as well as a major component of many minerals such as limestone. It
describes the movement of carbon as it is recycled and reused throughout the biosphere, as well
as long-term processes of carbon sequestration to and release from carbon sinks.

Human influence

Since the industrial revolution, human activity has modified the carbon cycle by changing its
components' functions and directly adding carbon to the atmosphere.

The largest human impact on the carbon cycle is through direct emissions from burning fossil
fuels, which transfers carbon from the geosphere into the atmosphere. The rest of this increase is
caused mostly by changes in land-use, particularly deforestation.

Another direct human impact on the carbon cycle is the chemical process of calcination of
limestone for clinker production, which releases CO2. Clinker is an industrial precursor of
cement.

Humans also influence the carbon cycle indirectly by changing the terrestrial and oceanic
biosphere. Over the past several centuries, direct and indirect human-caused land use and land
cover change (LUCC) has led to the loss of biodiversity, which lowers ecosystems' resilience to
environmental stresses and decreases their ability to remove carbon from the atmosphere. More
directly, it often leads to the release of carbon from terrestrial ecosystems into the atmosphere.
Deforestation for agricultural purposes removes forests, which hold large amounts of carbon, and
replaces them, generally with agricultural or urban areas. Both of these replacement land cover
types store comparatively small amounts of carbon so that the net product of the process is that
more carbon stays in the atmosphere.

Other human-caused changes to the environment change ecosystems' productivity and their
ability to remove carbon from the atmosphere. Air pollution, for example, damages plants and
soils, while many agricultural and land use practices lead to higher erosion rates, washing carbon
out of soils and decreasing plant productivity.

Humans also affect the oceanic carbon cycle. Current trends in climate change lead to higher
ocean temperatures, thus modifying ecosystems. Also, acid rain and polluted runoff from
agriculture and industry change the ocean's chemical composition. Such changes can have
dramatic effects on highly sensitive ecosystems such as coral reefs, thus limiting the ocean's
ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere on a regional scale and reducing oceanic
biodiversity globally.

The Nitrogen Cycle

It is the biogeochemical cycle by which nitrogen is converted into multiple chemical forms as it
circulates among atmosphere, terrestrial, and marine ecosystems. The conversion of nitrogen can
be carried out through both biological and physical processes. Important processes in the
nitrogen cycle include fixation, ammonification, nitrification, and denitrification. The majority of
Earth's atmosphere (78%) is atmosphere nitrogen, making it the largest source of nitrogen.
However, atmospheric nitrogen has limited availability for biological use, leading to a scarcity of
usable nitrogen in many types of ecosystems

Human Influence on the Nitrogen Cycle

As a result of extensive cultivation of legumes (particularly soy, alfalfa, and clover), growing use
of the Haber–Bosch process in the creation of chemical fertilizers, and pollution emitted by
vehicles and industrial plants, human beings have more than doubled the annual transfer of
nitrogen into biologically available forms. In addition, humans have significantly contributed to
the transfer of nitrogen trace gases from Earth to the atmosphere and from the land to aquatic
systems. Human alterations to the global nitrogen cycle are most intense in developed countries
and in Asia, where vehicle emissions and industrial agriculture are highest.
Generation of Nr, reactive nitrogen, has increased over 10 fold in the past century due to global
industrialization. This form of nitrogen follows a cascade through the biosphere via a variety of
mechanisms, and is accumulating as the rate of its generation is greater than the rate of
denitrification.
Nitrous oxide (N2O) has risen in the atmosphere as a result of agricultural fertilization, biomass
burning, cattle and feedlots, and industrial sources. N2O has deleterious effects in the
stratosphere, where it breaks down and acts as a catalyst in the destruction of atmospheric ozone.
Nitrous oxide is also a greenhouse gas and is currently the third largest contributor to global
warming, after carbon dioxide and methane. While not as abundant in the atmosphere as carbon
dioxide, it is, for an equivalent mass, nearly 300 times more potent in its ability to warm the
planet.
Ammonia (NH3) in the atmosphere has tripled as the result of human activities. It is a reactant in
the atmosphere, where it acts as an aerosol, decreasing air quality and clinging to water droplets,
eventually resulting in nitric acid (HNO3) that produces acid rain. Atmospheric ammonia and
nitric acid also damage respiratory systems.
The very high temperature of lightning naturally produces small amounts of NO x, NH3, and
HNO3, but high-temperature combustion has contributed to a 6- or 7-fold increase in the flux of
NOx to the atmosphere. Its production is a function of combustion temperature - the higher the
temperature, the more NOx is produced. Fossil fuel combustion is a primary contributor, but so
are biofuels and even the burning of hydrogen. However, the rate that hydrogen is directly
injected into the combustion chambers of internal combustion engines can be controlled to
prevent the higher combustion temperatures that produce NOx.
Ammonia and nitrous oxides actively alter atmospheric chemistry. They are precursors of
troposphere (lower atmosphere) ozone production, which contributes to smog and acid rain,
damages plants and increases nitrogen inputs to ecosystems. Ecosystem processes can increase
with nitrogen fertilization, but anthropogenic input can also result in nitrogen saturation, which
weakens productivity and can damage the health of plants, animals, fish, and humans.

The Sulfur Cycle

It is the collection of processes by which sulfur moves between rocks, waterways and living
systems. Such biogeochemical cycles are important in geology because they affect many
minerals. Biochemical cycles are also important for life because sulfur is an essential element,
being a constituent of many proteins and cofactors, and sulfur compounds can be used as
oxidants or reductants in microbial respiration. The global sulfur cycle involves the
transformations of sulfur species through different oxidation states, which play an important role
in both geological and biological processes

Human impact

Human activities have a major effect on the global sulfur cycle. The burning of coal, natural gas,
and other fossil fuels has greatly increased the amount of S in the atmosphere and ocean and
depleted the sedimentary rock sink.

Without human impact sulfur would stay tied up in rocks for millions of years until it was
uplifted through tectonic events and then released through erosion and weathering processes.
Instead it is being drilled, pumped and burned at a steadily increasing rate. Over the most
polluted areas there has been a 30-fold increase in sulfate deposition.

The Phosphorus Cycle

It is the biogeochemical cycle that describes the movement of phosphorus through the
lithosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. Unlike many other biogeochemical cycles, the
atmosphere does not play a significant role in the movement of phosphorus, because 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 in only specialized, local
conditions. Therefore, the phosphorus cycle should be viewed from whole Earth system and then
specifically focused on the cycle in terrestrial and aquatic systems.

Human Influence

Humans have greatly influenced the phosphorus cycle by mining phosphorus, converting it to
fertilizer, and by shipping fertilizer and products around the globe.

Repeated application of liquid hog manure in excess to crop needs can have detrimental effects
on soil phosphorus status.

Human interference in the phosphorus cycle occurs by overuse or careless use of phosphorus
fertilizers. This results in increased amounts of phosphorus as pollutants in bodies of water
resulting in eutrophication. Eutrophication devastates water ecosystems by inducing anoxic
conditions.
The Potassium Cycle

Potassium is a macronutrient taken up by plants in large quantities. Unlike N, P and S, K is

present in the soil solution only as a positively charged cation (K +). Its behaviour in the soil is
impacted by soil cation exchange and mineral weathering, rather than microbial activity. K,
similarly to P, does not form gases that could be lost to the atmosphere, and it causes no off-site
environmental problems when it leaves soil system.

Homeostasis
In biology, it is the state of steady internal physical and chemical conditions maintained by living
systems. This dynamic state of equilibrium is the condition of optimal functioning for the
organism and includes many variables, such as body temperature and fluid balance, being kept
within certain pre-set limits (homeostatic range). Other variables include the pH of extracellular
fluid, the concentrations of sodium, potassium and calcium ions, as well as that of the blood
sugar level, and these need to be regulated despite changes in the environment, diet, or level of
activity. Each of these variables is controlled by one or more regulators or homeostatic
mechanisms, which together maintain life.

In the Gaia hypothesis, James Lovelock stated that the entire mass of living matter on Earth (or
any planet with life) functions as a vast homeostatic superorganism that actively modifies its
planetary environment to produce the environmental conditions necessary for its own survival. In
this view, the entire planet maintains several homeostasis (the primary one being temperature
homeostasis). Whether this sort of system is present on Earth is open to debate. However, some
relatively simple homeostatic mechanisms are generally accepted. For example, it is sometimes
claimed that when atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rise, certain plants may be able to grow
better and thus act to remove more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. However, warming has
exacerbated droughts, making water the actual limiting factor on land. When sunlight is plentiful
and the atmospheric temperature climbs, it has been claimed that the phytoplankton of the ocean
surface waters, acting as global sunshine, and therefore heat sensors, may thrive and produce
more dimethyl sulfide (DMS). The DMS molecules act as cloud condensation nuclei, which
produce more clouds, and thus increase the atmospheric albedo, and this feeds back to lower the
temperature of the atmosphere. However, rising sea temperature has stratified the oceans,
separating warm, sunlit waters from cool, nutrient-rich waters. Thus, nutrients have become the
limiting factor, and plankton levels have actually fallen over the past 50 years, not risen. As
scientists discover more about Earth, vast numbers of positive and negative feedback loops are
being discovered, that, together, maintain a metastable condition, sometimes within a very broad
range of environmental conditions.

Biomes of the World

Tropical Rainforests

Tropical rainforests are rainforests that occur in areas of tropical rainforest climate in which there
is no dry season – all months have an average precipitation of at least 60 mm – and may also be
referred to as lowland equatorial evergreen rainforest. True rainforests are typically found
between 10 degrees north and south of the equator (see map); they are a sub-set of the tropical
forest biome that occurs roughly within the 28 degree latitudes (in the equatorial zone between
the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn). Within the World Wildlife Fund's biome
classification, tropical rainforests are a type of tropical moist broadleaf forest (or tropical wet
forest) that also includes the more extensive seasonal tropical forests.

Forest Structure

Rainforests are divided into different strata, or layers, with vegetation organized into a vertical
pattern from the top of the soil to the canopy. Each layer is a unique biotic community containing
different plants and animals adapted for life in those particular strata. Only the emergent layer is
unique to tropical rainforests, while the others are also found in temperate rainforests.

Forest Floor

The forest floor, the bottom-most layer, receives only 2% of the sunlight. Only plants adapted to
low light can grow in this region.

Understory Layer

The understory layer lies between the canopy and the forest floor. The understory is home to a
number of birds, small mammals, insects, reptiles, and predators. Examples include leopard
(Panthera pardus), poison dart frogs (Dendrobates sp.), ring-tailed coati (Nasua nasua), boa
constrictor (Boa constrictor), and many species of Coleopteran. The vegetation at this layer
generally consists of shade-tolerant shrubs, herbs, small trees, and large woody vines which
climb into the trees to capture sunlight. Only about 5% of sunlight breaches the canopy to arrive
at the understory causing true understory plants to seldom grow to 3 m. As an adaptation to these
low light levels, understory plants have often evolved much larger leaves.

Canopy Layer

The canopy is the primary layer of the forest forming a roof over the two remaining layers. It
contains the majority of the largest trees, typically 30–45 m in height. Tall, broad-leaved
evergreen trees are the dominant plants. The densest areas of biodiversity are found in the forest
canopy, as it often supports a rich flora of epiphytes, including orchids, bromeliads, mosses and
lichens. These epiphytic plants attach to trunks and branches and obtain water and minerals from
rain and debris that collects on the supporting plants. The fauna is similar to that found in the
emergent layer, but more diverse.

Emergent Layer
The emergent layer contains a small number of very large trees, called emergents, which grow
above the general canopy, reaching heights of 45–55 m, although on occasion a few species will
grow to 70–80 m tall.

Ecology

Climates

Tropical rainforests are located around and near the equator, therefore having what is called an
equatorial climate characterized by three major climatic parameters: temperature, rainfall, and
dry season intensity. Other parameters that affect tropical rainforests are carbon dioxide
concentrations, solar radiation, and nitrogen availability. In general, climatic patterns consist of
warm temperatures and high annual rainfall. However, the abundance of rainfall changes
throughout the year creating distinct moist and dry seasons.

Soils

Soil Types

Soil types are highly variable in the tropics and are the result of a combination of several
variables such as climate, vegetation, topographic position, parent material, and soil age. Most
tropical soils are characterized by significant leaching and poor nutrients; however there are
some areas that contain fertile soils.

Soil chemical and physical characteristics are strongly related to above ground productivity and
forest structure and dynamics. The physical properties of soil control the tree turnover rates
whereas chemical properties such as available nitrogen and phosphorus control forest growth
rates.

Seasonal Tropical Forests

They also known as moist deciduous, semi-evergreen seasonal, tropical mixed or monsoon
forests, typically contain a range of tree species: only some of which drop some or all of their
leaves during the dry season.

Distribution

Seasonal (mixed) tropical forests can be found in many parts of the tropical zone, with examples
found in:

 In the Americas
o Atlantic forests of Brazil

o Central and eastern Panama: with Barro Colorado Island especially well studied
 In Africa
o Coastal West Africa: Guinean seasonal forest: from south-western Gambia to
eastern Ghana
o Madagascar lowland forests

 In the Asia-Pacific region: seasonal forests predominate across large areas of the Indian
subcontinent and Indochina

Climate
The climate of seasonal forests is typically controlled by a system called t (ITCZ) located near
the equator and created by the convergence of the trade winds from the Northern and Southern
Hemispheres.
Structure
As with tropical rainforests there are different canopy layers, but these may be less pronounced
in mixed forests, which are often characterised by numerous lianas due to their growth advantage
during the dry season. The colloquial term jungle, originally derived from Sanskrit, has no
specific ecological meaning but originally referred to this type of primary and especially
secondary forest in the Indian subcontinent. Determining which stands of mixed forest are
primary and secondary can be problematic, since the species mixture is influenced by factors
such as soil depth and climate, as well as human interference.
Characteristic Biology
The fauna and flora of seasonal tropical mixed forest are usually distinctive. Examples of the
biodiversity and habitat type are often well described for National Parks in:

 Africa represented by:

o the northern part of Korup National Park in Cameroon (central region)

o the Upper Guinean forests (West Africa)

 Asia represented by Cat Tien National Park and Huai Kha Khaeng in the (Indochina
region)
 Pacific region: including the Queensland forest reserves
 Central American wildlife is well represented in:
o Costa Rica e.g. Corcovado National Park

o The Soberanía National Park in Panama.

 South American flora listed and represented in Rio Doce State Park

Tropical Woodlands and Thorn lands

 A woodland or wood (or in the U.S., the plurale tantum woods) is a low-density forest forming
open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory
of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland
under drier conditions or during early stages of primary or secondary succession. Higher density
areas of trees with a largely closed canopy that provides extensive and nearly continuous shade
are referred to as forests.

Tropical and Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands

It is a terrestrial habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. The biome is
dominated by grass and/or shrubs located in semi-arid to semi-humid climate regions of
subtropical and tropical latitudes.

Description

Grassland is dominated by grass and other herbaceous plants. Savanna is grassland with scattered
trees. Shrubland is dominated by woody or herbaceous shrubs.

Large expanses of land in the tropics do not receive enough rainfall to support extensive tree
cover. The tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands are characterized by
rainfall levels between 90–150 centimeters (35–59 in) per year. Rainfall can be highly seasonal,
with the entire year's rainfall sometimes occurring within a couple of weeks.

African savannas occur between forest or woodland regions and grassland regions. Flora
includes acacia and baobab trees, grass, and low shrubs. Acacia trees lose their leaves in the dry
season to conserve moisture, while the baobab stores water in its trunk for the dry season. Many
of these savannas are in Africa.

Large mammals that have evolved to take advantage of the ample forage typify the biodiversity
associated with these habitats. These large mammal faunas are richest in African savannas and
grasslands.

Occurrence
Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands occur on all continents but not in
Antarctica. They are widespread in Africa, and are also found all throughout South Asia, the
northern parts of South America and Australia, and the southern United States.

Temperate Rainforests
They are coniferous or broadleaf forests that occur in the temperate zone and receive heavy
rainfall.
The moist conditions of temperate rain forests generally support an understory of mosses, ferns
and some shrubs. Temperate rain forests can be temperate coniferous forests or temperate
broadleaf and mixed forests
Definition
For temperate rain forests of North America, Alaback's definitionis widely recognized:
Annual precipitation over 140 cm (55 in)
Mean annual temperature is between 4 and 12 °C (39 and 54 °F).
However, required annual precipitation depends on factors such as distribution of rainfall
over the year, temperatures over the year and fog presence, and definitions in other
regions of the world differ considerably. For example, Australian definitions are
ecological-structural rather than climatic:
Global Distribution
Temperate forests cover a large part of the Earth, but temperate rainforests only occur in a few
regions around the world. Most of these occur in oceanic moist climates: the Pacific temperate
rain forests in Western North America (Southeastern Alaska to Central California), the Valdivian
and Magellanic temperate rainforests of southwestern South America (Southern Chile and
adjacent Argentina), pockets of rain forest in Northwestern Europe (southern Norway to northern
Iberia), temperate rainforests of southeastern Australia (Tasmania and Victoria) and the New
Zealand temperate rainforests (South Island's west coast).

Temperate Deciduous or Temperate Broad-Leaf Forests

They are a variety of temperate forest dominated by trees that lose their leaves each year. They
are found in areas with warm moist summers and cool winters.

A temperate deciduous forest is a biome that has many deciduous trees which drop their leaves in
the fall. These forests are also known as broad-leaf forests because the trees have wide, flat
leaves. Temperate deciduous forests lie in the mid-latitude areas of the Earth, between the Arctic
poles and the tropics. These biomes are exposed to warm and cold air masses, causing them to
have four seasons: winter, spring, summer and fall. As winter approaches and daylight decreases,
the production of chlorophyll in the leaves slows and eventually stops, revealing the bright red,
yellow and orange colors we associate with fall. Temperate forests began to form in the
Cenozoic Era about 65.5 million years ago when the Earth began to cool. Tropical and
subtropical forests are the other types of deciduous forests.

Location
The Earth’s temperate deciduous (broadleaf) forests are the areas shown in bright green in the
map below. They are located in the eastern United States, China, Japan, Canada and Europe.

Temperate Deciduous Forest Animals

Insects inhabiting temperate deciduous forests include ants, flies, bees, wasps, cicadas, walking
sticks, moths, butterflies, dragonflies, mosquitoes and praying mantises. Frogs, toads, snakes and
salamanders are some of the reptilian residents of the temperate deciduous forest. Common birds
found in this biome include woodpeckers, robins, jays, cardinals, owls, turkeys, hawks and
eagles. Smaller mammals in the temperate deciduous forests include rabbits, otters, monkeys,
beavers, raccoons, porcupines and squirrels. Bears, white-tailed deer, moose, tigers, elephants,
giraffes, leopards, pandas and humans are some of the larger mammals that live in this biome.

In the temperate deciduous forest, there is a food web that consists of several trophic (food)
levels. Each trophic level has organisms that have the same role in the food web. They also share
the same energy sources. The trophic levels and the organisms living in each of them are shown
in the image below. At the lowest level, the soil is full of earthworms, bacteria and fungi (called
decomposers), which generate nutrients for organisms in the level above. The primary producers
in the second level use these nutrients and sunlight to produce energy through photosynthesis.
The next level up has the primary consumers, mostly herbivores, which consume the primary
producers in the trophic level below them. In turn, the primary consumers supply energy for the
secondary consumers (carnivores and omnivores) in the next level. The uppermost level of the
trophic food web is home to the top carnivores, also called tertiary consumers. In addition, there
can be a quaternary trophic level in more complex food webs. The food web ends when the
animals at the top have no natural predators.

Temperate Deciduous Forest Plants

Temperate deciduous forests are home to trees such as oak, birch, beech, aspen, elm and maple.
These tall trees form the forest canopy. Taller trees that stick up above the canopy are part of the
emergent layer. After the canopy, the next layer down is the understory, which has smaller
species of trees and younger trees that haven’t yet reached their full height. The shrub layer is
next and contains woody vegetation such as bushes and brambles that grow in places where
enough light comes down through the canopy. After this, comes the herb layer, consisting of
soft-stemmed (herbaceous) plants including wildflowers, ferns and grasses. These plants must be
shade-tolerant to live this far down in the forest. The last layer is the forest floor. This area of the
biome has rich soil from decayed leaves, twigs, moss and animal waste, also called litter; this is
the recycling area of the temperate deciduous forest. Earthworms, bacteria, fungi and insects are
resident here, and their physical and metabolic processes keep the recycling going. Recent
research has shown that decreasing leaf litter results in rapid loss of carbon from the soil.

Temperate Deciduous Forest Climate

Temperate deciduous forests have temperatures ranging from -22°F to 86°F. The average annual
rainfall is 30 to 60 inches, with added precipitation falling in the form of snow. Temperate
deciduous forests need at least 120 days without frost. Temperate deciduous forest canopies
allow some sunlight to penetrate to the forest floor. This creates more plant and animal diversity
than is found in tropic or subtropical deciduous forests, both of which have dense canopies.
Temperate Grasslands

Like savannas, temperate grasslands are areas of open grassland with very few trees. Temperate
grasslands, however, are located in colder climate regions and receive less precipitation on
average than savannas.

Climate

Temperatures in temperate grasslands vary according to the season. In winter, temperatures can
plummet to well below 0 degrees Fahrenheit in some areas. In summer, temperatures can reach
above 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Temperate grasslands receive low to moderate precipitation on
average per year (20-35 inches). Most of this precipitation is in the form of snow in temperate
grasslands of the northern hemisphere.

Location

Grasslands are located on every continent with the exception of Antarctica. Some locations of
temperate grasslands include:

 Argentina - pampas
 Australia - downs
 Central North America - plains and prairies
 Hungary - puszta
 New Zealand - downs
 Russia - steppes
 South Africa - veldts

Vegetation
Low to moderate precipitation makes temperate grasslands a difficult place for tall plants such as
woody shrubs and trees to grow. Grasses of this area have adapted to cold temperatures, drought,
and occasional fires. These grasses have deep, massive root systems that take hold in the soil.
This allows the grasses to remain firmly rooted in the ground to reduce erosion and to conserve
water.

Temperate grassland vegetation can either be short or tall. In areas that receive little
precipitation, grasses remain low to the ground. Taller grasses can be found in warmer areas that
receive more rainfall. Some examples of vegetation in temperate grasslands include: buffalo
grass, cacti, sagebrush, perennial grasses, sunflowers, clovers, and wild indigos.

Wildlife
Temperate grasslands are home to many large herbivores. Some of these include bison, gazelles,
zebras, rhinoceroses, and wild horses. Carnivores, like lions and wolves, are also found in
temperate grasslands. Other animals of this region include: deer, prairie dogs, mice, jack rabbits,
skunks, coyotes, snakes, foxes, owls, badgers, blackbirds, grasshoppers, meadowlarks, sparrows,
quails, and hawks.

Alpine Grasslands and Scrublands

Alpine tundra is a type of natural region or biome that does not contain trees because it is at high
elevation. As the latitude of a location approaches the poles, the threshold elevation for alpine
tundra gets lower until it reaches sea level, and alpine tundra merges with polar tundra.
The high elevation causes an adverse climate, which is too cold and windy to support tree
growth. Alpine tundra transitions to sub-alpine forests below the tree line; stunted forests
occurring at the forest-tundra ecotone are known as Krummholz. With increasing elevation it
ends at the snow line where snow and ice persist through summer.
Location
Alpine tundra occurs at high enough altitude at any latitude. Portions of montane grasslands and
shrublands ecoregions worldwide include alpine tundra. Large regions of alpine tundra occur in
the North American Cordillera, the Alps and Pyrenees of Europe, the Himalaya and Karakoram
of Asia, the Andes of South America, and the Eastern Rift mountains of Africa.
Alpine tundra occupies high-mountain summits, slopes, and ridges above timberline. Aspect
plays a role as well; the tree line often occurs at higher elevations on warmer equator-facing
slopes. Because the alpine zone is present only on mountains, much of the landscape is rugged
and broken, with rocky, snowcapped peaks, cliffs, and talus slopes, but also contains areas of
gently rolling to almost flat topography.
Averaging over many locations and local microclimates, the treeline rises 75 metres (245 ft)
when moving 1 degree south from 70 to 50°N, and 130 metres (430 ft) per degree from 50 to
30°N. Between 30°N and 20°S, the tree line is roughly constant, between 3,500 and 4,000 metres
Climate
Typical high-elevation growing seasons range from 45 to 90 days, with average summer
temperatures near 10 °C (50 °F). Growing season temperatures frequently fall below freezing,
and frost occurs throughout the growing season in many areas. Precipitation occurs mainly as
winter snow, but soil water availability is highly variable with season, location, and topography.
For example, snowfields commonly accumulate on the lee sides of ridges while ridgelines may
remain nearly snow free due to redistribution by wind. Some alpine habitats may be up to 70%
snow free in winter. High winds are common in alpine ecosystems, and can cause significant soil
erosion and be physically and physiologically detrimental to plants. Also, wind coupled with
high solar radiation can promote extremely high rates of evaporation and transpiration.
Flora
Because the habitat of alpine vegetation is subject to intense radiation, wind, cold, snow, and ice,
it grows close to the ground and consists mainly of perennial grasses, sedges, and forbs.
Perennial herbs (including grasses, sedges, and low woody or semi-woody shrubs) dominate the
alpine landscape; they have much more root and rhizome biomass than that of shoots, leaves, and
flowers. The roots and rhizomes not only function in water and nutrient absorption but also play
a very important role in over-winter carbohydrate storage. Annual plants are rare in this
ecosystem and usually are only a few inches tall, with weak root systems. [Other common plant
life-forms include prostrate shrubs, graminoids forming tussocks, cushion plants, and
cryptogams, such as bryophytes and lichens.
Relative to lower elevation areas in the same region, alpine regions have a high rate of endemism
and a high diversity of plant species. This taxonomic diversity can be attributed to geographical
isolation, climate changes, glaciation, microhabitat differentiation, and different histories of
migration or evolution or both. These phenomena contribute to plant diversity by introducing
new flora and favoring adaptations, both of new species and the dispersal of pre-existing species
Fauna
Because alpine tundra is located in various widely separated regions of the Earth, there is no
animal species common to all areas of alpine tundra. Some animals of alpine tundra
environments include the kea, marmot, mountain goat, Bighorn sheep, chinchilla, Himalayan
tahr, yak and pika

Deserts
It is a barren area of landscape 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. About one-third of the land surface of the
world is arid or semi-arid. This includes much of the Polar Regions where little precipitation
occurs and which are sometimes called polar deserts or "cold deserts". Deserts can be classified
by the amount of precipitation that falls, by the temperature that prevails, by the causes of
desertification or by their geographical location.

Climate
Deserts usually have a large diurnal and seasonal temperature range, with high daytime
temperatures falling sharply at night. The diurnal range may be as much as 20 to 30 °C (36 to
54 °F) and the rock surface experiences even greater temperature differentials. During the day
the sky is usually clear and most of the sun's radiation reaches the ground, but as soon as the sun
sets, the desert cools quickly by radiating heat into space. In hot deserts, the temperature during
daytime can exceed 45 °C (113 °F) in summer and plunge below freezing point at night during
winter
Physical geography

A desert is a region of land that is very dry because it receives low amounts of precipitation
(usually in the form of rain, but it may be snow, mist or fog), often has little coverage by plants,
and in which streams dry up unless they are supplied by water from outside the area. Deserts
generally receive less than 250 mm (10 in) of precipitation each year. The potential
evapotranspiration may be large but (in the absence of available water) the actual
evapotranspiration may be close to zero. Semi deserts are regions which receive between 250
and 500 mm (10 and 20 in) and when clad in grass, these are known as steppes

Flora
Plants face severe challenges in arid environments. Problems they need to solve include how to
obtain enough water, how to avoid being eaten and how to reproduce. Photosynthesis is the key
to plant growth. It can only take place during the day as energy from the sun is required, but
during the day, many deserts become very hot. Opening stomata to allow in the carbon dioxide
necessary for the process causes evapotranspiration, and conservation of water is a top priority
for desert vegetation. Some plants have resolved this problem by adopting crassulacean acid
metabolism, allowing them to open their stomata during the night to allow CO 2 to enter, and
close them during the day, or by using C4 carbon fixation.
Many desert plants have reduced the size of their leaves or abandoned them altogether. Cacti are
desert specialists, and in most species, the leaves have been dispensed with and the chlorophyll
displaced into the trunks, the cellular structure of which has been modified to allow them to store
water. When rain falls, the water is rapidly absorbed by the shallow roots and retained to allow
them to survive until the next downpour, which may be months or years away. [The giant saguaro
cacti of the Sonoran Desert form "forests", providing shade for other plants and nesting places
for desert birds. Saguaro grows slowly but may live for up to two hundred years. The surface of
the trunk is folded like a concertina, allowing it to expand, and a large specimen can hold eight
tons of water after a good downpour
Fauna
Animals adapted to live in deserts are called xerocoles. There is no evidence that body
temperature of mammals and birds is adaptive to the different climates, either of great heat or
cold. In fact, with a very few exceptions, their basal metabolic rate is determined by body size,
irrespective of the climate in which they live. Many desert animals (and plants) show especially
clear evolutionary adaptations for water conservation or heat tolerance
Deserts present a very challenging environment for animals. Not only do they require food and
water but they also need to keep their body temperature at a tolerable level. In many ways, birds
are the ablest to do this of the higher animals. They can move to areas of greater food availability
as the desert blooms after local rainfall and can fly to faraway waterholes. In hot deserts, gliding
birds can remove themselves from the over-heated desert floor by using thermals to soar in the
cooler air at great heights. In order to conserve energy, other desert birds run rather than fly.
Cold Deserts
Ice deserts are the regions of the Earth that fall under an ice cap climate. Despite rainfall totals
low enough to normally classify as a desert, polar deserts are distinguished from true deserts low
annual temperatures and evapotranspiration. Most polar deserts are covered in ice sheets, ice
fields, or ice caps. Ice-free areas have no vegetation whatsoever.
Polar deserts are one of two polar biomes, the other being Arctic tundra. These biomes are
located at the poles of the earth, covering much of the Antarctic in the southern hemisphere, and
in the northern hemisphere extending from the Arctic into North America, Europe and Asia.
Unlike the tundra that can support plant and animal life in the summer, polar deserts are
practically barren environments, comprising permanent, flat layers of ice. However, there is
evidence of some life in this seemingly inhospitable landscape: sediments of organic and
inorganic substances in the thick ice hosting microbial organisms closely related to
cyanobacteria, able to fix carbon dioxide from the melting water.
Temperature changes in polar deserts frequently cross the freezing point of water. This "freeze-
thaw" alternation forms patterned textures on the ground, as much as 5 m (16 ft) in diameter (as
seen in the picture on the right).
Climate scientists have voiced concerns about the effects of global warming to the ice poles in
these polar biomes.
Fresh Water Biome

Fresh water (or freshwater) is any naturally occurring water except seawater and brackish water.
Fresh water includes water in ice sheets, ice caps, glaciers, icebergs, bogs, ponds, lakes, rivers,
streams, and even underground water called groundwater. Fresh water is generally characterized
by having low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Though the term
specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include mineral-rich waters such as
chalybeate springs.

Lentic ecosystem (also called the lacustrine ecosystem or the still water ecosystem) and lotic
ecosystem (also called the riverine ecosystem) are two types of water ecosystems, the first
dealing with still water ecosystems and the second dealing with flowing water ecosystems.
Together, they are the two ecosystems that make up the study of freshwater ecology, also
known as aquatic ecology.

Lentic Features

A lentic ecosystem entails a body of standing water, ranging from ditches, seeps, ponds,
seasonal pools, basin marshes and lakes. Deeper waters, such as lakes, may have layers of
ecosystems, influenced by light. Ponds, due to their having more light penetration, are able to
support a diverse range of water plants.

Lotic Features

A lotic ecosystem can be any kind of moving water, such as a run, creek, brook, river, spring,
channel or stream. The water in a lotic ecosystem, from source to mouth, must have
atmospheric gases, turbidity, longitudinal temperature gradation and material dissolved in it.

Lentic System Biota

Lake ecosystems are a prime example of lentic ecosystems. Lentic refers to stationary or
relatively still water, from the Latin lentus, which means sluggish. Lentic waters range from
ponds to lakes to wetlands, and much of this article applies to lentic ecosystems in general.
Lentic ecosystems can be compared with lotic ecosystems, which involve flowing terrestrial
waters such as rivers and streams. Together, these two fields form the more general study area of
freshwater or aquatic ecology.
Lentic systems are diverse, ranging from a small, temporary rainwater pool a few inches deep to
Lake Baikal, which has a maximum depth of 1642 m. The general distinction between
pools/ponds and lakes is vague, but Brown states that ponds and pools have their entire bottom
surfaces exposed to light, while lakes do not. In addition, some lakes become seasonally
stratified (discussed in more detail below.) Ponds and pools have two regions: the pelagic open
water zone, and the benthic zone, which comprises the bottom and shore regions. Since lakes
have deep bottom regions not exposed to light, these systems have an additional zone, the
profundal. These three areas can have very different abiotic conditions and, hence, host species
that are specifically adapted to live there.
Biota
Bacteria
Bacteria are present in all regions of lentic waters. Free-living forms are associated with
decomposing organic material, biofilm on the surfaces of rocks and plants, suspended in the
water column, and in the sediments of the benthic and profundal zones. Other forms are also
associated with the guts of lentic animals as parasites or in commensal relationships. Bacteria
play an important role in system metabolism through nutrient recycling
Algae
Algae including both phytoplankton and periphyton are the principle photosynthesizers in ponds
and lakes. Phytoplanktons are found drifting in the water column of the pelagic zone. Many
species have a higher density than water which should make them sink and end up in the
benthos. To combat this, phytoplankton have developed density changing mechanisms, by
forming vacuoles and gas vesicles or by changing their shapes to induce drag, slowing their
descent. A very sophisticated adaptation utilized by a small number of species is a tail-like
flagellum that can adjust vertical position and allow movement in any direction. Phytoplankton
can also maintain their presence in the water column by being circulated in Langmuir rotations.
Periphytic algae, on the other hand, are attached to a substrate. In lakes and ponds, they can
cover all benthic surfaces. Both types of plankton are important as food sources and as oxygen
providers.
Aquatic Plants
Aquatic plants live in both the benthic and pelagic zones and can be grouped according to their
manner of growth: 1) emergent = rooted in the substrate but with leaves and flowers extending
into the air, 2) floating-leaved = rooted in the substrate but with floating leaves, 3) submersed =
growing beneath the surface and 4) free-floating macrophytes = not rooted in the substrate and
floating on the surface. These various forms of macrophytes generally occur in different areas of
the benthic zone, with emergent vegetation nearest the shoreline, then floating-leaved
macrophytes, followed by submersed vegetation. Free-floating macrophytes can occur anywhere
on the system’s surface.
Aquatic plants are more buoyant than their terrestrial counterparts because freshwater has a
higher density than air. This makes structural rigidity unimportant in lakes and ponds (except in
the aerial stems and leaves). Thus, the leaves and stems of most aquatic plants use less energy to
construct and maintain woody tissue, investing that energy into fast growth instead. In order to
contend with stresses induced by wind and waves, plants must be both flexible and tough. Light,
water depth and substrate types are the most important factors controlling the distribution of
submerged aquatic plants. Macrophytes are sources of food, oxygen, and habitat structure in the
benthic zone, but cannot penetrate the depths of the euphotic zone and hence are not found there.
Invertebrates
Zooplanktons are tiny animals suspended in the water column. Like phytoplankton, these species
have developed mechanisms that keep them from sinking to deeper waters, including drag-
inducing body forms and the active flicking of appendages such as antennae or spines.
Remaining in the water column may have its advantages in terms of feeding, but this zone’s lack
of refugia leaves zooplankton vulnerable to predation. In response, some species, especially
Daphnia sp., make daily vertical migrations in the water column by passively sinking to the
darker lower depths during the day and actively moving towards the surface during the night.
Also, because conditions in a lentic system can be quite variable across seasons, zooplankton
have the ability to switch from laying regular eggs to resting eggs when there is a lack of food,
temperatures fall below 2 °C, or if predator abundance is high. These resting eggs have a
diapause, or dormancy period that should allow the zooplankton to encounter conditions that are
more favorable to survival when they finally hatch.The invertebrates that inhabit the benthic
zone are numerically dominated by small species and are species rich compared to the
zooplankton of the open water. They include Crustaceans (e.g. crabs, crayfish, and shrimp),
molluscs (e.g. clams and snails), and numerous types of insects. These organisms are mostly
found in the areas of macrophyte growth, where the richest resources, highly oxygenated water,
and warmest portion of the ecosystem are found. The structurally diverse macrophyte beds are
important sites for the accumulation of organic matter, and provide an ideal area for colonization.
The sediments and plants also offer a great deal of protection from predatory fishes.
Very few invertebrates are able to inhabit the cold, dark, and oxygen poor profundal zone. Those
that can are often red in color due to the presence of large amounts of hemoglobin, which greatly
increases the amount of oxygen carried to cells. Because the concentration of oxygen within this
zone is low, most species construct tunnels or borrows in which they can hide and make the
minimum movements necessary to circulate water through, drawing oxygen to them without
expending much energy.
Fish and Other Vertebrate
Fish have a range of physiological tolerances that are dependent upon which species they belong
to. They have different lethal temperatures, dissolved oxygen requirements, and spawning needs
that are based on their activity levels and behaviors. Because fish are highly mobile, they are able
to deal with unsuitable abiotic factors in one zone by simply moving to another. A detrital feeder
in the profundal zone, for example, that finds the oxygen concentration has dropped too low may
feed closer to the benthic zone. A fish might also alter its residence during different parts of its
life history: hatching in a sediment nest, then moving to the weedy benthic zone to develop in a
protected environment with food resources, and finally into the pelagic zone as an adult.
Other vertebrate taxa inhabit lentic systems as well. These include amphibians (e.g. salamanders
and frogs), reptiles (e.g. snakes, turtles, and alligators), and a large number of waterfowl species.
Most of these vertebrates spend part of their time in terrestrial habitats and thus are not directly
affected by abiotic factors in the lake or pond. Many fish species are important as consumers and
as prey species to the larger vertebrates mentioned above.
Ponds
They are small bodies of freshwater with shallow and still water, marsh, and aquatic plants. They
can be further divided into four zones: vegetation zone, open water, bottom mud and surface
film. The size and depth of ponds often varies greatly with the time of year; many ponds are
produced by spring flooding from rivers. Food webs are based both on free-floating algae and
upon aquatic plants. There is usually a diverse array of aquatic life, with a few examples
including algae, snails, fish, beetles, water bugs, frogs, turtles, otters and muskrats. Top predators
may include large fish, herons, or alligators. Since fish are a major predator upon amphibian
larvae, ponds that dry up each year, thereby killing resident fish provide important refugia for
amphibian breeding. Ponds that dry up completely each year are often known as vernal pools.
Some ponds are produced by animal activity, including alligator holes and beaver ponds, and
these add important diversity to landscapes.

Technical Definition
The technical distinction between a pond and a lake has not been universally standardized.
Limnologists and freshwater biologists have proposed formal definitions for pond, in part to
include 'bodies of water where light penetrates to the bottom of the water body,' 'bodies of water
shallow enough for rooted water plants to grow throughout,' and 'bodies of water which lack
wave action on the shoreline.' Each of these definitions has met with resistance or disapproval, as
the defining characteristics are each difficult to measure or verify. Accordingly, some
organizations and researchers have settled on technical definitions of pond and lake that rely on
size alone.
Lotic Biota
River ecosystems are flowing waters that drain the landscape, and include the biotic (living)
interactions amongst plants, animals and micro-organisms, as well as abiotic (nonliving) physical
and chemical interaction of its many parts. River ecosystems are part of larger watershed
networks or catchments, where smaller headwater streams drain into mid-size streams, which
progressively drain into larger river networks.
River ecosystems are prime examples of lotic ecosystems. Lotic refers to flowing water, from the
Latin lotus, meaning washed. Lotic waters range from springs only a few centimeters wide to
major rivers kilometers in width. Much of this article applies to lotic ecosystems in general,
including related lotic systems such as streams and springs. Lotic ecosystems can be contrasted
with lentic ecosystems, which involve relatively still terrestrial waters such as lakes, ponds, and
wetlands. Together, these two ecosystems form the more general study area of freshwater or
aquatic ecology.
The following unifying characteristics make the ecology of running waters unique among aquatic
habitats.

 Flow is unidirectional.
 There is a state of continuous physical change.
 There is a high degree of spatial and temporal heterogeneity at all scales
(microhabitats).
 Variability between lotic systems is quite high.
 The biota is specialized to live with flow conditions

Biotic Factors
The living components of an ecosystem are called the biotic components. Streams have
numerous types of biotic organisms that live in them, including bacteria, primary producers,
insects and other invertebrates, as well as fish and other vertebrates.
Biofilm
Biofilm is the combination of algae, diatoms, fungi, bacteria, plankton, and other small
microorganisms that exist in a film along the stream bed or benthos. Biofilm assemblages
themselves are complex, and add to the complexity of a streambed.
Bacteria
Bacteria are present in large numbers in lotic waters. Free-living forms are associated with
decomposing organic material, biofilm on the surfaces of rocks and vegetation, in between
particles that compose the substrate, and suspended in the water column. Other forms are also
associated with the guts of lotic organisms as parasites or in commensal relationships. Bacteria
play a large role in energy recycling.
Primary producers
Algae, consisting of phytoplankton and periphyton, are the most significant sources of primary
production in most streams and rivers. Phytoplanktons float freely in the water column and thus
are unable to maintain populations in fast flowing streams. They can, however, develop sizeable
populations in slow moving rivers and backwaters. Periphytons are typically filamentous and
tufted algae that can attach themselves to objects to avoid being washed away by fast currents. In
places where flow rates are negligible or absent, periphyton may form a gelatinous, unanchored
floating mat.
Plants exhibit limited adaptations to fast flow and are most successful in reduced currents. More
primitive plants, such as mosses and liverworts attach themselves to solid objects. This typically
occurs in colder headwaters where the mostly rocky substrate offers attachment sites. Some
plants are free floating at the water’s surface in dense mats like duckweed or water hyacinth.
Others are rooted and may be classified as submerged or emergent. Rooted plants usually occur
in areas of slackened current where fine-grained soils are found. These rooted plants are flexible,
with elongated leaves that offer minimal resistance to current.
Living in flowing water can be beneficial to plants and algae because the current is usually well
aerated and it provides a continuous supply of nutrients. These organisms are limited by flow,
light, water chemistry, substrate, and grazing pressure. Algae and plants are important to lotic
systems as sources of energy, for forming microhabitats that shelter other fauna from predators
and the current, and as a food resource.

Insects and Other Invertebrates

Up to 90% of invertebrates in some lotic systems are insects. These species exhibit tremendous
diversity and can be found occupying almost every available habitat, including the surfaces of
stones, deep below the substratum in the hyporheic zone, adrift in the current, and in the surface
film.
Insects have developed several strategies for living in the diverse flows of lotic systems. Some
avoid high current areas, inhabiting the substratum or the sheltered side of rocks. Others have flat
bodies to reduce the drag forces they experience from living in running water. Some insects, like
the giant water bug (Belostomatidae), avoid flood events by leaving the stream when they sense
rainfall. In addition to these behaviors and body shapes, insects have different life history
adaptations to cope with the naturally-occurring physical harshness of stream environments.
Some insects time their life events based on when floods and droughts occur. For example, some
mayflies synchronize when they emerge as flying adults with when snowmelt flooding usually
occurs in Colorado streams. Other insects do not have a flying stage and spend their entire life
cycle in the river.
Like most of the primary consumers, lotic invertebrates often rely heavily on the current to bring
them food and oxygen. Invertebrates are important as both consumers and prey items in lotic
systems.
The common orders of insects that are found in river ecosystems include Ephemeroptera (also
known as a mayfly), Trichoptera (also known as a caddisfly), Plecoptera (also known as a
stonefly, Diptera (also known as a true fly), some types of Coleoptera (also known as a beetle),
Odonata (the group that includes the dragonfly and the damselfly), and some types of Hemiptera
(also known as true bugs).
Additional invertebrate taxa common to flowing waters include mollusks such as snails, limpets,
clams, mussels, as well as crustaceans like crayfish, amphipoda and crabs.
Fish and Other Vertebrates
Fish are probably the best-known inhabitants of lotic systems. The ability of a fish species to live
in flowing waters depends upon the speed at which it can swim and the duration that its speed
can be maintained. This ability can vary greatly between species and is tied to the habitat in
which it can survive. Continuous swimming expends a tremendous amount of energy and,
therefore, fishes spend only short periods in full current. Instead, individuals remain close to the
bottom or the banks, behind obstacles, and sheltered from the current, swimming in the current
only to feed or change locations. Some species have adapted to living only on the system bottom,
never venturing into the open water flow. These fishes are dorso-ventrally flattened to reduce
flow resistance and often have eyes on top of their heads to observe what is happening above
them. Some also have sensory barrels positioned under the head to assist in the testing of
Lotic systems typically connect to each other, forming a path to the ocean (spring → stream →
river → ocean), and many fishes have life cycles that require stages in both fresh and salt water.
Salmon, for example, are anadromous substratum species that are born in freshwater but spend
most of their adult life in the ocean, returning to fresh water only to spawn. Eels are catadromous
species that do the opposite, living in freshwater as adults but migrating to the ocean to spawn.
Other vertebrate taxa that inhabit lotic systems include amphibians, such as salamanders, reptiles
(e.g. snakes, turtles, crocodiles and alligators) various bird species, and mammals (e.g., otters,
beavers, hippos, and river dolphins). With the exception of a few species, these vertebrates are
not tied to water as fishes are, and spend part of their time in terrestrial habitats. Many fish
species are important as consumers and as prey species to the larger vertebrates mentioned
above.
Wetland
A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is inundated by water, either permanently or seasonally,
where oxygen-free processes prevail. The primary factor that distinguishes wetlands from other
land forms or water bodies is the characteristic vegetation of aquatic plants, adapted to the
unique hydric soil.

Technical definitions
A wetland is "an ecosystem that arises when inundation by water produces soils dominated by
anaerobic and aerobic processes, which, in turn, forces the biota, particularly rooted plants, to
adapt to flooding." There are four main kinds of wetlands – marsh, swamp, bog and fen (bogs
and fens being types of mires). Some experts also recognize wet meadows and aquatic
ecosystems as additional wetland types. The largest wetlands in the world include the swamp
forests of the Amazon and the peatlands of Siberia.
Ramsar Convention Definition
Under the Ramsar international wetland conservation treaty, wetlands are defined as follows:

 Article 1.1: "...wetlands are areas of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or
artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt,
including areas of marine water the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six metres."
 Article 2.1: "[Wetlands] may incorporate riparian and coastal zoo.

Biota
The biota of a wetland system includes its flora and fauna as described below. The most
important factor affecting the biota is the duration of flooding. Other important factors include
fertility and salinity. In fens, species are highly dependent on water chemistry. The chemistry of
water flowing into wetlands depends on the source of water and the geological material in which
it flows through as well as the nutrients discharged from organic matter in the soils and plants at
higher elevations in slope wetlands. Biota may vary within a wetland due to season or recent
flood regimes.
Flora
There are four main groups of hydrophytes that are found in wetland systems throughout the
world.
Submerged wetland vegetation can grow in saline and fresh-water conditions. Some species have
underwater flowers, while others have long stems to allow the flowers to reach the surface.
Submerged species provide a food source for native fauna, habitat for invertebrates, and also
possess filtration capabilities. Examples include sea grasses and eel grass.
Floating water plants or floating vegetation is usually small, like arrow arum (Peltandra
virginica).
Trees and shrubs, where they comprise much of the cover in saturated soils, qualify those areas
in most cases as swamps. The upland boundary of swamps is determined partly by water levels.
This can be affected by dams. Some swamps can be dominated by a single species, such as silver
maple swamps around the Great Lakes. Others, like those of the Amazon basin, have large
numbers of different tree species. Examples include cypress (Taxodium) and mangrove.
Fauna
Fish are more dependent on wetland ecosystems than any other type of habitat. Seventy-five
percent of the United States' commercial fish and shellfish stocks depend solely on estuaries to
survive. Tropical fish species need mangroves for critical hatchery and nursery grounds and the
coral reef system for food.
Amphibians such as frogs need both terrestrial and aquatic habitats in which to reproduce and
feed. While tadpoles control algal populations, adult frogs forage on insects. Frogs are used as an
indicator of ecosystem health due to their thin skin which absorbs both nutrient and toxins from
the surrounding environment resulting in an above average extinction rate in unfavorable and
polluted environmental conditions.
Reptiles such as alligators and crocodiles are common in wetlands of some regions. Alligators
occur in fresh water along with the fresh water species of the crocodile. The Florida Everglades
is the only place in the world where both crocodiles and alligators coexist. The saltwater
crocodile inhabits estuaries and mangroves and can be seen in the coastline bordering the Great
Barrier Reef in Australia. Snakes, lizards and turtles also can be seen throughout wetlands.
Snapping turtles are one of the many kinds of turtles found in wetlands.
Birds, particularly waterfowl and wading birds, use wetlands extensively.
Mammals include numerous small and medium-sized species such as voles, bats, and platypus in
addition to large herbivorous and apex species such as the beaver, coypu, swamp rabbit, Florida
panther, and moose. Wetlands attract many mammals due to abundant seeds, berries, and other
vegetation components, as well as abundant populations of prey such as invertebrates, small
reptiles and amphibians.
Insects and invertebrates total more than half of the 100,000 known animal species in wetlands.
Insects and invertebrates can be submerged in the water or soil, on the surface, and in the
atmosphere
Algae
Algae are diverse water plants that can vary in size, color, and shape. Algae occur naturally in
habitats such as inland lakes, inter-tidal zones, and damp soil and provide a dedicated food
source for many animals, including some invertebrates, fish, turtles, and frogs. There are three
main groups of algae:

 Plankton is algae which are microscopic, free-floating algae. This alga is so tiny that on
average, if 50 of these microscopic algae were lined up end-to-end, it would only measure
one millimeter. Plankton are the basis of the food web and are responsible for primary
production in the ocean using photosynthesis to make food.
 Filamentous algae are long strands of algae cells that form floating mats.
 Chara and Nitella algae are upright algae that look like a submerged plant with roots.

Types

A swamp is a wetland that is forested. Many swamps occur along large rivers where they are
critically dependent upon natural water level fluctuations. Other swamps occur on the shores of
large lakes.Some swamps have hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic
vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodic inundation or soil saturation.

A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species. Marshes
can often be found at the edges of lakes and streams, where they form a transition between the
aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. They are often dominated by grasses, rushes or reeds. If
woody plants are present they tend to be low-growing shrubs. This form of vegetation is what
differentiates marshes from other types of wetland such as swamps, which are dominated by
trees, and mires, which are wetlands that have accumulated deposits of acidic peat

A marsh is a wetland composed mainly of grasses and reeds found near the fringes of lakes and
streams, serving as a transitional area between land and aquatic ecosystems. A swamp is a
wetland composed of trees and shrubs found along large rivers and lake shores

A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat, a deposit of dead plant material—often
mosses, and in a majority of cases, sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands.
Other names for bogs include mire, quagmire, and muskeg; alkaline mires are called fens. They
are frequently covered in ericaceous shrubs rooted in the sphagnum moss and peat. The gradual
accumulation of decayed plant material in a bog functions as a carbon sink

Peat, also known as turf, is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It
is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland
ecosystem is the most efficient carbon sink on the planet, because peatland plants capture CO2
naturally released from the peat, maintaining equilibrium.

A fen is one of the main types of wetland, the others being grassy marshes, forested swamps, and
peaty bogs. Along with bogs, fens are a kind of mire. Fens are minerotrophic peatlands, usually
fed by mineral-rich surface water or groundwater. They are characterised by their distinct water
chemistry, which is pH neutral or alkaline, with relatively high dissolved mineral levels but few
other plant nutrients. They are usually dominated by grasses and sedges, and typically have
brown mosses. Fens frequently have a high diversity of other plant species including carnivorous
plants such as Pinguicula. They may also occur along large lakes and rivers where seasonal
changes in water level maintain wet soils with few woody plants. The distribution of individual
species of fen plants is often closely connected to water regimes and nutrient concentrations.

Uses of Wetland
Depending partly on a wetland's geographic and topographic location, the functions it performs
can support multiple ecosystem services, values, or benefits. United Nations Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment and Ramsar Convention described wetlands as a whole to be of
biosphere significance and societal importance in the following areas, for example:
 Water storage (flood control)
 Groundwater replenishment
 Shoreline stabilization and storm protection
 Water purification
 Reservoirs of biodiversity
 Pollination
 Wetland products
 Cultural values
 Recreation and tourism
 Climate change mitigation and adaptation

According to the Ramsar Convention:

The economic worth of the ecosystem services provided to society by intact, naturally
functioning wetlands is frequently much greater than the perceived benefits of converting them
to 'more valuable' intensive land use – particularly as the profits from unsustainable use often go
to relatively few individuals or corporations, rather than being shared by society as a whole.
Unless otherwise cited, ecosystem services information is based on the following series of
references.
To replace these wetland ecosystem services, enormous amounts of money would need to be
spent on water purification plants, dams, levees, and other hard infrastructure, and many of the
services are impossible to replace.

Chapter 3: Environmental Problems and Issues

Deforestation
Deforestation, clearance, clear cutting or clearing is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from
land which is then converted to a non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest
land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated deforestation occurs in tropical
rainforests. About 31% of Earth's land surface is covered by forests.
Between 2000 and 2012, 2.3 million square kilometers (890,000 sq mi) of forests around the
world were cut down. As a result of deforestation, only 6.2 million square kilometers
(2.4 million square miles) remain of the original 16 million square kilometers (6 million square
miles) of tropical rainforest that formerly covered the Earth. An area the size of a football pitch is
cleared from the Amazon rainforest every minute, with 136 million acres (55 million hectares) of
rainforest cleared for animal agriculture overall.
More than 3.6 million hectares of virgin tropical forest was lost in 2018.

Causes

According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

secretariat, the overwhelming direct cause of deforestation is agriculture. Subsistence farming is
responsible for 48% of deforestation; commercial agriculture is responsible for 32%; logging is
responsible for 14%, and fuel wood removals make up 5%.

Other causes of contemporary deforestation may include corruption of government institutions,

the inequitable distribution of wealth and power, population growth and overpopulation, and
urbanization.

Globalization is often viewed as another root cause of deforestation, though there are cases in
which the impacts of globalization (new flows of labor, capital, commodities, and ideas) have
promoted localized forest recovery.

Environmental Effects

Atmospheric

Deforestation is a contributor to global warming, and is often cited as one of the major causes of
the enhanced greenhouse effect. Tropical deforestation is responsible for approximately 20% of
world greenhouse gas emission. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
deforestation, mainly in tropical areas, could account for up to one-third of total anthropogenic
carbon dioxide emissions.

Hydrological

The water cycle is also affected by deforestation. Trees extract groundwater through their roots
and release it into the atmosphere. When part of a forest is removed, the trees no longer transpire
this water, resulting in a much drier climate. Deforestation reduces the content of water in the
soil and groundwater as well as atmospheric moisture. The dry soil leads to lower water intake
for the trees to extract. Deforestation reduces soil cohesion, so that erosion, flooding and
landslides ensue.

Soil

Due to surface plant litter, forests that are undisturbed have a minimal rate of erosion. The rate of
erosion occurs from deforestation, because it decreases the amount of litter cover, which
provides protection from surface runoff. The rate of erosion is around 2 metric tons per square
kilometer. This can be an advantage in excessively leached tropical rain forest soils. Forestry
operations themselves also increase erosion through the development of (forest) roads and the
use of mechanized equipment.

Biodiversity
Deforestation on a human scale results in decline in biodiversity and on a natural global scale is
known to cause the extinction of many species. The removal or destruction of areas of forest
cover has resulted in a degraded environment with reduced biodiversity. Forests support
biodiversity, providing habitat for wildlife; moreover, forests foster medicinal conservation.With
forest biotopes being irreplaceable source of new drugs (such as taxol), deforestation can destroy
genetic variations (such as crop resistance) irretrievably.

Economic impact

Damage to forests and other aspects of nature could halve living standards for the world's poor
and reduce global GDP by about 7% by 2050, a report concluded at the Convention on
Biological Diversity (CBD) meeting in Bonn in 2008. Historically, utilization of forest products,
including timber and fuel wood, has played a key role in human societies, comparable to the
roles of water and cultivable land. Today, developed countries continue to utilize timber for
building houses, and wood pulp for paper. In developing countries, almost three billion people
rely on wood for heating and cooking.

The forest products industry is a large part of the economy in both developed and developing
countries. A Short-term economic gains made by conversion of forest to agriculture, or over-
exploitation of wood products, typically leads to a loss of long-term income and long-term
biological productivity. West Africa, Madagascar, Southeast Asia and many other regions have
experienced lower revenue because of declining timber harvests. Illegal logging causes billions
of dollars of losses to national economies annually.

Deforestation in Nepal

It has always been a serious issue, which has a severe effect on the lives of poor people. In the
past, Nepal was a widely forested nation. However now with the requirement for the extension of
rural areas, migration of hills people to the plains, the developing regional interest for timber,
and the local residents dependence on firewood as the essential source of energy, less than 30%
of the nation's forest cover remains. Due to the continuous deforestation in Nepal, many people
and creatures are dying. Around 70 percent of the people in Nepal work in agriculture, even if it
is difficult to farm in the prevailing unfavorable weather conditions.

Rate of Deforestation

Between 1990 and 2000, Nepal lost an average of 91,700 hectares of forest per year. This
amounts to an average annual deforestation rate of 1.90%. However, between 2000 and 2005, the
rate of deforestation decreased by 28.9% to 1.35% per year. In total, between 1990 and 2005,
Nepal lost 24.5% of its forest cover, or around 1,181,000 hectares. 42,000 hectares of its primary
forest cover was last during that time. Deforestation rates of primary cover have decreased
10.7% since the close of the 1990s. Measuring the total rate of habitat conversion (defined as
change in forest area plus change in woodland area minus net plantation expansion) for the 1990-
2005 interval, Nepal lost 7.9% of its forest and woodland habitat.
Threats to Forest Biodiversity
The threats to forest biodiversity can be categorized into two broad groups: (i) loss and
degradation of natural habitats, and (ii) over exploitation and illegal exploitation of biological
resources.
1. Encroachment of forest areas for settlements is a major cause of deforestation in the Tarai and
Siwalik. Some encroachments, especially along the East-West highway, are also for the
expansion of local markets. Most of such settlements are illegal.

2. Expansion of cultivation into forest areas is taking place to meet increasing demands for
agricultural land. The problem is more severe in the Tarai and Siwalik where productivity of land
and population density is high and enforcement of law is generally weak. Shifting cultivation on
steep hill slopes is a major cause of forest loss and degradation in some areas of the Siwalik and
the adjoining Mahabharat range.

3. Development of infrastructure inside forestland is an important factor causing forest loss and
degradation. Unplanned and unregulated construction is widely believed to be a major threat in
the Middle Mountains, although the exact scale and severity of this problem is yet to be
determined. The Department of Roads estimates that around 25,000 kilometers rural road tracks
had been opened by 2010, most of which have been constructed without any environmental
safeguard (DOR, 2010). Illegal construction of schools, hospitals, temples, water storage tanks
and other infrastructure within forest is a problem, particularly in the Tarai and Siwalik. A total
of 82,934 hectares forestland was under illegal occupation in 2012 (DOF, 2012). This is 66
percent higher as compared to the encroached area in 1994.
4. Planned conversion of forestland by the government for implementing economic development
priority projects, such as construction of road, electric transmission line and reservoir is a cause
of habitat loss and degradation in some places.
5. Stone, Gravel and Sand Mining: Excessive extraction of boulders, gravel and sand from rivers
and streams is a localized cause of deforestation in some areas, which has posed a direct threat to
biodiversity.

The following are the major causes of forest habitat degradation.

1. Unsustainable overharvesting of biological resources to meet persistently high demands for

fuel, construction timber, fodder and other forest products is common in forests outside protected
areas. Illicit felling of commercially valuable trees and the trans-boundary timber trade are major
problems in the Tarai, Siwalik and some parts of the High Mountain regions. High demand for
fuel wood and unemployment has motivated many people to engage in illegal collection of
firewood for sale, particularly along the highways. Selective felling of trees for building
materials and overlopping for fodder and fuel wood also contribute significantly to forest
degradation.
2. Over exploitation of high value and rare species, such as satisal (Dalbergia latifolia), champ
(Michelia champaca), bijayasal (Pterocarpus marsupium) and wild olive (Olea cuspidata) has
threatened the survival of these species in their natural habitats. Excessive commercial harvest of
medicinal plants (legally and illegally) has caused direct threat to the high value species,
including yarchagumba (Ophiocordyceps sinensis), jatamansi (Valeriana jatamansi),
sarpagandha (Rauvolfia serpentina), and many species of orchids.

3. Uncontrolled forest fire is a serious threat, particularly in the Siwalik region and high altitude
areas. Most of the fires are deliberately set by local farmers to clear land for agriculture or
stimulate early growth of grass for livestock to graze. Recurrent forest fires severely damage and
prohibit regeneration and growth of seedlings, destroy non-timber forest products, injure ground
fauna and flora and, in some cases, encourage invasive species. In the Middle Mountains,
frequent burning has greatly reduced the regeneration and development of understory vegetation
thereby leading to an open forest with relatively low biodiversity.

4. Overgrazing in forests has negatively affected regeneration and growth of seedlings and
ultimately caused forest degradation in many places. The practice of grazing in forests has
substantially decreased in the Middle Mountains due to implementation of the community
forestry programme, as FUGs rules usually do not allow grazing in community forests. In some
areas of High Mountains (e.g. Taplejung, Rasuwa, Humla), however, the grazing prohibition in
community forests, has invited conflicts between nomadic herders and CFUGs.

5. Invasion by Alien Plant Species: Invasive alien species affect native species mainly through
predation, competition and habitat modification (McGeoch et al., 2010). Invasion and rapid
expansion of some alien species, such as Mikania micrantha, Ageratina adenophora (syn
Eupatorium adenophorum), Chromolaena odorata and Lantana camara has emerged as a major
threat to forest biodiversity. Mikania micrantha is a climber that spreads extremely fast over
forest canopy, and blocks sunlight for native plants, and eventually kills them or stunts their
growth. Its invasion has been a serious problem in the forests and grasslands of the Chitwan
Valley, the Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve and many other areas in the Tarai, Siwalik and Middle
Mountains.
Ageratina adenophora, which grows profusely in disturbed forest, forest margins and fallowlands
and displaces the native ground flora, is a major cause of biodiversity loss in the Middle
Mountains (500-2400 m). The plant has reportedly moved to higher elevation areas in recent
year; this is possibly due to changing climatic conditions. Chromolaena odorata grows in sunny,
open and drained areas. Lantana camara is commonly found in shrublands, fallow lands and
forest margins in the Siwalik and lower Middle Mountains (sub-tropical areas). Many native
plants have reportedly been replaced due to the invasion of Lantana camara.

Human Overpopulation (Population Overshoot)

Human overpopulation (or population overshoot) is when there are too many people for the
environment to sustain (with food, drinkable water, breathable air, etc.). In more scientific terms,
there is overshoot when the ecological footprint of a human population in a geographical area
exceeds that place's carrying capacity, damaging the environment faster than nature can repair it,
potentially leading to an ecological and societal collapse. Overpopulation could apply to the
population of a specific region, or to world population as a whole.
Causes
Overpopulation can result from an increase in births, a decline in mortality rates, an increase in
immigration, or an unsustainable biome and depletion of resources. It is possible for very
sparsely populated areas to be overpopulated if the area has a meager or non-existent capability
to sustain life (e.g. a desert).
Advocates of population moderation cite issues like exceeding the Earth's carrying capacity,
global warming, potential or imminent ecological collapse, impact on quality of life, and risk of
mass starvation or even extinction as a basis to argue for population decline.
A more controversial definition of overpopulation, as advocated by Paul Ehrlich, is a situation
where a population is in the process of depleting non-renewable resources. Under this definition,
changes in lifestyle could cause an overpopulated area to no longer be overpopulated without any
reduction in population, or vice versa.
Scientists suggest that the overall human impact on the environment, due to overpopulation,
overconsumption, pollution, and proliferation of technology, has pushed the planet into a new
geological epoch known as the Anthropogenic.
Current Population Dynamics
As of August 10, 2019 the world's human population is estimated to be 7.725 billion. Or,
7,622,106,064 on May 14, 2018 and the United States Census Bureau calculates 7,472,985,269
for that same date and over 7 billion by the United Nations. Most contemporary estimates for the
carrying capacity of the Earth under existing conditions are between 4 billion and 16 billion.
Depending on which estimate is used, human overpopulation may or may not have already
occurred.
Nevertheless, the rapid recent increase in human population has created concern. The population
is expected to reach between 8 and 10.5 billion between the years 2040 and 2050. In 2017, the
United Nations increased the medium variant projections to 9.8 billion for 2050 and 11.2 billion
for 2100.
As pointed out by Hans Rosling, the critical factor is that the population is not "just growing",
but that the growth ratio reached its peak and the total population is now growing much slower.
The UN population forecast of 2017 was predicting "near end of high fertility" globally and
anticipating that by 2030 over ⅔ of world population will be living in countries with fertility
below the replacement level and for total world population to stabilize between 10-12 billion
people by year 2100.
Concern
The rapid increase in world population over the past three centuries has raised concerns that the
planet may not be able to sustain the future or even present number of its inhabitants. The Inter
Academy Panel Statement on Population Growth, circa 1994, stated that many environmental
problems, such as rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, global warming, and pollution,
are aggravated by the population expansion.
Other problems associated with overpopulation include the increased demand for resources such
as fresh water and food, starvation and malnutrition, consumption of natural resources (such as
fossil fuels) faster than the rate of regeneration, and a deterioration in living conditions.
Demographics of Nepal
In the 2011 census, Nepal's population was approximately 26 million people with a population
growth rate of 1.35% and a median age of 21.6 years. In 2016, the female median age was
approximately 25 years old and the male median age was approximately 22 years old. Only 4.4%
of the population is estimated to be more than 65 years old, comprising 681,252 females and
597,628 males. 61% of the population is between 15 and 64 years old, and 34.6% is younger
than 14 years. In 2011, the Birth rate is estimated to be 22.17 births per 1,000 people with an
infant mortality rate of 46 deaths per 1,000 live births. Compared to the infant mortality rate in
2006 of 48 deaths per 1000 live births, the 2011 IMR is a slight decrease within that 5-year
period. Infant mortality rate in Nepal is higher in rural regions at 44 deaths per 1000 live births,
whereas in urban regions the IMR is lower at 40 deaths per 1000 live births. This difference is
due to a lack of delivery assistance services in rural communities compared to their urban
counterparts who have better access to hospitals and neonatal clinics. Life expectancy at birth is
estimated to be 67.44 years for females and 64.94 years for males. The mortality rate is estimated
to be 681 deaths per 100,000 people. Net migration rate is estimated to be 61 migrants per
100,000 people. According to the 2011 census, 65.9% of the total population is literate.

Pesticides Use
Pesticides are substances that are meant to control pests, including weeds.[1] The term pesticide
includes all of the following: herbicide, insecticides (which may include insect growth
regulators, termiticides, etc.) nematicide, molluscicide, piscicide, avicide, rodenticide,
bactericide, insect repellent, animal repellent, antimicrobial, and fungicide.
In general, a pesticide is a chemical or biological agent (such as a virus, bacterium, or fungus)
that deters, incapacitates, kills, or otherwise discourages pests. Target pests can include insects,
plant pathogens, weeds, molluscs, birds, mammals, fish, nematodes (roundworms), and microbes
that destroy property, cause nuisance, or spread disease, or are disease vectors.
Classification
Pesticides can be classified by target organism (e.g., herbicides, insecticides, fungicides,
rodenticides, and pediculicides), chemical structure (e.g., organic, inorganic, synthetic, or
biological (biopesticide), although the distinction can sometimes blur), and physical state (e.g.
gaseous (fumigant)). Biopesticides include microbial pesticides and biochemical pesticides.
Plant-derived pesticides, or "botanicals", have been developing quickly. These include the
pyrethroids, rotenoids, nicotinoids, and a fourth group that includes strychnine and scilliroside.

Type of pesticide pest group

 Algicides or
Algae
algaecides

Avicides Birds

Bactericides Bacteria

Fungicides Fungi and oomycetes

Herbicides Plant

Insecticides Insects

Miticides or acaricides Mites

Molluscicides Snails

Nematicides Nematodes

Rodenticides Rodents

Slimicides Algae, Bacteria, Fungi, and Slime molds

Virucides Viruses

Many pesticides can be grouped into chemical families. Prominent insecticide families include
organochlorines, organophosphates, and carbamates.
Pesticides can be classified based upon their biological mechanism function or application
method. Most pesticides work by poisoning pests. A systemic pesticide moves inside a plant
following absorption by the plant. With insecticides and most fungicides, this movement is
usually upward (through the xylem) and outward. Increased efficiency may be a result. Systemic
insecticides, which poison pollen and nectar in the flowers, may kill bees and other needed
pollinators.
In 2010, the development of a new class of fungicides called paldoxins was announced. These
work by taking advantage of natural defense chemicals released by plants called phytoalexins,
which fungi then detoxify using enzymes. The paldoxins inhibit the fungi's detoxification
enzymes. They are believed to be safer and greener.
Uses
Pesticides are used to control organisms that are considered to be harmful. For example, they are
used to kill mosquitoes that can transmit potentially deadly diseases like West Nile virus, yellow
fever, and malaria. They can also kill bees, wasps or ants that can cause allergic reactions.
Insecticides can protect animals from illnesses that can be caused by parasites such as fleas.
Pesticides can prevent sickness in humans that could be caused by moldy food or diseased
produce.
Herbicides can be used to clear roadside weeds, trees, and brush. They can also kill invasive
weeds that may cause environmental damage. Herbicides are commonly applied in ponds and
lakes to control algae and plants such as water grasses that can interfere with activities like
swimming and fishing and cause the water to look or smell unpleasant. Uncontrolled pests such
as termites and mold can damage structures such as houses.
Pesticides are used in grocery stores and food storage facilities to manage rodents and insects
that infest food such as grain. Each use of a pesticide carries some associated risk. Proper
pesticide use decreases these associated risks to a level deemed acceptable by pesticide
regulatory agencies such as the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the
Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) of Canada.
DDT, sprayed on the walls of houses, is organo chlorine that has been used to fight malaria since
the 1950s. Recent policy statements by the World Health Organization have given stronger
support to this approach. However, DDT and other organ chlorine pesticides have been banned
in most countries worldwide because of their persistence in the environment and human toxicity.
DDT use is not always effective, as resistance to DDT was identified in Africa as early as 1955,
and by 1972 nineteen species of mosquito worldwide were resistant to DDT.

Costs

On the cost side of pesticide use there can be costs to the environment, costs to human health as
well as costs of the development and research of new pesticides.

Health Effects

Pesticides may cause acute and delayed health effects in people who are exposed. Pesticide
exposure can cause a variety of adverse health effects, ranging from simple irritation of the skin
and eyes to more severe effects such as affecting the nervous system, mimicking hormones
causing reproductive problems, and also causing cancer.

Owing to inadequate regulation and safety precautions, 99% of pesticide related deaths occur in
developing countries that account for only 25% of pesticide usage.

Large quantities of presumably nontoxic petroleum oil by-products are introduced into the
environment as pesticide dispersal agents and emulsifiers. A 1976 study found that an increase in
viral lethality with a concomitant influence on the liver and central nervous system occurs in
young mice previously primed with such chemicals.

Environmental effects

Pesticide use raises a number of environmental concerns. Over 98% of sprayed insecticides and
95% of herbicides reach a destination other than their target species, including non-target
species, air, water and soil. Pesticide drift occurs when pesticides suspended in the air as
particles are carried by wind to other areas, potentially contaminating them. Pesticides are one of
the causes of water pollution, and some pesticides are persistent organic pollutants and contribute
to soil and flower (pollen, nectar) contamination.

In addition, pesticide use reduces biodiversity, contributes to pollinator decline, destroys habitat
(especially for birds), and threatens endangered species.

Pests can develop a resistance to the pesticide (pesticide resistance), necessitating a new
pesticide. Alternatively a greater dose of the pesticide can be used to counteract the resistance,
although this will cause a worsening of the ambient pollution problem.

Alternatives

Alternatives to pesticides are available and include methods of cultivation, use of biological pest
controls (such as pheromones and microbial pesticides), genetic engineering, and methods of
interfering with insect breeding. Application of composted yard waste has also been used as a
way of controlling pests. These methods are becoming increasingly popular and often are safer
than traditional chemical pesticides.

Cultivation practices include polyculture (growing multiple types of plants), crop rotation,
planting crops in areas where the pests that damage them do not live, timing planting according
to when pests will be least problematic, and use of trap crops that attract pests away from the real
crop.[19] Trap crops have successfully controlled pests in some commercial agricultural systems
while reducing pesticide usage; however, in many other systems, trap crops can fail to reduce
pest densities at a commercial scale, even when the trap crop works in controlled experiments. In
the U.S., farmers have had success controlling insects by spraying with hot water at a cost that is
about the same as pesticide spraying.
Release of other organisms that fight the pest is another example of an alternative to pesticide
use. These organisms can include natural predators or parasites of the pests. Biological pesticides
based on entomopathogenic fungi, bacteria and viruses cause disease in the pest species can also
be used.

Interfering with insects' reproduction can be accomplished by sterilizing males of the target
species and releasing them, so that they mate with females but do not produce offspring. This
technique was first used on the screwworm fly in 1958 and has since been used with the medfly,
the tsetse fly, and the gypsy moth. However, this can be a costly, time consuming approach that
Benefits.

Primary Benefits
Controlling pests and plant disease vectors

 Improved crop yields

 Improved crop/livestock quality
 Invasive species controlled

Controlling human/livestock disease vectors and nuisance organisms

 Human lives saved and disease reduced. Diseases controlled include malaria with
millions of lives having been saved or enhanced with the use of DDT alone.
 Animal lives saved and disease reduced

Controlling organisms that harm other human activities and structures

 Drivers view unobstructed

 Tree/brush/leaf hazards prevented
 Wooden structures protected

Natural Resources-Concept and Category

Natural resources are resources that exist without actions of humankind. This includes all valued
characteristics such as magnetic, gravitational, electrical properties and forces etc. On Earth it
includes sunlight, atmosphere, water, land (includes all minerals) along with all vegetation, crops
and animal life that naturally subsists upon or within the heretofore identified characteristics and
substances.

There are various methods of categorizing natural resources, these include source of origin, stage
of development, and by their renewability.
On the basis of origin, natural resources may be divided into two types:

Biotic — Biotic resources are obtained from the biosphere (living and organic material), such as
forests and animals, and the materials that can be obtained from them. Fossil fuels such as coal
and petroleum are also included in this category because they are formed from decayed organic
matter.

Abiotic – Abiotic resources are those that come from non-living, non-organic material.
Examples of abiotic resources include land, fresh water, air, rare earth metals and heavy metals
including ores, such as, gold, iron, copper, silver, etc.
Considering their stage of development, natural resources may be referred to in the following
ways:

Potential Resources — Potential resources are those that may be used in the future—for
example, petroleum in sedimentary rocks that, until drilled out and put to use remains a potential
resource

Actual Resources — Those resources that have been surveyed, quantified and qualified and, are
currently used—development, such as wood processing, depends on technology and cost

Reserve Resources — The part of an actual resource that can be developed profitably in the
future

Stock Resources — Those that have been surveyed, but cannot be used due to lack of
technology—for example, hydrogen
Many natural resources can be categorized as either renewable or non-renewable:

Renewable Resources — Renewable resources can be replenished naturally. Some of these

resources, like sunlight, air, wind, water, etc. are continuously available and their quantities are
not noticeably affected by human consumption. Though many renewable resources do not have
such a rapid recovery rate, these resources are susceptible to depletion by over-use. Resources
from a human use perspective are classified as renewable so long as the rate of
replenishment/recovery exceeds that of the rate of consumption. They replenish easily compared
to Non-renewable resources.

Non-Renewable Resources – Non-renewable resources either form slowly or do not naturally

form in the environment. Minerals are the most common resource included in this category. By
the human perspective, resources are non-renewable when their rate of consumption exceeds the
rate of replenishment/recovery; a good example of this are fossil fuels, which are in this category
because their rate of formation is extremely slow (potentially millions of years), meaning they
are considered non-renewable. Some resources actually naturally deplete in amount without
human interference, the most notable of these being radio-active elements such as uranium,
which naturally decay into heavy metals. Of these, the metallic minerals can be re-used by
recycling them, but coal and petroleum cannot be recycled. Once they are completely used they
take millions of years to replenish.

Extraction
Resource extraction involves any activity that withdraws resources from nature. This can range
in scale from the traditional use of preindustrial societies, to global industry. Extractive
industries are, along with agriculture, the basis of the primary sector of the economy. Extraction
produces raw material, which is then processed to add value. Examples of extractive industries
are hunting, trapping, mining, oil and gas drilling, and forestry.
Depletion
In recent years, the depletion of natural resources has become a major focus of governments and
organizations such as the United Nations (UN). This is evident in the UN's Agenda 21 Section
Two, which outlines the necessary steps for countries to take to sustain their natural resources.
The depletion of natural resources is considered a sustainable development issue. The term
sustainable development has many interpretations, most notably the Brundtland Commission's 'to
ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs', however in broad terms it is balancing the needs of the
planet's people and species now and in the future. In regards to natural resources, depletion is of
concern for sustainable development as it has the ability to degrade current environments and
potential to impact the needs of future generations.

Natural Resource Management

It refers to the management of natural resources such as land, water, soil, plants and animals,
with a particular focus on how management affects the quality of life for both present and future
generations (stewardship).
Natural resource management deals with managing the way in which people and natural
landscapes interact. It brings together land use planning, water management, biodiversity
conservation, and the future sustainability of industries like agriculture, mining, tourism,
fisheries and forestry. It recognizes that people and their livelihoods rely on the health and
productivity of our landscapes, and their actions as stewards of the land play a critical role in
maintaining this health and productivity.
Natural resource management specifically focuses on a scientific and technical understanding of
resources and ecology and the life-supporting capacity of those resources. Environmental
management is also similar to natural resource management. In academic contexts, the sociology
of natural resources is closely related to, but distinct from, natural resource management.
Ownership Regimes
Natural resource management approaches can be categorized according to the kind and right of
stakeholders, natural resources:
State Property: Ownership and control over the use of resources is in hands of the state.
Individuals or groups may be able to make use of the resources, but only at the permission of the
state. National forest, National parks and military reservations are some US examples.

Private Property: Any property owned by a defined individual or corporate entity. Both the
benefit and duties to the resources fall to the owner(s). Private land is the most common
example.
Common Property: It is a private property of a group. The group may vary in size, nature and
internal structure e.g. indigenous neighbors’ of village. Some examples of common property are
community forests.

Non-Property (open access): There is no definite owner of these properties. Each potential user
has equal ability to use it as they wish. These areas are the most exploited. It is said that
"Everybody's property is nobody's property". An example is a lake fishery. Common land may
exist without ownership, in which case in the UK it is vested in a local authority.

Hybrid: Many ownership regimes governing natural resources will contain parts of more than
one of the regimes described above, so natural resource managers need to consider the impact of
hybrid regimes. An example of such a hybrid is native vegetation management in NSW,
Australia, where legislation recognizes a public interest in the preservation of native vegetation,
but where most native vegetation exists on private land.

Management of Resources
Natural resource management issues are inherently complex. They involve the ecological cycles,
hydrological cycles, climate, animals, plants and geography, etc. All these are dynamic and inter-
related. A change in one of them may have far reaching and/or long term impacts which may
even be irreversible. In addition to the natural systems, natural resource management also has to
manage various stakeholders and their interests, policies, politics, geographical boundaries,
economic implications and the list goes on. It is a very difficult to satisfy all aspects at the same
time. This results in conflicting situations.
After the United Nations Conference for the Environment and Development (UNCED) held in
Rio de Janeiro in 1992, most nations subscribed to new principles for the integrated management
of land, water, and forests. Although program names vary from nation to nation, all express
similar aims.
The various approaches applied to natural resource management include:

 Top-down (Command and Control)

 Community-Based Natural Resource Management
 Adaptive Management
 Precautionary Approach
 Integrated Natural Resource Management

Community-Based Natural Resource Management

The community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) approach combines conservation
objectives with the generation of economic benefits for rural communities. The three key
assumptions being that: locals are better placed to conserve natural resources, people will
conserve a resource only if benefits exceed the costs of conservation, and people will conserve a
resource that is linked directly to their quality of life. When a local people's quality of life is
enhanced, their efforts and commitment to ensure the future well-being of the resource are also
enhanced. Regional and community based natural resource management is also based on the
principle of subsidiarity.
The United Nations advocates CBNRM in the Convention on Biodiversity and the Convention to
Combat Desertification. Unless clearly defined, decentralized NRM can result an ambiguous
socio-legal environment with local communities racing to exploit natural resources while they
can e.g. forest communities in central Kalimantan (Indonesia).
A problem of CBNRM is the difficulty of reconciling and harmonizing the objectives of
socioeconomic development, biodiversity protection and sustainable resource utilization. The
concept and conflicting interests of CBNRM, show how the motives behind the participation are
differentiated as either people-centered (active or participatory results that are truly empowering)
or planner-centered (nominal and results in passive recipients). Understanding power relations is
crucial to the success of community based NRM. Locals may be reluctant to challenge
government recommendations for fear of losing promised benefits.
CBNRM is based particularly on advocacy by nongovernmental organizations working with
local groups and communities, on the one hand, and national and transnational organizations, on
the other, to build and extend new versions of environmental and social advocacy that link social
justice and environmental management agendas with both direct and indirect benefits observed
including a share of revenues, employment, diversification of livelihoods and increased pride and
identity. Ecological and societal successes and failures of CBNRM projects have been
documented. CBNRM has raised new challenges, as concepts of community, territory,
conservation, and indigenous are worked into politically varied plans and programs in disparate
sites. Warner and Jones address strategies for effectively managing conflict in CBNRM.

Adaptive Management
The primary methodological approach adopted by catchment management authorities (CMAs)
for regional natural resource management in Australia is adaptive management.
This approach includes recognition that adaption occurs through a process of ‘plan-do-review-
act’. It also recognizes seven key components that should be considered for quality natural
resource management practice:

 Determination of scale
 Collection and use of knowledge
 Information management
 Monitoring and evaluation
 Risk management
 Community engagement
 Opportunities for collaboration.
Integrated Natural Resource Management
Integrated Natural Resource Management (INRM) is a process of managing natural resources in
a systematic way, which includes multiple aspects of natural resource use (biophysical, socio-
political, and economic) meet production goals of producers and other direct users (e.g., food
security, profitability, risk aversion) as well as goals of the wider community (e.g., poverty
alleviation, welfare of future generations, environmental conservation). It focuses on
sustainability and at the same time tries to incorporate all possible stakeholders from the
planning level itself, reducing possible future conflicts. The conceptual basis of INRM has
evolved in recent years through the convergence of research in diverse areas such as sustainable
land use, participatory planning, integrated watershed management, and adaptive management.
INRM is being used extensively and been successful in regional and community based natural
management

Precautionary Biodiversity Management

The "threats" wreaking havoc on biodiversity include; habitat fragmentation, putting a strain on
the already stretched biological resources; forest deterioration and deforestation; the invasion of
"alien species" and "climate change”. Since these threats have received increasing attention from
environmentalists and the public, the precautionary management of biodiversity becomes an
important part of natural resources management. According to Cooney, there are material
measures to carry out precautionary management of biodiversity in natural resource
management.
Concrete "policy tools"
Cooney claims that the policy making is dependent on "evidences", relating to "high standard of
proof", the forbidding of special "activities" and "information and monitoring requirements".
Before making the policy of precaution, categorical evidence is needed. When the potential
menace of "activities" is regarded as a critical and "irreversible" endangerment, these "activities"
should be forbidden. For example, since explosives and toxicants will have serious consequences
to endanger human and natural environment, the South Africa Marine Living Resources Act
promulgated a series of policies on completely forbidding to "catch fish" by using explosives and
toxicants.
Administration and Guidelines
According to Cooney, there are 4 methods to manage the precaution of biodiversity in natural
resources management;

1. "Ecosystem-based management" including "more risk-averse and precautionary

management", where "given prevailing uncertainty regarding ecosystem structure,
function, and inter-specific interactions, precaution demands an ecosystem rather than
single-species approach to management".
2. "Adaptive management" is "a management approach that expressly tackles the
uncertainty and dynamism of complex systems".
3. "Environmental impact assessment" and exposure ratings decrease the "uncertainties" of
precaution, even though it has deficiencies, and
 4. "Protectionist approaches", which "most frequently links to" biodiversity conservation in
natural resources management.

Land Management
In order to have a sustainable environment, understanding and using appropriate management
strategies is important. In terms of understanding, Young emphasizes some important points of
land management:

 Comprehending the processes of nature including ecosystem, water, soils

 Using appropriate and adapting management systems in local situations
 Cooperation between scientists who have knowledge and resources and local people who
have knowledge and skills

Dale et al. (2000) study has shown that there are five fundamental and helpful ecological
principles for the land manager and people who need them. The ecological principles relate to
time, place, species, disturbance and the landscape and they interact in many ways. It is
suggested that land managers could follow these guidelines:

 Examine impacts of local decisions in a regional context, and the effects on natural
resources.
 Plan for long-term change and unexpected events.
 Preserve rare landscape elements and associated species.
 Avoid land uses that deplete natural resources.
 Retain large contiguous or connected areas that contain critical habitats.
 Minimize the introduction and spread of non-native species.
 Avoid or compensate for the effects of development on ecological processes.
 Implement land-use and land-management practices that are compatible with the natural
potential of the area.

Extreme Weather

It includes unexpected, unusual, unpredictable, severe or unseasonal weather; weather at the

extremes of the historical distribution—the range that has been seen in the past. Often, extreme
events are based on a location's recorded weather history and defined as lying in the most
unusual ten percent. In recent years some extreme weather events have been attributed to human-
induced global warming, with studies indicating an increasing threat from extreme weather in the
future.
Over most land areas since the 1950s, it is very likely that there have been fewer or warmer cold
days and nights. Hot days and nights have also very likely become warmer or more frequent.
Human activities have very likely contributed to these trends. There may have been changes in
other climate extremes (e.g., floods, droughts and tropical cyclones) but these changes are more
difficult to identify.
Projections suggest changes in the frequency and intensity of some extreme weather events.
Confidence in projections varies over time. In the U.S. since 1999, two warm weather records
were set or broken for every cold one.
Near-Term Projections (2016–2035)
Some changes (e.g., more frequent hot days) will probably be evident in the near term, while
other near-term changes (e.g., more intense droughts and tropical cyclones) are more uncertain.
Long-Term Projections (2081–2100)
Future climate change will be associated with more very hot days and fewer very cold days. The
frequency, length and intensity of heat waves will very likely increase over most land areas.
Higher growth in anthropogenic GHG emissions will be associated with larger increases in the
frequency and severity of temperature extremes.
Assuming high growth in GHG emissions (IPCC scenario RCP8.5), presently dry regions may
be affected by an increase in the risk of drought and reductions in soil moisture. Over most of the
mid-latitude land masses and wet tropical regions, extreme precipitation events will very likely
become more intense and frequent.
Heat Waves
Global warming boosts the probability of extreme weather events, like heat waves, far more than
it boosts more moderate events.
In the last 30–40 years, heat waves with high humidity have become more frequent and severe.
Extremely hot nights have doubled in frequency. The area, in which extremely hot summers are
observed, has increased 50-100 fold. These changes are not explained by natural variability, and
attributed by climate scientists to the influence of anthropogenic climate change. Heat waves
with high humidity pose a big risk to human health while heat waves with low humidity lead to
dry conditions that increase wildfires. The mortality from extreme heat is larger than the
mortality from hurricanes, lightning, tornadoes, floods, and earthquakes together.
Tropical Cyclones
At the global scale, the frequency of tropical cyclones will probably decrease or be unchanged.
Global mean tropical cyclone maximum wind speed and precipitation rates will likely increase.
Changes in tropical cyclones will probably vary by region, but these variations are uncertain.
Effects of Climate Extremes
The impacts of extreme events on the environment and human society will vary. Some impacts
will be beneficial—e.g., fewer cold extremes will probably lead to fewer cold deaths. Overall,
however, impacts will probably be mostly negative. A rise in temperature will cause the glaciers
to melt, when water heats up, it expands, both of these factors contribute to a rise in sea levels
which will put people living in lowland areas, for example The Netherlands in danger.
Invasive Species
An invasive species is a species that is not native to a specific location (an introduced species),
and that has a tendency to spread to a degree believed to cause damage to the environment,
human economy or human health.
The term as most often used applies to introduce species that adversely affect the habitats and
bioregions they invade economically, environmentally, or ecologically. Such species may be
either plants or animals and may disrupt by dominating a region, wilderness areas, particular
habitats, or wildland–urban interface land from loss of natural controls (such as predators or
herbivores). This includes plant species labeled as exotic pest plants and invasive exotics
growing in native plant communities. The European Union defines "Invasive Alien Species" as
those that are, firstly, outside their natural distribution area, and secondly, threaten biological
diversity. The term is also used by land managers, botanists, researchers, horticulturalists,
conservationists, and the public for noxious weeds.
Invasive Species of Nepal
Lantana camara
Taxonomic Position: Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida, Order: Lamiales Family:
Verbenaceae.
Distribution: Naturalized in approximately 60 countries or island groups between 35 N and 35
S latitudes. The plant is still widening its range
Habit: Lantana camara is a low, erect or subscandent, vigorous shrub which can grow to 2 - 4
meters in height.
Habitat: The diverse and broad geographic distribution of lantana is a reflection of its wide
ecological tolerance. It occurs in diverse habitats and on a variety of soil types. Lantana
generally grows best in open, un-shaded conditions such as wastelands, the edges of rain forests,
on beachfronts, in agricultural areas, grasslands, riparian zones, scrub/shrub lands, urban areas,
wetlands and forests recovering from fire or logging. Roadsides, railway tracks and canal banks
are favored by the species.
Threat and Damage: Lantana threatens natural habitats and native flora and fauna. In Australia,
nineteen endangered and threatened species are under threat due to the weed. It infests pastures,
grazing lands, orchards and crops like, tea, coffee, oil palm, coconut and cotton, and reduces the
economic viability of the crops.
Mode of Infestation: Lantana grows impenetrable thickets that can suppress the growth of
native species. The plant can also grow individually in clumps or as dense thickets, crowding out
more desirable species. In disturbed native forests it can become the dominant understorey
species, disrupting succession and decreasing biodiversity. As the density of Lantana in natural
forest areas increases, species richness decreases. Layering is a form of vegetative reproduction
in Lantana where the stem send roots into soil, allowing it to quickly form very dense stands and
spread short distances.
Mikania micrantha
Taxonomic Position: Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida, Order: Asterales Family:
Asteraceae
Habit: It is a perennial twining herb with 5-ribbed branches, pubescent or glabrous; internodes
are 7.5 - 21.5 cm long.
Habitat: Wet places, forest borders and clearings, along the banks of streams and rivers,
roadsides and railway tracks, in pastures, forest plantations, agricultural and agro - forestry
systems, open disturbed areas and barren lands. Mikania grows luxuriantly on leached and
nutrient poor sandy loam to clayey soils. Being a C3 plant, Mikania can produce a large quantity
of biomass in a single life span. It shows a positive response to high potassium levels in soils and
conserves potassium in slash and burn agriculture systems. Heavy grazing and browsing
promotes the spread of Mikania into new ecosystems. The weed cannot tolerate shade and hence
fails to penetrate undisturbed natural forest areas
Mode of Infestation: Mikania can smother, penetrate crowns and choke and pull over plants. It
thus causes a significant reduction in the growth and productivity of several crops. It successfully
competes with trees and other crop plants for soil nutrients, water and sunlight. The weed can
reduce light interception by covering the canopy of trees. Damage due to Mikania is high in
young plantations compared to older ones since the weed can easily smother young trees. The
adverse effect of Mikania on crops and soil properties is through the production of phenolic and
flavanoid compounds.
Threat and Damage: Mikania reduces growth and productivity of several crops such as oil
palm, rubber, citrus, cassava, teak, eucalypt, acacia, albizia, pineapple, coconut and plantain in
its introduced regions.
Parthenium hysterophorus
Common names: Carrot weed, white top, Congress grass, star weed
Taxonomic Position: Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida, Order: Asterales Family:
Asteraceae
Distribution: Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, China, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ethiopia,
Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mexico, Mozambique, Nepal, New
Caledonia, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Puerto Rico, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Swaziland,
Trinidad, the United States of America, Venezuela, Vietnam and West Indies.
Habit: An annual herb, erect, up to 2 m in height; the stem is branched and covered with
trichomes.
Habitat: Parthenium grows luxuriantly in wastelands and vacant lands, orchards, forestlands,
flood plains, agricultural areas, scrub/shrublands, urban areas, overgrazed pastures and along
roadsides and railway tracks. Drought, and subsequent reduced pasture cover, creates the ideal
situation for Parthenium to establish. It prefers alkaline, clay loam to heavy black clay soils, but
tolerates a wide variety of soil types. The weed grows well in areas where the annual rainfall is
greater than 500 mm and falls dominantly in summer. It can grow up to an elevation of 2200 m
above sea level.
Mode of Infestation: Parthenium colonizes disturbed sites very aggressively, impacting
pastures and croplands by outcompeting native species. The allelopathic effect, coupled with the
absence of natural enemies like insects and diseases, is responsible for its rapid spread in
introduced ranges. Growth inhibitors like lactones and phenols are released from this plant into
the soil through leaching, exudation of roots and decay of residues. These growth inhibitors
suppress the growth and yield of native plants.
Threat and Damage: Infestation by Parthenium degrades natural ecosystems. It aggressively
colonizes disturbed sites and reduces pasture growth and depresses forage production. Its pollen
is known to inhibit fruit set in many crops. The germination and growth of indigenous plants are
inhibited by its allelopathic effect. In man, the pollen grains, air borne pieces of dried plant
materials and roots of Parthenium can cause allergy-type responses like hay fever,
photodermatitis, asthma, skin rashes, peeling skin, puffy eyes, excessive water loss, swelling and
itching of mouth and nose, constant cough, running nose and eczema.
Food Security

It is a measure of the availability of food and individuals' ability to access it. Affordability is
only factor. There is evidence of food security being a concern many thousands of years ago,
with central authorities in ancient China and ancient Egypt being known to release food from
storage in times of famine. At the 1974 World Food Conference the term "food security" was
defined with an emphasis on supply. Food security, they said, is the "availability at all times of
adequate, nourishing, diverse, balanced and moderate world food supplies of basic foodstuffs to
sustain a steady expansion of food consumption and to offset fluctuations in production and
prices". Later definitions added demand and access issues to the definition. The final report of
the 1996 World Food Summit states that food security "exists when all people, at all times, have
physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs
and food preferences for an active and healthy life.

Challenges to Achieving Food Security

1. Water deficits, which are already spurring heavy grain imports in numerous smaller
countries, may soon do the same in larger countries, such as China or India. The water tables are
falling in scores of countries (including northern China, the US, and India) due to widespread
over pumping using powerful diesel and electric pumps. Other countries affected include
Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran. This will eventually lead to water scarcity and cutbacks in grain
harvest. Even with the over pumping of its aquifers, China is developing a grain deficit. When
this happens, it will almost certainly drive grain prices upward. Most of the 3 billion people
projected to be born worldwide by mid-century will be born in countries already experiencing
water shortages. After China and India, there is a second tier of smaller countries with large
water deficits – Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Mexico, and Pakistan. Four of these already
import a large share of their grain. Only Pakistan remains self-sufficient. But with a population
expanding by 4 million a year, it will likely soon turn to the world market for grain.

2. Degradation
Intensive farming often leads to a vicious cycle of exhaustion of soil fertility and decline of
agricultural yields. Approximately 40 percent of the world's agricultural land is seriously
degraded. In Africa, if current trends of soil degradation continue the continent might be able to
feed just 25 percent of its population by 2025, according to UNU's Ghana-based Institute for
Natural Resources in Africa.
3. Climate Change

Climate change and related extreme climate events are key drivers behind the recent rises in
global hunger and one of the leading causes of severe food crises. This causes migration – both
seasonal and permanent – amongst communities that are forced to find more sustainable sources
of food.
4. Agricultural Diseases
Diseases affecting livestock or crops can have devastating effects on food availability especially
if there are no contingency plans in place. For example, Ug99, a lineage of wheat stem rust,
which can cause up to 100% crop losses, is present in wheat fields in several countries in Africa
and the Middle East and is predicted to spread rapidly through these regions and possibly further
afield, potentially causing a wheat production disaster that would affect food security worldwide.

5. Food versus Fuel

Farmland and other agricultural resources have long been used to produce non-food crops
including industrial materials such as cotton, flax, and rubber; drug crops such as tobacco and
opium, and biofuels such as firewood, etc. In the 21st century the production of fuel crops has
increased, adding to this diversion. However technologies are also developed to commercially
produce food from energy such as natural gas and electrical energy with tiny water and land foot
print.
6. Politics
Governments sometimes have a narrow base of support, built upon cronyism and patronage. Fred
Cuny pointed out in 1999 that under these conditions: "The distribution of food within a country
is a political issue. Governments in most countries give priority to urban areas, since that is
where the most influential and powerful families and enterprises are usually located. The
government often neglects subsistence farmers and rural areas in general. The more remote and
underdeveloped the area the less likely the government will be to effectively meet its needs.
Many agrarian policies, especially the pricing of agricultural commodities, discriminate against
rural areas. Governments often keep prices of basic grains at such artificially low levels that
subsistence producers cannot accumulate enough capital to make investments to improve their
production. Thus, they are effectively prevented from getting out of their precarious situation."
Food Sovereignty
The approach known as food sovereignty views the business practices of multinational
corporations as a form of neocolonialism. It contends that multinational corporations have the
financial resources available to buy up the agricultural resources of impoverished nations,
particularly in the tropics. They also have the political clout to convert these resources to the
exclusive production of cash crops for sale to industrialized nations outside of the tropics, and in
the process to squeeze the poor off of the more productive lands. Under this view, subsistence
farmers are left to cultivate only lands that are so marginal in terms of productivity as to be of no
interest to the multinational corporations. Likewise, food sovereignty holds it to be true that
communities should be able to define their own means of production and that food is a basic
human right. With several multinational corporations now pushing agricultural technologies on
developing countries, technologies that include improved seeds, chemical fertilizers, and
pesticides, crop production has become an increasingly analyzed and debated issue.
Food Waste
Food waste may be diverted for alternative human consumption when economic variables allow
for it. The waste of consumable food is even gaining attention from large food conglomerates.
For instance, due to low food prices, simply discarding irregular carrots has typically been more
cost-effective than spending money on the extra labor or machinery necessary to handle them. A
juice factory in the Netherlands, however, has developed a process to efficiently divert and use
previously rejected carrots, and its parent company is expanding this innovation to plants in
Great Britain
Risks to Food Security
1. Population Growth and Fossil Fuel Dependence
While agricultural output has increased, energy consumption to produce a crop has also
increased at a greater rate, so that the ratio of crops produced to energy input has decreased over
time. Green Revolution techniques also heavily rely on chemical fertilizers, pesticides and
herbicides, many of which are petroleum products, making agriculture increasingly reliant on
petroleum.
2. Homogeneity in the Global Food Supply

Since 1961, human diets across the world have become more diverse in the consumption of
major commodity staple crops, with a corollary decline in consumption of local or regionally
important crops, and thus have become more homogeneous globally. The differences between
the foods eaten in different countries were reduced by 68% between 1961 and 2009. The modern
"global standard “diet contains an increasingly large percentage of a relatively small number of
major staple commodity crops, which have increased substantially in the share of the total food
energy (calories), protein, fat, and food weight that they provide to the world's human
population, including wheat, rice, sugar, maize, soybean (by +284%), palm oil (by +173%), and
sunflower (by +246%).
Whereas nations used to consume greater proportions of locally or regionally important crops,
wheat has become a staple in over 97% of countries, with the other global staples showing
similar dominance worldwide. Other crops have declined sharply over the same period, including
rye, yam, sweet potato (by −45%), cassava (by −38%), coconut, sorghum (by −52%) and millets
(by −45%). Such crop diversity change in the human diet is associated with mixed effects on
food security, improving under-nutrition in some regions but contributing to the diet-related
diseases caused by over-consumption of macronutrients.
3. Price Setting
On April 30, 2008, Thailand, one of the world's biggest rice exporters, announced the creation of
the Organization of Rice Exporting Countries with the potential to develop into a price-fixing
cartel for rice. It is a project to organize 21 rice exporting countries to create a homonymous
organization to control the price of rice. The group is mainly made up of Thailand, Vietnam,
Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. The organization attempts to serve the purpose of making a
"contribution to ensuring food stability, not just in an individual country but also to address food
shortages in the region and the world". However, it is still questionable whether this organization
will serve its role as an effective rice price fixing cartel that is similar to OPEC's mechanism for
managing petroleum. Economic analysts and traders said the proposal would go nowhere
because of the inability of governments to cooperate with each other and control farmers' output.
Moreover, countries that are involved expressed their concern that this could only worsen the
food security.
4. Land Use Change
China needs not less than 120 million hectares of arable land for its food security. China has
reported a surplus of 15 million hectares. By contrast, some 4 million hectares of conversion to
urban use and 3 million hectares of contaminated land have also been reported. A survey found
that 2.5% of China's arable land is too contaminated to grow food without harm.
In Europe, the conversion of agricultural soil implied a net loss of potential, but the rapid loss in
the area of arable soils appears to be economically meaningless because EU is perceived to be
dependent on internal food supply anymore. During the period 2000–2006, the European Union
lost 0.27% of its cropland and 0.26% of its crop productive potential. The loss of agricultural
land during the same time was the highest in the Netherlands, which lost 1.57% of its crop
production potential within six years. The figures are quite alarming for Cyprus (0.84%), Ireland
(0.77%) and Spain (0.49%) as well.
5. Global Catastrophic Risks

As anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions reduce the stability of the global climate, abrupt
climate change could become more intense The impact of an asteroid or comet larger than about
1 km diameter has the potential to block the sun globally,

A fertilizer

It is any material of natural or synthetic origin (other than liming materials) that is applied to
soils or to plant tissues to supply one or more plant nutrients essential to the growth of plants.
Many sources of fertilizer exist, both natural and industrially produced

Environmental Effects

Use of fertilizers is beneficial in providing nutrients to plants although they have some negative
environmental effects. The large growing consumption of fertilizers can affect soil, surface
water, and groundwater due to dispersion of mineral use.

Water

Phosphorus and nitrogen fertilizers when commonly used have major environmental effects. This
is due to high rainfalls causing the fertilizers to be washed into waterways. Agricultural run-off is
a major contributor to the eutrophication of fresh water bodies. The main contributor to
eutrophication is phosphate, which is normally a limiting nutrient; high concentrations promote
the growth of cyanobacteria and algae, the demise of which consumes oxygen. [Cyanobacteria
blooms ('algal blooms') can also produce harmful toxins that can accumulate in the food chain,
and can be harmful to humans.

The nitrogen-rich compounds found in fertilizer runoff are the primary cause of serious oxygen
depletion in many parts of oceans, especially in coastal zones, lakes and rivers. The resulting
lack of dissolved oxygen greatly reduces the ability of these areas to sustain oceanic fauna.

Nitrate Pollution

Only a fraction of the nitrogen-based fertilizers is converted to plant matter. The remainder
accumulates in the soil or is lost as run-off. High application rates of nitrogen-containing
fertilizers combined with the high water solubility of nitrate leads to increased runoff into surface
water as well as leaching into groundwater, thereby causing groundwater pollution. The
excessive use of nitrogen-containing fertilizers (be they synthetic or natural) is particularly
damaging, as much of the nitrogen that is not taken up by plants is transformed into nitrate which
is easily leached.

Nitrate levels above 10 mg/L (10 ppm) in groundwater can cause 'blue baby syndrome' (acquired
methemoglobinemia). The nutrients, especially nitrates, in fertilizers can cause problems for
natural habitats and for human health if they are washed off soil into watercourses or leached
through soil into groundwater.

Soil Acidification

Nitrogen-containing fertilizers can cause soil acidification when added. This may lead to
decrease in nutrient availability which may be offset by liming.

Accumulation of Toxic Elements

Cadmium

The concentration of cadmium in phosphorus-containing fertilizers varies considerably and can

be problematic. For example, mono-ammonium phosphate fertilizer may have cadmium content
of as low as 0.14 mg/kg or as high as 50.9 mg/kg. The phosphate rock used in their manufacture
can contain as much as 188 mg/kg cadmium. Continuous use of high-cadmium fertilizer can
contaminate soil and plants.

Fluoride

Phosphate rocks contain high levels of fluoride. Consequently, the widespread use of phosphate
fertilizers has increased soil fluoride concentrations. It has been found that food contamination
from fertilizer is of little concern as plants accumulate little fluoride from the soil; of greater
concern is the possibility of fluoride toxicity to livestock that ingest contaminated soils. Also of
possible concern are the effects of fluoride on soil microorganisms.
Radioactive Elements

The radioactive content of the fertilizers varies considerably and depends both on their
concentrations in the parent mineral and on the fertilizer production process. Uranium-238
concentrations can range from 7 to 100 pCi/g in phosphate rock and from 1 to 67 pCi/g in
phosphate fertilizers. Where high annual rates of phosphorus fertilizer are used, this can result in
uranium-238 concentrations in soils and drainage waters that are several times greater than are
normally present. However, the impact of these increases on the risk to human health from
radionuclide contamination of foods is very small (less than 0.05 mSv/y).

Other Metals

Steel industry wastes, recycled into fertilizers for their high levels of zinc (essential to plant
growth), wastes can include the following toxic metals: lead arsenic, cadmium, chromium, and
nickel. The most common toxic elements in this type of fertilizer are mercury, lead, and arsenic.
These potentially harmful impurities can be removed; however, this significantly increases cost.
Highly pure fertilizers are widely available and perhaps best known as the highly water-soluble
fertilizers containing blue dyes used around households, such as Miracle-Gro. These highly
water-soluble fertilizers are used in the plant nursery business and are available in larger
packages at significantly less cost than retail quantities. Some inexpensive retail granular garden
fertilizers are made with high purity ingredients.

Trace Mineral Depletion

Attention has been addressed to the decreasing concentrations of elements such as iron, zinc,
copper and magnesium in many foods over the last 50–60 years. Intensive farming practices,
including the use of synthetic fertilizers are frequently suggested as reasons for these declines
and organic farming is often suggested as a solution. Although improved crop yields resulting
from NPK fertilizers are known to dilute the concentrations of other nutrients in plants, much of
the measured decline can be attributed to the use of progressively higher-yielding crop varieties
which produce foods with lower mineral concentrations than their less productive ancestors. It is,
therefore, unlikely that organic farming or reduced use of fertilizers will solve the problem;
foods with high nutrient density are posited to be achieved using older, lower-yielding varieties
or the development of new high-yield, nutrient-dense varieties.

Changes in Soil Biology

Toxin
It is a poisonous substance produced within living cells or organisms; synthetic toxicants created
by artificial processes are thus excluded. The term was first used by organic chemist Ludwig
Brieger (1849–1919), derived from the word toxic.
Toxins can be small molecules, peptides, or proteins that are capable of causing disease on
contact with or absorption by body tissues interacting with biological macromolecules such as
enzymes or cellular receptors. Toxins vary greatly in their toxicity, ranging from usually minor
(such as a bee sting) to almost immediately deadly (such as botulinum toxin).
Bio-toxins
The term "bio-toxin" is sometimes used to explicitly confirm the biological origin. Biotoxins can
be further classified, for example, as fungal bio-toxins, microbial toxins, plant bio-toxins, or
animal bio-toxins.
Toxins produced by microorganisms are important virulence determinants responsible for
microbial pathogenicity and/or evasion of the host immune response.
Bio-toxins vary greatly in purpose and mechanism, and can be highly complex (the venom of the
cone snail contains dozens of small proteins, each targeting a specific nerve channel or receptor),
or relatively small protein.
Bio-toxins in nature have two primary functions:

 Predation, such as in the spider, snake, scorpion, jellyfish, and wasp

 Defense as in the bee, ant, termite, honey bee, wasp, and poison dart frog

Some of the more well known types of bio-toxins include:

 Cyanotoxins, produced by cyanobacteria

 Dinotoxins, produced by dinoflagellates
 Necrotoxins cause necrosis (i.e., death) in the cells they encounter and destroy all types of
tissue. Necrotoxins spread through the blood stream . In humans, skin and muscle tissues are
most sensitive to necrotoxins. Organisms that possess necrotoxins include:
o The brown recluse or "fiddle back" spider

o Most rattlesnakes and vipers produce phospholipase and various trypsin-like

serine proteases
o Puff adder

o Necrotizing fasciitis (caused by the "flesh eating" bacterium Streptococcus

pyogenes) – produces a pore forming toxin
 Neurotoxins primarily affect the nervous systems of animals. The group neurotoxins
generally consist of ion channel toxins that disrupt ion channel conductance. Organisms that
possess neurotoxins include:
o The black widow spider.

o Most scorpions

o The box jellyfish

o Elapid snakes
 o The cone snail

o The Blue-ringed octopus

o Venomous fish

o Frogs

o Palythoa coral

o Various different types of algae, cyanobacteria and dinoflagellates

 Myotoxins are small, basic peptides found in snake and lizard venoms, they cause muscle
tissue damage by a non enzymatic receptor based mechanism. Organisms that possess
myotoxins include:
o rattlesnakes

o eastern bearded dragon

 Cytotoxins are toxic at the level of individual cells, either in a non-specific fashion or only in
certain types of living cells:
o Ricin, from castor beans

o Apitoxin, from honey bees

o T-2 mycotoxin, from certain toxic mushrooms

o Cardiotoxin III, from Chinese cobra

Environmental Toxins
The term "environmental toxin" can sometimes explicitly include synthetic contaminants such as
industrial pollutants and other artificially made toxic substances. As this contradicts most formal
definitions of the term "toxin", it is important to confirm what the researcher means when
encountering the term outside of microbiological contexts.
Notable Pollutants
Notable pollutants include the following groups or compounds:

 Mercury (Hg)
 Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
 Ozone
 Particulate Matter (PM)
 Environmental Persistent Pharmaceutical Pollutants (EPPP)
 Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons( PAHs)
 Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)

Chapter 4: Energy Issues

Non-renewable Energy
A non-renewable energy (also called a finite resource) is a resource of economic value that
cannot be readily replaced by natural means at a quick enough pace to keep up with
consumption. An example is carbon-based fossil fuel. The original organic matter, with the aid
of heat and pressure, becomes a fuel such as oil or gas.
Renewable Energy

It is energy that is collected from renewable resources, which are naturally replenished on a
human timescale, such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves, and geothermal heat. Renewable
energy often provides energy in four important areas: electricity generation, air and water
heating/cooling, transportation, and rural (off-grid) energy services.

Alternative Energy

It is any energy source that is an alternative to fossil fuel. These alternatives are intended to
address concerns about fossil fuels, such as its high carbon dioxide emissions, an important
factor in global warming. Marine energy, hydroelectric, wind, geothermal and solar power are all
alternative sources of energy.
Wind Power or Wind Energy
It is the use of air flow through wind turbines to provide the mechanical power to turn electric
generators and traditionally to do other work, like milling or pumping. Wind power is a
sustainable and renewable alternative to burning fossil fuels, and has a much smaller impact on
the environment.
Wind farms consist of many individual wind turbines, which are connected to the electric power
transmission network. Onshore wind is an inexpensive source of electric power, competitive with
or in many places cheaper than coal or gas plants. Onshore wind farms also have an impact on
the landscape, as typically they need to be spread over more land than other power stations and
need to be built in wild and rural areas, which can lead to "industrialization of the countryside"
and habitat loss. Offshore wind is steadier and stronger than on land and offshore farms have less
visual impact, but construction and maintenance costs are considerably higher. Small onshore
wind farms can feed some energy into the grid or provide electric power to isolated off-grid
locations.
Wind is an intermittent energy source, which cannot make electricity nor be dispatched on
demand. It also gives variable power, which is consistent from year to year but varies greatly
over shorter time scales. Therefore, it must be used together with other electric power sources or
batteries to give a reliable supply. As the proportion of wind power in a region increases, more
conventional power sources are needed to back it up (such as fossil fuel power and nuclear
power), and the grid may need to be upgraded. Power-management techniques such as having
dispatchable power sources, enough hydroelectric power, excess capacity, geographically
distributed turbines, exporting and importing power to neighboring areas, energy storage, or
reducing demand when wind production is low, can in many cases overcome these problems.
Weather forecasting permits the electric-power network to be readied for the predictable
variations in production that occur.
In 2018, global wind power capacity grew 9.6% to 591 GW. In 2017, yearly wind energy
production grew 17%, reaching 4.4% of worldwide electric power usage, and providing 11.6%
of the electricity in the European Union. Denmark is the country with the highest penetration of
wind power, with 43.4% of its consumed electricity from wind in 2017. At least 83 other
countries are using wind power to supply their electric power grids
Solar Power
It is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaic
(PV), indirectly using concentrated solar power, or a combination. Concentrated solar power
systems use lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight into a small
beam. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovoltaic effect.
Photovoltaics were initially solely used as a source of electricity for small and medium-sized
applications, from the calculator powered by a single solar cell to remote homes powered by an
off-grid rooftop PV system. Commercial concentrated solar power plants were first developed in
the 1980s. The 392 MW Ivanpah installation is the largest concentrating solar power plant in the
world, located in the Mojave Desert of California.
As the cost of solar electricity has fallen, the number of grid-connected solar PV systems has
grown into the millions and utility-scale photovoltaic power stations with hundreds of megawatts
are being built. Solar PV is rapidly becoming an inexpensive, low-carbon technology to harness
renewable energy from the Sun. The current largest photovoltaic power station in the world is the
850 MW Longyangxia Dam Solar Park, in Qinghai, China.
The International Energy Agency projected in 2014 that under its "high renewables" scenario, by
2050, solar photovoltaics and concentrated solar power would contribute about 16 and 11
percent, respectively, of the worldwide electricity consumption, and solar would be the world's
largest source of electricity. Most solar installations would be in China and India. In 2017, solar
power provided 1.7% of total worldwide electricity production, growing at 35% per annum. As
of 2018, the unsubsidised levelised cost of electricity for utility scale solar power is around
$43/MWh
Hydroelectricity
It is electricity produced from hydropower. In 2015, hydropower generated 16.6% of the world's
total electricity and 70% of all renewable electricity, and was expected to increase by about 3.1%
each year for the next 25 years.
Hydropower is produced in 150 countries, with the Asia-Pacific region generating 33 percent of
global hydropower in 2013. China is the largest hydroelectricity producer, with 920 TWh of
production in 2013, representing 16.9% of domestic electricity use.
The cost of hydroelectricity is relatively low, making it a competitive source of renewable
electricity. The hydro station consumes no water, unlike coal or gas plants. The typical cost of
electricity from a hydro station larger than 10 megawatts is 3 to 5 U.S. cents per hour. With a
dam and reservoir it is also a flexible source of electricity, since the amount produced by the
station can be varied up or down very rapidly (as little as a few seconds) to adapt to changing
energy demands. Once a hydroelectric complex is constructed, the project produces no direct
waste, and in many cases it has a considerably lower output level of greenhouse gases than fossil
fuel powered energy plants.
Biofuel

It is a fuel that is produced through contemporary processes from biomass, rather than a fuel
produced by the very slow geological processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels, such as
oil. Since biomass technically can be used as a fuel directly (e.g. wood logs), some people use
the terms biomass and biofuel interchangeably. More often than not however, the word biomass
simply denotes the biological raw material the fuel is made of, or some form of
thermally/chemically altered solid end product, like torrefied pellets or briquettes. The word
biofuel is usually reserved for liquid or gaseous fuels, used for transportation. The EIA (U.S.
Energy Information Administration) follow this naming practice. If the biomass used in the
production of biofuel can regrow quickly, the fuel is generally considered to be a form of
renewable energy.

Biofuels can be produced from plants (i.e. energy crops), or from agricultural, commercial,
domestic, and/or industrial wastes (if the waste has a biological origin). Renewable biofuels
generally involve contemporary carbon fixation, such as those that occur in plants or microalgae
through the process of photosynthesis.
Some argue that biofuel can be carbon-neutral because all biomass crops sequester carbon to a
certain extent – basically all crops move CO2 from above-ground circulation to below-ground
storage in the roots and the surrounding soil. For instance, McCalmont et al. found below-ground
carbon accumulation ranging from 0.42 to 3.8 tonnes per hectare per year for soils below
Miscanthus x giganteus energy crops, with a mean accumulation rate of 1.84 tonne (0.74 tonnes
per acre per year), or 20% of total harvested carbon per year.
The two most common types of biofuel are bioethanol and biodiesel.
Bioethanol is an alcohol made by fermentation, mostly from carbohydrates produced in sugar or
starch crops such as corn, sugarcane, or sweet sorghum. Cellulosic biomass, derived from non-
food sources, such as trees and grasses, is also being developed as a feedstock for ethanol
production. Ethanol can be used as a fuel for vehicles in its pure form (E100), but it is usually
used as a gasoline additive to increase octane and improve vehicle emissions. Bioethanol is
widely used in the United States and in Brazil.
Biodiesel is produced from oils or fats using transesterification and is the most common biofuel
in Europe. It can be used as a fuel for vehicles in its pure form (B100), but it is usually used as a
diesel additive to reduce levels of particulates, carbon monoxide, and hydrocarbons from diesel-
powered vehicles.
In 2018, worldwide biofuel production reached 152 billion liters (40 billion gallons US), up 7%
from 2017, and biofuels provided 3% of the world's fuels for road transport. The International
Energy Agency wants biofuels to meet more than a quarter of world demand for transportation
fuels by 2050, in order to reduce dependency on petroleum. However, the production and
consumption of biofuels are not on track to meet the IEA's sustainable development scenario.
From 2020 to 2030 global biofuel output has to increase by 10% each year to reach IEA's goal.
Only 3% growth annually is expected.
There are various social, economic, environmental and technical issues relating to biofuels
production and use, which have been debated in the popular media and scientific journals.
Coal
It is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal
seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements; chiefly hydrogen, sulfur,
oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed if dead plant matter decays into peat and over millions of
years the heat and pressure of deep burial converts the peat into coal. Vast deposits of coal
originates in former wetlands—called coal forests—that covered much of the Earth's tropical
land areas during the late Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) and Permian times.
As a fossil fuel burned for heat, coal supplies about a quarter of the world's primary energy and
two-fifths of its electricity. Some iron and steel making and other industrial processes burn coal.
The extraction and use of coal causes many premature deaths and much illness. Coal industry
damages the environment, including by climate change as it is the largest anthropogenic source
of carbon dioxide, 14 Gt in 2016, which is 40% of the total fossil fuel emissions. As part of the
worldwide energy transition many countries have stopped using or use less coal, and the UN
Secretary General has asked governments to stop building new coal plants by 2020.
The largest consumer and importer of coal is China. China mines almost half the world's coal,
followed by India with about a tenth. Australia accounts for about a third of world coal exports
followed by Indonesia and Russia.
Types
As geological processes apply pressure to dead biotic material over time, under suitable
conditions, its metamorphic grade or rank increases successively into:

Peat, a precursor of coal

Lignite, or brown coal, the lowest rank of coal, most harmful to health, used almost exclusively
as fuel for electric power generation

Jet, a compact form of lignite, sometimes polished; used as an ornamental stone since the Upper
Palaeolithic

Sub-bituminous coal, whose properties range between those of lignite and those of bituminous
coal, is used primarily as fuel for steam-electric power generation.

Bituminous coal, a dense sedimentary rock, usually black, but sometimes dark brown, often
with well-defined bands of bright and dull material It is used primarily as fuel in steam-electric
power generation and to make coke.

Anthracite, the highest rank of coal is a harder, glossy black coal used primarily for residential
and commercial space heating.

Graphite is difficult to ignite and not commonly used as fuel; it is most used in pencils, or
powdered for lubrication.
Cannel coal (sometimes called "candle coal") is a variety of fine-grained, high-rank coal with
significant hydrogen content, which consists primarily of liptinite.
There are several international standards for coal. The classification of coal is generally based on
the content of volatiles. However the most important distinction is between thermal coal (also
known as steam coal), which is burnt to generate electricity via steam; and metallurgical coal
(also known as coking coal), which is burnt at high temperature to make steel
Natural Gas
(Also called fossil gas) is a naturally occurring hydrocarbon gas mixture consisting primarily of
methane, but commonly including varying amounts of other higher alkenes, and sometimes a
small percentage of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide, or helium. It is formed when
layers of decomposing plant and animal matter are exposed to intense heat and pressure under
the surface of the Earth over millions of years. The energy that the plants originally obtained
from the sun is stored in the form of chemical bonds in the gas.
Natural gas is a non-renewable hydrocarbon used as a source of energy for heating, cooking, and
electricity generation. It is also used as a fuel for vehicles and as a chemical feedstock in the
manufacture of plastics and other commercially important organic chemicals.
Natural gas is a major cause of climate change, both in itself when leaked and also due to the
carbon dioxide it produces when burned.
Natural gas is found in deep underground rock formations or associated with other hydrocarbon
reservoirs in coal beds and as methane clathrates. Petroleum is another resource and fossil fuel
found in close proximity to and with natural gas. Most natural gas was created over time by two
mechanisms: biogenic and thermogenic. Biogenic gas is created by methanogenic organisms in
marshes, bogs, landfills, and shallow sediments. Deeper in the earth, at greater temperature and
pressure, thermogenic gas is created from buried organic material.
In petroleum production gas is sometimes burned as flare gas. Before natural gas can be used as
a fuel, most, but not all, must be processed to remove impurities, including water, to meet the
specifications of marketable natural gas. The by-products of this processing include: ethane,
propane, butanes, pentanes, and higher molecular weight hydrocarbons, hydrogen sulfide (which
may be converted into pure sulfur), carbon dioxide, water vapor, and sometimes helium and
nitrogen.
Natural gas is sometimes informally referred to simply as "gas", especially when compared to
other energy sources such as oil or coal. However, it is not to be confused with gasoline,
especially in North America, where the term gasoline is often shortened in colloquial usage to
gas.

Chapter 5: Ecosystem Service

Concept and Categories
There are the many and varied benefits that humans freely gain from the natural environment and
from properly-functioning ecosystems. Such ecosystems include, for example, agro
ecosystems, forest ecosystems, grassland ecosystems and aquatic ecosystems. These ecosystems
functioning properly provide such things like agricultural produce, timber, and aquatic organisms
such as fishes and crabs. Collectively, these benefits are becoming known as 'ecosystem
services', and are often integral to the provisioning of clean drinking water, the decomposition of
wastes, and the natural pollination of crops and other Plants.

While scientists and environmentalists have discussed ecosystem services implicitly for decades,

the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) in the early 2000s popularized this concept. There,
ecosystem services are grouped into four broad categories: provisioning, such as the production
of food and water; regulating, such as the control of climate and disease; supporting, such
as nutrient cycles and oxygen production; and cultural, such as spiritual and recreational
benefits. To help inform decision-makers, many ecosystem services are being assigned economic
values.
Definition
Per the 2006 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), ecosystem services are "the benefits
people obtain from ecosystems". The MA also delineated the four categories of ecosystem
services—supporting, provisioning, regulating and cultural—discussed below.
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) report 2005 defines Ecosystem services as
benefits people obtain from ecosystems and distinguishes four categories of ecosystem services,
where the so-called supporting services are regarded as the basis for the services of the other
three categories.
Supporting Services
These include services such as:
 Nutrient cycling, 
Primary production,
Soil formation, 
Habitat provision and
 Pollination.
These services make it possible for the ecosystems to continue providing services such as food
supply, flood regulation, and water purification.
Provisioning Services

 food (including seafood and game), crops, wild foods, and spices

 raw materials (including lumber, skins, fuel wood, organic matter, fodder, and fertilizer)
 genetic resources (including crop improvement genes, and health care)
 water
 biogenic minerals
 medicinal resources (including pharmaceuticals, chemical models, and test and assay
organisms)
 energy (hydropower, biomass fuels)
 ornamental resources (including fashion, handicraft, jewelry, pets, worship, decoration
and souvenirs like furs, feathers, ivory, orchids, butterflies, aquarium fish, shells, etc.)

Regulating Services

 Carbon sequestration and climate regulation

 Predation regulates prey populations
 Waste decomposition and detoxification
 Purification of water and air
 pest and disease control

Cultural Services

 Cultural (including use of nature as motif in books, film, painting, folklore, national
symbols, architect, advertising, etc.)
 spiritual and historical (including use of nature for religious or heritage value or natural)
 recreational experiences (including ecotourism, outdoor sports, and recreation)
 science and education (including use of natural systems for school excursions,
and scientific discovery)
 Therapeutic (including Ecotherapy, social forestry and animal assisted therapy)

Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES)

It also known as payments for environmental services (or benefits), are incentives offered to

farmers or landowners in exchange for managing their land to provide some sort of ecological
service. They have been defined as "a transparent system for the additional provision of
environmental services through conditional payments to voluntary providers". These
programmes promote the conservation of natural resources in the marketplace.
Ecosystem services have no standardized definition but might broadly be called "the benefits of
nature to households, communities, and economies" or, more simply, "the good things nature
does”. Twenty-four specific ecosystem services were identified and assessed by the Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment, a 2005 UN-sponsored report designed to assess the state of the world's
ecosystems. Notably, however, there is a "big three" among these 24 services which are currently
receiving the most money and interest worldwide. These are climate change mitigation,
watershed services and biodiversity conservation, and demand for these services in particular is
predicted to continue to grow as time goes on. One seminal 1997 Nature magazine article
estimated the annual value of global ecological benefits at $33 trillion, a number nearly twice the
gross global product at the time.
PES in Nepal: Some Examples
Nepal has a very recent history of PES implementation. PES piloting first started nearly a decade
ago (2006) by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Nepal at Shivapuri
National Park focusing on investigating delivery of ecosystem economic benefits for upland
livelihoods and downstream water resources. Afterwards, it started gaining momentum in Nepal
as an effort of conservation partners and international agencies.
Most popular PES scheme is at Kulekhani watershed area, which focused on promoting
sustainable natural resource management and alleviating poverty among poor upland
communities through transfer payment on use of environment services.
World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is working in Phewa watershed for establishing PES mechanism.

Multi-Stakeholder Forestry Programme (MSFP) of government intends bring management of

100% of community managed forests, 50% of government managed forests and 50% of private
managed forests under the PES mechanism (MSFP, 2011). MSFP is also supportingfor
implementing PES at the local level. This shows high growth prospects of PES in Nepal.

Carbon Sequestration

Carbon sequestration is the process involved in carbon capture and the long-term storage of
atmospheric carbon dioxide or other forms of carbon to mitigate or defer global warming. It has
been proposed as a way to slow the atmospheric and marine accumulation of greenhouse gases,
which are released by burning fossil fuels.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is naturally captured from the atmosphere through biological, chemical,
and physical processes. Artificial processes have been devised to produce similar effects,
including large-scale, artificial capture and sequestration of industrially produced CO2 using
subsurface saline aquifers, reservoirs, ocean water, aging oil fields, or other carbon sinks.

Carbon sequestration is the process involved in carbon capture and the long-term storage of
atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and may refer specifically to:
 "The process of removing carbon from the atmosphere and depositing it in a reservoir."
When carried out deliberately, this may also be referred to as carbon dioxide removal,
which is a form of geo engineering.
 Carbon capture and storage, where carbon dioxide is removed from flue gases (e.g., at
power stations) before being stored in underground reservoirs.
  Natural biogeochemical cycling of carbon between the atmosphere and reservoirs, such
as by chemical weathering of rocks.

Carbon dioxide may be captured as a pure by-product in processes related to petroleum refining
or from flue gases from power generation. CO2 sequestration includes the storage part of carbon
capture and storage, which refers to large-scale, artificial capture and sequestration of
industrially, produced CO2 using subsurface saline aquifers, reservoirs, ocean water, aging oil
fields, or other carbon sinks.

Carbon sequestration describes long-term storage of carbon dioxide or other forms of carbon to
either mitigate or defer global warming and avoid dangerous climate change. It has been
proposed as a way to slow the atmospheric and marine accumulation of greenhouse gases, which
are released by burning fossil fuels.

Carbon dioxide is naturally captured from the atmosphere through biological, chemical or
physical processes. Some artificial sequestration techniques exploit these natural processes,
while some use entirely artificial processes.

Biological Processes

Bio sequestration or carbon sequestration through biological processes affects the global carbon
cycle.

1 Peat production

Peat bogs act as a sink for carbon due to the accumulation of partially decayed biomass that
would otherwise continue to decay completely. There is a variance on how much the peatlands
act as a carbon sink or carbon source that can be linked to varying climates in different areas of
the world and different times of the year. By creating new bogs, or enhancing existing ones, the
amount of carbon that is sequestered by bogs would increase.

2 Forestry

Reforestation is the replanting of trees on marginal crop and pasture lands to incorporate carbon
from atmospheric CO2 into biomass. For this process to succeed the carbon must not return to the
atmosphere from mass burning or rotting when the trees die. To this end, land allotted to the
trees must not be converted to other uses and management of the frequency of disturbances
might be necessary in order to avoid extreme events. Alternatively, the wood from them must
itself be sequestered, e.g., via bio char, bio-energy with carbon storage (BECS), landfill or
'stored' by use in e.g. construction. Short of growth in perpetuity, however, reforestation with
long-lived trees (>100 years) will sequester carbon for a more graduated release, minimizing
impact during the expected carbon crisis of the 21st century.
3 Urban forestry

Urban forestry increases the amount of carbon taken up in cities by adding new tree sites and the
sequestration of carbon occurs over the lifetime of the tree. It is generally practiced and
maintained on smaller scales, like in cities. The results of urban forestry can have different
results depending on the type of vegetation that is being used, so it can function as a sink but can
also function as a source of emissions. Along with sequestration by the plants which is difficult
to measure but seems to have little effect on the overall amount of carbon dioxide that is up
taken, the vegetation can have indirect effects on carbon by reducing need for energy
consumption.

4 Wetland restoration

Wetland soil is an important carbon sink; 14.5% of the world's soil carbon is found in wetlands,
while only 6% of the world's land is composed of wetlands.

5 Agriculture

Compared to natural vegetation, cropland soils are depleted in soil organic carbon (SOC). When
a soil is converted from natural land or semi natural land, such as forests, woodlands, grasslands,
steppes and savannas, the SOC content in the soil reduces with about 30–40%. This loss is due to
the removal of plant material containing carbon, in terms of harvests. When the land use
changes, the carbon in the soil will either increase or decrease, this change will continue until the
soil reaches a new equilibrium. Deviations from this equilibrium can also be affected by variated
climate. The decreasing of SOC content can be counteracted by increasing the carbon input, this
can be done with several strategies, e.g. leave harvest residues on the field, use manure as
fertilizer or include perennial crops in the rotation. Perennial crops have larger below ground
biomass fraction, which increases the SOC content. Globally, soils are estimated to contain
approximately 1,500 gigatons of organic carbon to 1 m depth, more than the amount in
vegetation and the atmosphere.

6. Deep soil

Soils hold four times the amount of carbon stored in the atmosphere. About half of this is found
deep within soils. About 90% of this deep soil C is stabilized by mineral-organic associations.

Role of Forest in Carbon Sequestration

The increase in greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere is considered
to be one of the main causes of global warming. Human activity is releasing vast amounts of
carbon dioxide, principally through the burning of fossil fuels to power industry, transport,
heating etc. Land-use changes such as the unsustainable exploitation and destruction of tropical
forests are also having an impact.

Trees and woodlands play an important role in the removal of carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere. Through the biochemical process of photosynthesis carbon dioxide is taken in by
trees and stored as carbon in the trunk, branches, leaves and roots. Carbon is also stored in the
soil and indeed this is a major sink for carbon in the forest. Decay of the organic material
eventually releases the CO2 back to the atmosphere, and providing the forests are sustainably
managed, it is taken up by replacement trees, thereby maintaining a balance in the carbon budget.
The release of CO2, however, can be delayed through the harvesting of trees as they mature if
the wood is used for construction, furniture and other end uses that prolong its life.

Sustainable forestry is positively contributing to the carbon sequestration and is an important

management tool is combating climate change. International agreements to regulate carbon
emissions such as the Kyoto Protocol recognise the importance of forests as carbon sinks.  The
area of forest this is taken into account when deriving national targets for allowable emissions.

Measurement of Soil Carbon Stock

The carbon stock in a forest ecosystem can be broadly categorized into biotic (vegetative carbon)
and pedologic (soil carbon) components. As trees grow, they sequester carbon in their tissues,
and as the amount of tree biomass increases, the atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) is mitigated.

Where is carbon stored?

Carbon (C) is stored in five different pools: (1) aboveground biomass; (2) belowground biomass;
(3) litter; (4) deadwood/woody debris; and (5) soil

CONVERT TREE BIOMASS TO CARBON EQUIVALENT.

Carbon Trade

An emission trading (also known as cap and trade) is a market-based approach to controlling
pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of
pollutants.
A central authority (usually a governmental body) allocates or sells a limited number of permits
to discharge specific quantities of a specific pollutant per time period. Polluters are required to
hold permits in amount equal to their emissions. Polluters that want to increase their emissions
must buy permits from others willing to sell them. Financial derivatives of permits can also be
traded on secondary markets.
Cap and trade (CAT) programs are a type of flexible environmental regulation that allows
organizations and markets to decide how best to meet policy targets. This is in contrast to
command-and-control environmental regulations (such as best available technology (BAT)
standards and government subsidies).
Pollution is a prime example of a market externality. An externality is an effect of some activity
on an entity (such as a person) that is not party to a market transaction related to that activity. An
emission trading is a market-based approach to address pollution. The overall goal of an
emissions trading plan is to minimize the cost of meeting a set emissions target.
Carbon emissions trading is a form of emissions trading that specifically targets carbon dioxide
(calculated in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent or tCO 2e) and it currently constitutes the bulk
of emissions trading.
This form of permit trading is a common method countries utilize in order to meet their
obligations specified by the Kyoto Protocol; namely the reduction of carbon emissions in an
attempt to reduce (mitigate) future climate change.
Under Carbon trading, a country or a polluter having more emissions of carbon is able to
purchase the right to emit more and the country or entity having fewer emissions sells the right to
emit carbon to other countries or entities. The countries or polluting entities emitting more
carbon thereby satisfy their carbon emission requirements, and the trading market results in the
most cost-effective carbon reduction methods being exploited first. For any given expenditure on
carbon reduction, the market mechanism will result in the greatest reduction

REDD and REDD+

Reducing Emissions From Deforestation And Forest Degradation And The Role Of
Conservation, Sustainable Management Of Forests And Enhancement Of Forest Carbon Stocks
In Developing Countries (REDD+) was first negotiated under the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2005, with the objective of mitigating climate
change through reducing net emissions of greenhouse gases through enhanced forest
management in developing countries. Most of the key REDD+ decisions were completed by
2013, with the final pieces of the rulebook finished in 2015.

REDD
REDD was first discussed in 2005 by the UNFCCC at its 11th session of the Conference of the
Parties to the Convention (COP) at the request of Costa Rica and Papua New Guinea, on behalf
of the Coalition for Rainforest Nations, when they submitted the document "Reducing Emissions
from Deforestation in Developing Countries: Approaches to Stimulate Action", with a request to
create an agenda item to discuss consideration of reducing emissions from deforestation and
forest degradation in natural forests as a mitigation measure. COP 11 entered the request to
consider the document as agenda item 6: Reducing Emissions from Deforestation in Developing
Countries: Approaches to Stimulate Action.
REDD+
Bali Action Plan
REDD received substantial attention from the UNFCCC – and the attending community – at
COP 13, December 2007, where the first substantial decision on REDD+ was adopted, Decision
2/CP.13: "Reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries: approaches to
stimulate action", calling for demonstration activities to be reported upon two years later and
assessment of drivers of deforestation. REDD+ was also referenced in decision 1/CP.13, the
"Bali Action Plan", with reference to all five eligible activities for REDD+ (with sustainable
management of forests, conservation of forest carbon stocks and enhancement of forest carbon
stocks constituting the "+" in REDD+).
The call for demonstration activities in decision 2/CP.13 led to a very large number of programs
and projects, including the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) of the World Bank, the
UN-REDD Program, and a flurry of smaller projects financed by the Norwegian International
Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI), the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany,
among many others. All of these were based on substantive guidance from the UNFCCC.
All things considered, there should be no confusion on the formal name(s):

 REDD originally referred to "reducing emissions from deforestation in developing

countries" the title of the original document on REDD . It was superseded in the negotiations
by REDD+
 REDD+ (or REDD-plus) refers to "reducing emissions from deforestation and forest
degradation in developing countries, and the role of conservation, sustainable management
of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries" (emphasis
added); the most recent, elaborated terminology used by the COP

However, the commonly used name outside of the UNFCCC seems to have stuck, perhaps not
surprisingly seeing that the second title is quite unwieldy.
Main Elements of REDD+
As an approach under the multi-lateral climate change agreement, REDD+ is essentially a
vehicle to encourage developing countries to reduce emissions and enhance removals of
greenhouse gases through a variety of forest management options, and to provide technical and
financial support for these efforts. As with other approaches under the UNFCCC, there are few
prescriptions that specifically mandate how to implement the mechanism at national level; the
principles of national sovereignty and subsidiarity imply that the UNFCCC can only provide
guidelines for implementation, and require that reports are submitted in a certain format and
open for review by the Convention. There are certain aspects that go beyond this basic
philosophy – such as the so-called safeguards, explained in more detail below – but in essence
REDD+ is no more than a set of guidelines on how to report on forest resources and forest
management strategies and their results in terms of reducing emissions and enhancing removals
of greenhouse gases. However, a set of requirements has been elaborated to ensure that REDD+
programs contain key elements and that reports from Parties are consistent and comparable and
that their content are open to review and in function of the objectives of the Convention.
Decision 1/CP 16 requests all developing countries aiming to undertake REDD+ to develop the
following elements:
(a) A national strategy or action plan;
(b) A national forest reference emission level and/or forest reference level or, if appropriate, as
an interim measure, subnational forest reference emission levels and/or forest reference levels
(c) A robust and transparent national forest monitoring system for the monitoring and reporting
on REDD+ activities (see below), with, if appropriate, subnational monitoring and reporting as
an interim measure
(d) A system for providing information on how the social and environmental safeguards
(included in an appendix to the decision) are being addressed and respected throughout the
implementation of REDD+
It further requests developing countries, when developing and implementing their national
REDD+ strategies or action plans, to address, among other issues, the drivers of deforestation
and forest degradation, land tenure issues, forest governance issues, gender considerations and
the social and environmental safeguards, ensuring the full and effective participation of relevant
stakeholders, inter alia indigenous peoples and local communities;
REDD+ As A Climate Change Mitigation Measure
Deforestation and forest degradation account for 17-29% of global greenhouse gas emissions, the
reduction of which is estimated to be one of the most cost-efficient climate change mitigation
strategies. Regeneration of forest on degraded or deforested lands can remove CO₂ from the
atmosphere through the build-up of biomass, making forest lands a sink of greenhouse gases.
The REDD+ mechanism addresses both issues of emission reduction and enhanced removal of
greenhouse gases.
Reducing Emission
Emissions of greenhouse gases from forest land can be reduced by slowing down the rates of
deforestation and forest degradation, obviously covered by the first two of the REDD+ eligible
activities. Another option would be some form of reduced impact logging in commercial
logging, under the REDD+ eligible activity of sustainable management of forests.
Enhancing Removals
Removals of greenhouse gases (specifically CO₂) from the atmosphere can be achieved through
various forest management options, such as replanting degraded or deforested areas or
enrichment planting, but also by letting forest land regenerate naturally. Care must be taken to
differentiate between what is a purely ecological process of regrowth and what is induced or
enhanced through some management intervention.
REDD+ and the Carbon Market
In 2009, at COP-15 in Copenhagen, the Copenhagen Accord was reached, noting in section 6 the
recognition of the crucial role of REDD and REDD+ and the need to provide positive incentives
for such actions by enabling the mobilization of financial resources from developed countries.
The Accord goes on to note in section 8 that the collective commitment by developed countries
for new and additional resources, including forestry and investments through international
institutions, will approach USD 30 billion for the period 2010 - 2012.
Implementing REDD+
Decision 1/CP.16, paragraph 73, suggests that national capacity for implementing REDD+ is
built up in phases, "beginning with the development of national strategies or action plans,
policies and measures, and capacity-building, followed by the implementation of national
policies and measures and national strategies or action plans that could involve further capacity-
building, technology development and transfer and results-based demonstration activities, and
evolving into results-based actions that should be fully measured, reported and verified". The
initial phase of the development of national strategies and action plans and capacity building is
typically referred to as the "Readiness phase" (a term like Reddiness is also encountered).
There are a very substantial number of REDD+ projects globally and this section lists only a
selection. One of the more comprehensive online tools with up-to-date information on REDD+
projects is the Voluntary REDD+ Database.
Watershed Services

A drainage basin is any area of land where precipitation collects and drains off into a common
outlet, such as into a river, bay, or other body of water. The drainage basin includes all the
surface water from rain runoff, snowmelt, and nearby streams that run downslope towards the
shared outlet, as well as the groundwater underneath the earth's surface. Drainage basins connect
into other drainage basins at lower elevations in a hierarchical pattern, with smaller sub-
drainage basins, which in turn drain into another common outlet.
Other terms used interchangeably with drainage basin are catchment area, catchment basin,
drainage area, river basin, water basin, and impluvium.
The drainage basin acts as a funnel by collecting all the water within the area covered by the
basin and channelling it to a single point. Each drainage basin is separated topographically from
adjacent basins by a perimeter, the drainage divide, making up a succession of higher
geographical features (such as a ridge, hill or mountains) forming a barrier.
Drainage basins are similar but not identical to hydrologic units, which are drainage areas
delineated so as to nest into a multi-level hierarchical drainage system. Hydrologic units are
defined to allow multiple inlets, outlets, or sinks. In a strict sense, all drainage basins are
hydrologic units but not all hydrologic units are drainage basins.
Importance

Geopolitical Boundaries
Drainage basins have been historically important for determining territorial boundaries,
particularly in regions where trade by water has been important.
Hydrology
In hydrology, the drainage basin is a logical unit of focus for studying the movement of water
within the hydrological cycle, because the majority of water that discharges from the basin outlet
originated as precipitation falling on the basin. A portion of the water that enters the groundwater
system beneath the drainage basin may flow towards the outlet of another drainage basin because
groundwater flow directions do not always match those of their overlying drainage network.
Measurement of the discharge of water from a basin may be made by a stream gauge located at
the basin's outlet.
Geomorphology
Drainage basins are the principal hydrologic unit considered in fluvial geomorphology. A
drainage basin is the source for water and sediment that moves from higher elevation through the
river system to lower elevations as they reshape the channel forms.
Ecology
Drainage basins are important in ecology. As water flows over the ground and along rivers it can
pick up nutrients, sediment, and pollutants. With the water, they are transported towards the
outlet of the basin, and can affect the ecological processes along the way as well as in the
receiving water source.
Modern use of artificial fertilizers, containing nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, has affected
the mouths of drainage basins. The minerals are carried by the drainage basin to the mouth, and
may accumulate there, disturbing the natural mineral balance. This can cause eutrophication
where plant growth is accelerated by the additional material.
Resource Management
Because drainage basins are coherent entities in a hydro-logical sense, it has become common to
manage water resources on the basis of individual basins.
When a river basin crosses at least one political border, either a border within a nation or an
international boundary, it is identified as a transboundary river. Management of such basins
becomes the responsibility of the countries sharing it.
Management of shared drainage basins is also seen as a way to build lasting peaceful
relationships among countries

Define the Chure landscape, taking ecosystem services as a basis of upstream and downstream
linkages: There taking ecosystem services as a basis of upstream and downstream linkages:

is a need to define the Chure landscape or zoning with consideration

of the supply and demand of the ecosystem
services between upstream and downstream areas. The potential
ecosystem services could include groundwater
recharge and flood mitigation. It remains to be seen if the newly
created Rastrapati Chure-Tarai Madesh
Conservation Development Board will indeed expand coverage of the
Chure and consider Chure-Bhabar and Tarai
as one landscape, as its name suggests. In general, there is a need to
demarcate and define the Chure region by
taking its ecological functions into account.

is a need to define the Chure landscape or zoning with consideration

of the supply and demand of the ecosystem
services between upstream and downstream areas. The potential
ecosystem services could include groundwater
recharge and flood mitigation. It remains to be seen if the newly
created Rastrapati Chure-Tarai Madesh
Conservation Development Board will indeed expand coverage of the
Chure and consider Chure-Bhabar and Tarai
as one landscape, as its name suggests. In general, there is a need to
demarcate and define the Chure region by
taking its ecological functions into account

Chapter 6: Natural Resource Management

Natural Resources-Concept and Category

Natural resources are resources that exist without actions of humankind. This includes all valued
characteristics such as magnetic, gravitational, electrical properties and forces etc. On Earth it
includes sunlight, atmosphere, water, land (includes all minerals) along with all vegetation, crops
and animal life that naturally subsists upon or within the heretofore identified characteristics and
substances.

There are various methods of categorizing natural resources, these include source of origin, stage
of development, and by their renewability.
On the basis of origin, natural resources may be divided into two types:

Biotic — Biotic resources are obtained from the biosphere (living and organic material), such as
forests and animals, and the materials that can be obtained from them. Fossil fuels such as coal
and petroleum are also included in this category because they are formed from decayed organic
matter.

Abiotic – Abiotic resources are those that come from non-living, non-organic material.
Examples of abiotic resources include land, fresh water, air, rare earth metals and heavy metals
including ores, such as, gold, iron, copper, silver, etc.
Considering their stage of development, natural resources may be referred to in the following
ways:

Potential Resources — Potential resources are those that may be used in the future—for
example, petroleum in sedimentary rocks that, until drilled out and put to use remains a potential
resource
Actual Resources — Those resources that have been surveyed, quantified and qualified and, are
currently used—development, such as wood processing, depends on technology and cost

Reserve Resources — The part of an actual resource that can be developed profitably in the
future

Stock Resources — Those that have been surveyed, but cannot be used due to lack of
technology—for example, hydrogen
Many natural resources can be categorized as either renewable or non-renewable:

Renewable Resources — Renewable resources can be replenished naturally. Some of these

resources, like sunlight, air, wind, water, etc. are continuously available and their quantities are
not noticeably affected by human consumption. Though many renewable resources do not have
such a rapid recovery rate, these resources are susceptible to depletion by over-use. Resources
from a human use perspective are classified as renewable so long as the rate of
replenishment/recovery exceeds that of the rate of consumption. They replenish easily compared
to Non-renewable resources.

Non-Renewable Resources – Non-renewable resources either form slowly or do not naturally

form in the environment. Minerals are the most common resource included in this category. By
the human perspective, resources are non-renewable when their rate of consumption exceeds the
rate of replenishment/recovery; a good example of this are fossil fuels, which are in this category
because their rate of formation is extremely slow (potentially millions of years), meaning they
are considered non-renewable. Some resources actually naturally deplete in amount without
human interference, the most notable of these being radio-active elements such as uranium,
which naturally decay into heavy metals. Of these, the metallic minerals can be re-used by
recycling them, but coal and petroleum cannot be recycled. Once they are completely used they
take millions of years to replenish.

Extraction
Resource extraction involves any activity that withdraws resources from nature. This can range
in scale from the traditional use of preindustrial societies, to global industry. Extractive
industries are, along with agriculture, the basis of the primary sector of the economy. Extraction
produces raw material, which is then processed to add value. Examples of extractive industries
are hunting, trapping, mining, oil and gas drilling, and forestry.
Depletion
In recent years, the depletion of natural resources has become a major focus of governments and
organizations such as the United Nations (UN). This is evident in the UN's Agenda 21 Section
Two, which outlines the necessary steps for countries to take to sustain their natural resources.
The depletion of natural resources is considered a sustainable development issue. The term
sustainable development has many interpretations, most notably the Brundtland Commission's 'to
ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs', however in broad terms it is balancing the needs of the
planet's people and species now and in the future. In regards to natural resources, depletion is of
concern for sustainable development as it has the ability to degrade current environments and
potential to impact the needs of future generations.

Natural Resource Management

It refers to the management of natural resources such as land, water, soil, plants and animals,
with a particular focus on how management affects the quality of life for both present and future
generations (stewardship).
Natural resource management deals with managing the way in which people and natural
landscapes interact. It brings together land use planning, water management, biodiversity
conservation, and the future sustainability of industries like agriculture, mining, tourism,
fisheries and forestry. It recognizes that people and their livelihoods rely on the health and
productivity of our landscapes, and their actions as stewards of the land play a critical role in
maintaining this health and productivity.
Natural resource management specifically focuses on a scientific and technical understanding of
resources and ecology and the life-supporting capacity of those resources. Environmental
management is also similar to natural resource management. In academic contexts, the sociology
of natural resources is closely related to, but distinct from, natural resource management.
Ownership Regimes
Natural resource management approaches can be categorized according to the kind and right of
stakeholders, natural resources:
State Property: Ownership and control over the use of resources is in hands of the state.
Individuals or groups may be able to make use of the resources, but only at the permission of the
state. National forest, National parks and military reservations are some US examples.

Private Property: Any property owned by a defined individual or corporate entity. Both the
benefit and duties to the resources fall to the owner(s). Private land is the most common
example.

Common Property: It is a private property of a group. The group may vary in size, nature and
internal structure e.g. indigenous neighbors’ of village. Some examples of common property are
community forests.

Non-Property (open access): There is no definite owner of these properties. Each potential user
has equal ability to use it as they wish. These areas are the most exploited. It is said that
"Everybody's property is nobody's property". An example is a lake fishery. Common land may
exist without ownership, in which case in the UK it is vested in a local authority.

Hybrid: Many ownership regimes governing natural resources will contain parts of more than
one of the regimes described above, so natural resource managers need to consider the impact of
hybrid regimes. An example of such a hybrid is native vegetation management in NSW,
Australia, where legislation recognizes a public interest in the preservation of native vegetation,
but where most native vegetation exists on private land.

Management of Resources
Natural resource management issues are inherently complex. They involve the ecological cycles,
hydrological cycles, climate, animals, plants and geography, etc. All these are dynamic and inter-
related. A change in one of them may have far reaching and/or long term impacts which may
even be irreversible. In addition to the natural systems, natural resource management also has to
manage various stakeholders and their interests, policies, politics, geographical boundaries,
economic implications and the list goes on. It is a very difficult to satisfy all aspects at the same
time. This results in conflicting situations.
After the United Nations Conference for the Environment and Development (UNCED) held in
Rio de Janeiro in 1992, most nations subscribed to new principles for the integrated management
of land, water, and forests. Although program names vary from nation to nation, all express
similar aims.
The various approaches applied to natural resource management include:

 Top-down (Command and Control)

 Community-Based Natural Resource Management
 Adaptive Management
 Precautionary Approach
 Integrated Natural Resource Management

Community-Based Natural Resource Management

The community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) approach combines conservation
objectives with the generation of economic benefits for rural communities. The three key
assumptions being that: locals are better placed to conserve natural resources, people will
conserve a resource only if benefits exceed the costs of conservation, and people will conserve a
resource that is linked directly to their quality of life. When a local people's quality of life is
enhanced, their efforts and commitment to ensure the future well-being of the resource are also
enhanced. Regional and community based natural resource management is also based on the
principle of subsidiarity.
The United Nations advocates CBNRM in the Convention on Biodiversity and the Convention to
Combat Desertification. Unless clearly defined, decentralized NRM can result an ambiguous
socio-legal environment with local communities racing to exploit natural resources while they
can e.g. forest communities in central Kalimantan (Indonesia).
A problem of CBNRM is the difficulty of reconciling and harmonizing the objectives of
socioeconomic development, biodiversity protection and sustainable resource utilization. The
concept and conflicting interests of CBNRM, show how the motives behind the participation are
differentiated as either people-centered (active or participatory results that are truly empowering)
or planner-centered (nominal and results in passive recipients). Understanding power relations is
crucial to the success of community based NRM. Locals may be reluctant to challenge
government recommendations for fear of losing promised benefits.
CBNRM is based particularly on advocacy by nongovernmental organizations working with
local groups and communities, on the one hand, and national and transnational organizations, on
the other, to build and extend new versions of environmental and social advocacy that link social
justice and environmental management agendas with both direct and indirect benefits observed
including a share of revenues, employment, diversification of livelihoods and increased pride and
identity. Ecological and societal successes and failures of CBNRM projects have been
documented. CBNRM has raised new challenges, as concepts of community, territory,
conservation, and indigenous are worked into politically varied plans and programs in disparate
sites. Warner and Jones address strategies for effectively managing conflict in CBNRM.

Adaptive Management
The primary methodological approach adopted by catchment management authorities (CMAs)
for regional natural resource management in Australia is adaptive management.
This approach includes recognition that adaption occurs through a process of ‘plan-do-review-
act’. It also recognizes seven key components that should be considered for quality natural
resource management practice:

 Determination of scale
 Collection and use of knowledge
 Information management
 Monitoring and evaluation
 Risk management
 Community engagement
 Opportunities for collaboration.

Integrated Natural Resource Management

Integrated Natural Resource Management (INRM) is a process of managing natural resources in
a systematic way, which includes multiple aspects of natural resource use (biophysical, socio-
political, and economic) meet production goals of producers and other direct users (e.g., food
security, profitability, risk aversion) as well as goals of the wider community (e.g., poverty
alleviation, welfare of future generations, environmental conservation). It focuses on
sustainability and at the same time tries to incorporate all possible stakeholders from the
planning level itself, reducing possible future conflicts. The conceptual basis of INRM has
evolved in recent years through the convergence of research in diverse areas such as sustainable
land use, participatory planning, integrated watershed management, and adaptive management.
INRM is being used extensively and been successful in regional and community based natural
management

Precautionary Biodiversity Management

The "threats" wreaking havoc on biodiversity include; habitat fragmentation, putting a strain on
the already stretched biological resources; forest deterioration and deforestation; the invasion of
"alien species" and "climate change”. Since these threats have received increasing attention from
environmentalists and the public, the precautionary management of biodiversity becomes an
important part of natural resources management. According to Cooney, there are material
measures to carry out precautionary management of biodiversity in natural resource
management.
Concrete "policy tools"
Cooney claims that the policy making is dependent on "evidences", relating to "high standard of
proof", the forbidding of special "activities" and "information and monitoring requirements".
Before making the policy of precaution, categorical evidence is needed. When the potential
menace of "activities" is regarded as a critical and "irreversible" endangerment, these "activities"
should be forbidden. For example, since explosives and toxicants will have serious consequences
to endanger human and natural environment, the South Africa Marine Living Resources Act
promulgated a series of policies on completely forbidding to "catch fish" by using explosives and
toxicants.
Administration and Guidelines
According to Cooney, there are 4 methods to manage the precaution of biodiversity in natural
resources management;

5. "Ecosystem-based management" including "more risk-averse and precautionary

management", where "given prevailing uncertainty regarding ecosystem structure,
function, and inter-specific interactions, precaution demands an ecosystem rather than
single-species approach to management".
6. "Adaptive management" is "a management approach that expressly tackles the
uncertainty and dynamism of complex systems".
7. "Environmental impact assessment" and exposure ratings decrease the "uncertainties" of
precaution, even though it has deficiencies, and
8. "Protectionist approaches", which "most frequently links to" biodiversity conservation in
natural resources management.

Land Management
In order to have a sustainable environment, understanding and using appropriate management
strategies is important. In terms of understanding, Young emphasizes some important points of
land management:

 Comprehending the processes of nature including ecosystem, water, soils

 Using appropriate and adapting management systems in local situations
 Cooperation between scientists who have knowledge and resources and local people who
have knowledge and skills

Dale et al. (2000) study has shown that there are five fundamental and helpful ecological
principles for the land manager and people who need them. The ecological principles relate to
time, place, species, disturbance and the landscape and they interact in many ways. It is
suggested that land managers could follow these guidelines:

 Examine impacts of local decisions in a regional context, and the effects on natural
resources.
 Plan for long-term change and unexpected events.
 Preserve rare landscape elements and associated species.
 Avoid land uses that deplete natural resources.
 Retain large contiguous or connected areas that contain critical habitats.
 Minimize the introduction and spread of non-native species.
 Avoid or compensate for the effects of development on ecological processes.
 Implement land-use and land-management practices that are compatible with the natural
potential of the area.

Role of Plants in Environmental Monitoring

Environmental monitoring describes the processes and activities that need to take place to
characterize and monitor the quality of the environment. Environmental monitoring is used in the
preparation of environmental impact assessments, as well as in many circumstances in which
human activities carry a risk of harmful effects on the natural environment. All monitoring
strategies and programs have reasons and justifications which are often designed to establish the
current status of an environment or to establish trends in environmental parameters. In all cases,
the results of monitoring will be reviewed, analyzed statistically, and published. The design of a
monitoring program must therefore have regard to the final use of the data before monitoring
starts

In ecological monitoring, the monitoring strategy and effort is directed at the plants and animals
in the environment under review and is specific to each individual study.
However, in more generalized environmental monitoring, many animals act as robust indicators
of the quality of the environment that they are experiencing or have experienced in the recent
past. One of the most familiar examples is the monitoring of numbers of Salmonid fish such as
brown trout or Atlantic salmon in river systems and lakes to detect slow trends in adverse
environmental effects. The steep decline in salmonid fish populations was one of the early
indications of the problem that later became known as acid rain.
In recent years much more attention has been given to a more holistic approach in which the
ecosystem health is assessed and used as the monitoring tool itself It is this approach that
underpins the monitoring protocols of the Water Framework Directive in the European Union.
A bioindicator is any species (an indicator species) or group of species whose function,
population, or status can reveal the qualitative status of the environment. For example, copepods
and other small water crustaceans that are present in many water bodies can be monitored for
changes (biochemical, physiological, or behavioural) that may indicate a problem within their
ecosystem. Bioindicators can tell us about the cumulative effects of different pollutants in the
ecosystem and about how long a problem may have been present, which physical and chemical
testing cannot.
A biological monitor or biomonitor is an organism that provides quantitative information on
the quality of the environment around it.Therefore, a good biomonitor will indicate the presence
of the pollutant and can also be used in an attempt to provide additional information about the
amount and intensity of the exposure.
A biological indicator is also the name given to a process for assessing the sterility of an
environment through the use of resistant microorganism strains (eg. Bacillus or Geobacillus).
Biological indicators can be described as the introduction of a highly resistant microorganism to
a given environment before sterilization; tests are conducted to measure the effectiveness of the
sterilization processes. As biological indicators use highly resistant microorganisms, any
sterilization process that renders them inactive will have also killed off more common, weaker
pathogens.
The presence or absence of certain plant or other vegetative life in an ecosystem can provide
important clues about the health of the environment: environmental preservation. There are
several types of plant biomonitors, including mosses, lichens, tree bark, bark pockets, tree rings,
and leaves. Fungi too may be useful as indicators.
Lichens are organisms comprising both fungi and algae. They are found on rocks and tree trunks,
and they respond to environmental changes in forests, including changes in forest structure –
conservation biology, air quality, and climate. The disappearance of lichens in a forest may
indicate environmental stresses, such as high levels of sulfur dioxide, sulfur-based pollutants,
and nitrogen oxides. The composition and total biomass of algal species in aquatic systems serve
as an important metric for organic water pollution and nutrient loading such as nitrogen and
phosphorus. There are genetically engineered organisms that can respond to toxicity levels in the
environment; e.g., a type of genetically engineered grass that grows a different colour if there are
toxins in the soil.

Plant indicators can be helpful to determine local soil, thus it can be decided which crops should
be cultivated in a particular soil and which soil should be left for pasture or other purposes.

Plant indicators are also used to determine optimum use of land resources for forest, pasture, and
agricultural crops.

The heredity and environment both are equally important in the expression of phenotypic
characters. Heredity performs its action through environment. Species differ in their
environmental requirements and establish themselves where conditions are favourable. It is
found that certain species of plants, animals and micro-organisms have one or more specific
requirements which very much limit their distribution.
The occurrence, character and behaviour of a plant are thus indicator of the combined effect of
all factors prevailing in a habitat. Since a plant species or plant community acts as a measure of
environmental conditions, it is referred to as biological indicator or bio-indicator or phyto-
indicator. In other words, plants which indicate some very specific conditions of environment are
called plant indicators.

The knowledge of relationship between plants and ecological factors can be used as an indicator
of environment. Many plants are used as indicators of environment. In a plant community some
plants are dominant and found in abundance. These plants are important indicators because they
bear full impact of habitat. It has been seen, in general, that plant communities are better
indicators than individual plants. Individual plants or plant communities are used to determine
the types of soil and other conditions of the environment. Sometimes these also indicate past or
future conditions of the environment.

The knowledge of plant indicators can be helpful to determine local soil, thus it can be decided
which crops should be cultivated in a particular soil and which soil should be left for pasture or
other purposes. Plant indicators are also used to determine optimum use of land resources for
forest, pasture, and agricultural crops. Many plants also indicate the presence of particular
mineral or metal. So the presence of precious metal can be detected by the growth of the specific
plant in an area.

Characteristic Features of Plant Indicators:

The characteristic features of plant indicators are as follows:
1. On the basis of distribution the indicators may be ‘steno’ species or ‘eury’ species. The ‘steno’
is used to indicate narrow limits of tolerance and ‘eury’ is used to indicate wide limits of
tolerance. A plant may show wide limits of tolerance for certain conditions and narrow limits of
tolerance for other conditions. For example, a plant may be indicator of wide limits of tolerance
for heat but of narrow limits of tolerance for water. Plants with wide limits of tolerance of heat
are called eurythermal and those with narrow limits of tolerance for water are called stenohydric.

2. Plants of large species are better indicator than the plants of small species.

3. Before relying on a single species or group of species as indicators, there should be abundant
field evidence.

4. Numerical relationships between species, population and whole communities often provide
more reliable indicators than single
Different Types of Plant Indicators:
Different types of plant indicators have different roles in different aspects which are described
below:

Plant Indicators for Agriculture:

Many plant indicators decide whether soil is suitable for agriculture or not. The growth of a
particular crop plant is seen under different environmental conditions and if growth is
satisfactory in a particular soil that soil is considered to be suitable for agriculture. For example,
growth of the short grasses indicates that water is less in the soil. A natural growth of tall and
short grasses indicates that soil is fertile and is also suitable for agriculture. Dhawan and Nanda
(1949, 50) and some other workers have recorded plant indicators for different types of soils as
given in Table

Plant Indicators for Pollution:

The use of vegetation as biological indicator of environmental pollution has a long history.
Knowledge of specific resistance to pollutant is of practical significance when plants grow in
industrial or thickly populated areas. Species differ in sensitivity to pollutants. In general, plants
are more sensitive to pollutants than human.

Therefore, plants can be used for the bio-indication of environmental pollution. Sensitive species
can serve as indicators and resistant species as accumulators which collect large amount of
pollutants without damage. Mosses, lichens and some fungi are much sensitive to SO 2 and
halides. Even 1% SO2 concentration is harmful to higher plants. Lichens do not survive in areas
exposed to SO2 for long time.
Many chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides and fossil fuels release toxic substances into the
environment that are taken up by the plants from air, water, and soil. Atmospheric pollutants,
particularly SO2 halides (HF, HCl), Ozone and Peroxi-acetyl-nitrate (PAN) produced from
automobiles; industrial times and strong radiations are dangerous to plants. Harmful substances
that reach plant through the air are SO 2, nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons, dust, and smoke. Plants
growing in water are severely affected by toxic chemicals like cyanide, chlorine, hypochlorate,
phenols, benzyl derivatives and heavy-metal compounds of sewage.
The effects of different kinds of pollution can be determined by the nature of pollutants, their
concentrations and the period of exposure. Under exposure to high concentration, plants suffer
acute injury with externally visible symptoms, such as chlorosis, discolouration, necrosis and
death of entire plant. Besides morphological changes, biochemical, physiological and fine
structural changes also occur in plants.

Pollution damage can be recognized by the accumulation of toxic material in the plant, changes
in pH, reduced or increased activity of certain enzymes, increase in compounds with SH groups
and phenols, lowered ascorbic acid level in the leaves, depression of photosynthesis, stimulation
of respiration, low dry matter production, changes in permeability, disturbances iThe
disturbances in metabolism develop due to chronic injury with irreversible consequences. Plants
show reduced productivity and yield and quality is also lowered. Besides above, the structure of
wood is changed, branches dry out and gradually the trees die. The symptoms of pollution
affected plants are varied and unspecific. A particular pollutant affects different plants in very
different ways and a particular symptom can be produced by a variety of substances. The
influence of external factors (pollutants) on plants depends on the species, state of development
and the organ or tissue involved.

Morphological alteration of a plant and floristic composition of a plant community are

commonly used to indicate changes in the environment. According to Van Haut and Stratmann
(1970), visible plant symptoms are most commonly used to indicate the responses of plants to
pollutants. Jacobson and Hill (1970) have studied the effects of common pollutants on plants.

It is possible that any part of plant body, if it responds specifically or characteristically to any
pollutant, can be used for its indication. Goldstein (1974) emphasized that the number and kind
of biological indicators can be subdivided in order of decreasing biological complexity, such as
organism, organ, tissue, cell, cell-free preparation and enzymatic studies. M.U. Beg (1980) from
Industrial Toxicology Research, Centre, Lucknow has reported the responses of pollutants as a
biological indicator taking several parameters into consideration.

Attempts have been made to use certain structures and functions of plants, such as seed
germination, growth of plant, development of lateral branches, expansion and colour changes in
leaf, flower and fruit formation, discoloration of flower, loss of physiological control, mineral
composition, chemical constituents of cells, enzymatic activity and pollen germination as
indicators of pollution stresses. Important aspects in response to pollution are summarized in
Table.

n water balance, reduced fertility under prolonged exposure.

Seed germination has been used by many workers to monitor pollution responses. Several
growth parameters such as percentage of germination, seedling survival, seedling height,
cotyledonary expansion and fresh and dry weight have been taken as criteria to assess plant
response to a specific pollutant. Phaseolus vulgaris has been grown in smoke-free and smoke-
affected regions by Sorauer (1899).

The toxic effect of thiosulphate has been indicated as germinator inhibition in many plants.
Houstan and Dochinger (1977) have evaluated germination inhibition in relation to pollution by
sulphur dioxide and ozone. The effects of lead, cadmium, NO and CO2 have been studied on
many plants. Besides seed germination, pollen germination in Nicotiana sylvestris has been used
to indicate pollution.
Some plant species are good indicators of pollution. Polygonum, Rheum, Vicia, Phaseolus, and
Capsella have been observed as pollution indicators. According to Brandt (1974), a large number
of plant species are capable of indicating specific contaminants. Generally, the plants response to
pollutants is characteristic rather than specific. Efforts have been made to develop certain plant
strains which can specifically be used as indicator for a particular pollutant.

Stunting of com, sweet potato and rye has been reported due to high toxicity. Reduction in root
length, shoot length, numbers of tillers, leaves; ears and grains in wheat have been reported
under condition of cement dust pollution. Similarly plant height, number of leaves and bolls per
plant are reduced in cotton exposed to particulate pollution. Inhibition of lateral growth of forest
trees is caused by lime stone dust. Pine trees do not flourish in SO 2 polluted areas. It has been
noticed that leaf is the most sensitive organ to pollution.
The pollution indicator value of leaf has been exploited by many workers in response to a variety
of conditions. Leaf injury is a characteristic symptom to various pollutants. The characteristic
symptoms on leaf include pigmentation, chlorosis, yellowing, necrosis etc. The leaves of
dicotyledons generally exhibit spotted markings between the veins while monocotyledons
usually show necrotic streaks between parallel veins. Injury may also occur along the leaf margin
and tip. Symptoms produced by ozone, oxides of nitrogen and chlorine are almost similar.
Reduced expansion of cotyledonary leaves in response to pollution has been observed in several
cases.

Recently epidermal morphology has been studied as indicator of different pollutants especially
SO2. Cuticular and epidermal damage can be used to indicate air pollution. Dry weight of leaf,
decrease in leaf thickness, cell size, loss of leaves and early senescence may be due to smoke and
SO2 pollution. Yunus and Ahmad (1980) have observed that leaves in the polluted area of
cement factory showed higher stomatal and trichome densities, smaller epidermal cells and
trichomes as compared to leaves obtained from unpolluted atmosphere.
Bioengineering

Biological engineering, or bioengineering/bio-engineering, is the application of principles of

biology and the tools of engineering to create usable, tangible, economically viable products.

For slope stabilization and soil erosion control purpose, it is the use of live plants or plants parts
to control soil erosion and the mass movement of land, in order to fulfill engineering functions.
Other terms that have been used to describe this process include: vegetation structures, bio –
technical engineering, vegetative soil conservation, and engineering biology.
 Chapter 7: Environment Impact Assessment
Origin and Development

Environmental Assessment (EA) is the assessment of the environmental consequences (positive

and negative) of a plan, policy, program, or actual projects prior to the decision to move forward
with the proposed action. In this context, the term "Environmental Impact Assessment" (EIA) is
usually used when applied to actual projects by individuals or companies and the term "strategic
environmental assessment" (SEA) applies to policies, plans and programs most often proposed
by organs of state. Environmental assessments may be governed by rules of administrative
procedure regarding public participation and documentation of decision making, and may be
subject to judicial review.
The purpose of the assessment is to ensure that decision makers consider the environmental
impacts when deciding whether or not to proceed with a project. The International Association
for Impact Assessment (IAIA) defines an environmental impact assessment as "the process of
identifying, predicting, evaluating and mitigating the biophysical, social, and other relevant
effects of development proposals prior to major decisions being taken and commitments made".
Environmental impact assessments commenced in the 1960s, as part of increasing environmental
awareness. EIAs involved a technical evaluation intended to contribute to more objective
decision making. In the United States, environmental impact assessments obtained formal status
in 1969, with enactment of the National Environmental Policy Act. EIAs have been used
increasingly around the world.
In Nepal, EIA has been integrated in major development projects since the early 1980s. In the
planning history of Nepal, the sixth plan (1980–85), for the first time, recognized the need for
EIA with the establishment of Environmental Impact Study Project (EISP) under the Department
of Soil Conservation in 1982 to develop necessary instruments for integration of EIA in
infrastructure development projects. However, the government of Nepal enunciated environment
conservation related policies in the seventh plan (NPC, 1985–1990). To enforce this policy and
make necessary arrangements, a series of guidelines were developed, thereby incorporating the
elements of environmental factors right from the project formulation stage of the development
plans and projects and to avoid or minimize adverse effects on the ecological system. In addition,
it has also emphasized that EIAs of industry, tourism, water resources, transportation,
urbanization, agriculture, forest and other developmental projects be conducted.
In Nepal, the government's Environmental Impact Assessment Guideline of 1993 inspired the
enactment of the Environment Protection Act (EPA) of 1997 and the Environment Protection
Rules (EPR) of 1997 (EPA and EPR have been enforced since 24 and 26 June 1997 respectively
in Nepal) to internalizing the environmental assessment system. The process institutionalized the
EIA process in development proposals and enactment, which makes the integration of IEE and
EIA legally binding to the prescribed projects. The projects, requiring EIA or IEE, are included
in Schedules 1 and 2 of the EPR, 1997 (GoN/MoLJPA 1997).

IEE and EIA Process

The way in which an EIA is carried out is not rigid: it is a process comprising a series of steps.
These steps are outlined below and the techniques more commonly used in EIA are described in
some detail in the section Techniques. The main steps in the EIA process are:

• screening
• scoping
• prediction and mitigation
• management and monitoring
• audit

Screening

Screening is the process of deciding on whether an EIA is required. This may be determined by
size (eg greater than a predetermined surface area of irrigated land that would be affected, more
than a certain percentage or flow to be diverted or more than a certain capital expenditure).
Alternatively it may be based on site-specific information. For example, the repair of a recently
destroyed diversion structure is unlikely to require an EIA whilst a major new headwork
structure may. Guidelines for whether or not an EIA is required will be country specific
depending on the laws or norms in operation. Legislation often specifies the criteria for screening
and full EIA. All major donors screen projects presented for financing to decide whether an EIA
is required.

The output from the screening process is often a document called an Initial Environmental
Examination or Evaluation (IEE). The main conclusion will be a classification of the project
according to its likely environmental sensitivity. This will determine whether an EIA is needed
and if so to what detail.

Preliminary Assessment

Carried out in the early stages known as Initial Environmental Examination (IEE).

Detailed Assessment: carried out during project planning and reported as Environmental Impact
Assessment (EIA).

Initial Environmental Examination (IEE)

It is a preliminary environmental evaluation of predictable qualitative and quantitative impact of

a proposed activity on environment. It is the procedure with the help of which to decide whether
the proposed activity caused an undesirable environmental effect that would require preparation
of an EIA. Thus, the IEE is a further detailed investigation into the impact assessment using
information from the scoping process. The IEE examines the issues to assists in the prediction
and judgment of environmental impact in order to identify required mitigation measures.

It is an effort that systematically considers all environmental impacts arising from a proposal and
identifies which impacts need further consideration, and of mitigation measures which reduce the
impacts to an acceptable level. If the IEE discloses impacts that are more significant then an
environmental impact assessment study would have to be conducted.

Alternatives analysis

An EIA process is conducted for a project and its alternatives (e.g. different locations, scales,
designs). Alternatives are the “raw material” of EIA process. The different alternatives can be
clearly assessed to help the decision makers to select the best available option. They are:

1. To approve the same site without change of operation, and design.

2. To change operation, site and/or design and
3. No action option.
Option (iii) is not a practicable option, when donor agencies are interested to invest in an area.
For decision makers they have to select from the two remaining options. It is a difficult decision,
because of non-availability of baseline information in a country like Pakistan.

The decision makers should try their best to utilize the available data for selection of site. It is a
common practice that alternatives are ignored and the only option is to select the site, which is
under consideration. If the alternative site or operation has minimum impact on environment,
then decision makers should use the second option to change the site for the proposed activities.

Scoping

Scoping occurs early in the project cycle at the same time as outline planning and pre-feasibility
studies. Scoping is the process of identifying the key environmental issues and is perhaps the
most important step in an EIA. Several groups, particularly decision makers, the local population
and the scientific community, have an interest in helping to deliberate the issues which should be
considered, and scoping is designed to canvass their views.

Scoping is important for two reasons. First, so that problems can be pinpointed early allowing
mitigating design changes to be made before expensive detailed work is carried out. Second, to
ensure that detailed prediction work is only carried out for important issues. It is not the purpose
of an EIA to carry out exhaustive studies on all environmental impacts for all projects. If key
issues are identified and a full scale EIA considered necessary then the scoping should include
terms of reference for these further studies.

The main EIA techniques used in scoping are baseline studies, checklists, matrices and network
diagrams. These techniques collect and present knowledge and information in a straightforward
way so that logical decisions can be made about which impacts are most significant.
Prediction and Mitigation

Once the scoping exercise is complete and the major impacts to be studied have been identified,
prediction work can start. This stage forms the central part of an EIA. Several major options are
likely to have been proposed either at the scoping stage or before and each option may require
separate prediction studies. Realistic and affordable mitigating measures cannot be proposed
without first estimating the scope of the impacts, which should be in monetary terms wherever
possible. It then becomes important to quantify the impact of the suggested improvements by
further prediction work. Clearly, options need to be discarded as soon as their unsuitability can
be proved or alternatives shown to be superior in environmental or economic terms, or both. It is
also important to test the "without project" scenario.

An important outcome of this stage will be recommendations for mitigating measures. This
would be contained in the Environmental Impact Statement. Clearly the aim will be to introduce
measures which minimize any identified adverse impacts and enhance positive impacts. Formal
and informal communication links need to be established with teams carrying out feasibility
studies so that their work can take proposals into account. Similarly, feasibility studies may
indicate that some options are technically or economically unacceptable and thus environmental
prediction work for these options will not be required.

Many mitigating measures do not define physical changes but require management or
institutional changes or additional investment, such as for health services.

Management and Monitoring

The part of the EIS covering monitoring and management is often referred to as the
Environmental Action Plan or Environmental Management Plan.

The purpose of monitoring is to compare predicted and actual impacts, particularly if the impacts
are either very important or the scale of the impact cannot be very accurately predicted. The
results of monitoring can be used to manage the environment, particularly to highlight problems
early so that action can be taken.

Monitoring should not be seen as an open-ended commitment to collect data. If the need for
monitoring ceases, data collection should cease. Conversely, monitoring may reveal the need for
more intensive study and the institutional infrastructure must be sufficiently flexible to adapt to
changing demands. The information obtained from monitoring and management can be
extremely useful for future EIAs, making them both more accurate and more efficient.

The Environmental Management Plan needs to not only include clear recommendations for
action and the procedures for their implementation but must also define a programme and costs.
It must be quite clear exactly how management and mitigation methods are phased with project
implementation and when costs will be incurred. Mitigation and management measures will not
be adopted unless they can be shown to be practicable and good value for money. The plan
should also stipulate that if, during project implementation, major changes are introduced, or if
the project is aborted, the EIA procedures will be re-started to evaluate the effect of such actions.
Auditing

In order to capitalise on the experience and knowledge gained, the last stage of an EIA is to carry
out an Environmental Audit some time after completion of the project or implementation of a
programme. It will therefore usually be done by a separate team of specialists to that working on
the bulk of the EIA. The audit should include an analysis of the technical, procedural and
decision-making aspects of the EIA. Technical aspects include: the adequacy of the baseline
studies, the accuracy of predictions and the suitability of mitigation measures. Procedural aspects
include: the efficiency of the procedure, the fairness of the public involvement measures and the
degree of coordination of roles and responsibilities. Decision-making aspects include: the utility
of the process for decision making and the implications for development, (adapted from Sadler in
Wathern, 1988). The audit will determine whether recommendations and requirements made by
the earlier EIA steps were incorporated successfully into project implementation. Lessons learnt
and formally described in an audit can greatly assist in future EIAs and build up the expertise
and efficiency of the concerned institutions.

Public participation

Projects or programmes have significant impacts on the local population. Whilst the aim is to
improve the well being of the population, a lack of understanding of the people and their society
may result in development that has considerable negative consequences. More significantly,
there may be divergence between national economic interests and those of the local population.
For example, the need to increase local rice production to satisfy increasing consumption in the
urban area may differ from the needs as perceived by the local farmers. To allow for this, public
participation in the planning process is essential. The EIA provides an ideal forum for checking
that the affected public has been adequately consulted and their views taken into account in
project preparation.

Baseline studies

Baseline studies using available data and local knowledge will be required for scoping. Once key
issues have been identified, the need for further in-depth studies can be clearly identified and any
additional data collection initiated. The ICID Check-list will be found useful to define both
coarse information required for scoping and further baseline studies required for prediction and
monitoring. Specialists, preferably with local knowledge, will be needed in each key area
identified. They will need to define further data collection, to ensure that it is efficient and
targeted to answer specific questions, and to quantify impacts. A full year of baseline data is
desirable to capture seasonal effects of many environmental phenomena. However, to avoid
delay in decision making, short-term data monitoring should be undertaken in parallel with long-
term collection to provide conservative estimates of environmental impacts.

Mitigation

The next phase of EIA process is to propose measures to minimize, prevent or to compensate
those who affected by developmental projects.
When significant impacts are identified in the construction or operation phases of a project, then
collaboration is essential between project designer and Environmental impact Assessment (EIA)
team to see if change in design can mitigate the problem. There is a number of alternatives
available to check which one will be suitable like:

 Change in planning/ design

 Improved monitoring and management practices
 Compensation to be effected by project activity and
 Replacement, relocation, rehabilitation.
Alternative options can be used if adverse impact is identified and difficult to mitigate within
available resources. It is the responsibility of proponent to clearly mentioned impact assessment
and its commitment to use mitigation measures.

Case Study Example

Chapter 8: Environmental Affaires
Environmental Organization

An environmental organization is an organization coming out of the conservation or

environmental movements that seek to protect, analyse or monitor the environment against
misuse or degradation from human forces.
In this sense the environment may refer to the biophysical environment, the natural environment
or the built environment. The organization may be a charity, a trust, a non-governmental
organization or a government organization. Environmental organizations can be global, national,
regional or local.
Worldwide

 Earth System Governance Project (ESGP)

 Fridays for Future & School strike for climate (FFF)
 Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI)
 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
 International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
 United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
 European Environment Agency (EEA)
 Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia (PEMSEA)

Non-governmental Organizations
These organizations are involved in environmental management, lobbying, advocacy, and/or
conservation efforts.

 Earth watch
 Forest Stewardship Council
 Greenpeace
 Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification
 Wetlands International
 Wildlife Conservation Society
 World Resources Institute (WRI)
 World Union for Protection of Life (WUPL)
 World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)
 World watch Institute
 Zoological Society of London (ZSL)

Environmental Institutions

National Planning Commission;

Environment Protection Council;

Ministry of Population and Environment; Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation;

Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperative; Agrarian production, animal husbandry, soil agro-
technology, and plant quarantine, fertilizer and pesticide regulating;

Ministry of Information and Communication

Ministry of Defence Surveillance of national parks and wildlife reserves, Disaster Rescue;

Ministry of Education and Sports; Ministry of Health Public health services and family
planning, hospitals;

Ministry of Home Disaster Relief and Rehabilitation;

Ministry of Physical Planning and Works; Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies;

Ministry of Land Reform and Reform of land tenure, land management policy;

Ministry of Local Development Resource conservation and integrated rural development,

and decentralization, solid waste management;

Ministry of Science and Technology; Promotion of science and technology;

Ministry of Culture, Tourism & Civil Aviation;

Ministry of Water Resources Policy, regulation and management of the of water resources,
irrigation works, electricity, flood control;

Non -govermantal Organization

 Local Initiatives for Biodiversity, Research and Development (LI-BIRD)

National Trust for Nature Conservation

Environmental Treaties

This is a list of international environmental agreements.

Most of the following agreements are legally binding for countries that have formally ratified
them. Some, such as the Kyoto Protocol, differentiate between types of countries and each
nation's respective responsibilities under the agreement. Several hundred international
environmental agreements exist but most links only a limited number of countries. These
bilateral or sometimes trilateral agreements are only binding for the countries that have ratified
them but are nevertheless essential in the international environmental regime. Including the
major conventions listed below, more than 3,000 international environmental instruments have
been identified by the IEA Database Project.
Alphabetical Order

 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Nairobi, 1992

 Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna
(CITES), Washington DC, 1973
 Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), Bonn, 1979
 Convention on Long-Range Trans boundary Air Pollution
 Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially As Waterfowl Habitat
(notably not a Multilateral Environmental Agreement)
 Convention to Combat Desertification (CCD), Paris, 1994
 FAO International Code of Conduct on the Distribution and Use of Pesticides, Rome, 1985
 FAO International Undertaking on Plant Genetic Resources, Rome, 1983
 Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea
 Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), New York, 1992
 Geneva Protocol (Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous
or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare)
 International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture
 International Tropical Timber Agreement (ITTA), Geneva, 1994
 Kyoto Protocol - greenhouse gas emission reductions
 Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918
 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, Montreal, 1989
 Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, especially as Waterfowl
Habitat, Ramsar, 1971
 Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous
Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade, Rotterdam, 1998
 Stockholm Convention Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants Stockholm,
2001
 United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
 Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, Vienna, 1985, including the
Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, Montreal 1987
 World Heritage Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural
Heritage, Paris, 1972

Environmental Law of Nepal

Legislation Related to Environment

Environment Protection Act, 1997; Environment Protection Regulation, 1997; ODS

Consumption Rules, 2001; Forest Act, 1993, Water Resources Act, 1992 ; Electricity Act, 1992 ;
Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal 1992; Transport Act, 1992 ; Constitution of the Kingdom
of Nepal, 1990; Pesticides Control Act, 1991 ; Nepal Water Supply Corporation Act, 1990 ;
Village Development Act, 1990 ; Municipality Act, 1990 ; District Development Board Act,
1990; Kathmandu Valley Department Authority Act, 1988 ; Royal Academy of Science and
Technology Act, 1988 ; Pashupati Area Development Trust Act, 1987 ; Solid Waste
Management and Resource Mobilization Act, 1986 ; Nepal Electricity Authority Act, 1983 ;
Nepal Petroleum Act, 1983 ; International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development Act,
1983 ; King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation Act, 1982 ; Soil Conservation and
Watershed Management Act, 1982 ; Decentralization Act, 1982 Natural Calamities Relief Act,
1982 ; Nepal Standard Act, 1979 ; Narcotic Drugs Control Act, 1976 ; Medicines Act, 1976 ;
Animal Feeds Act, 1975 ; Pasture Land Nationalization Act, 1974 ; Public Roads Act, 1974 ;
National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act, 1973 ; Plants Protection Act, 1972 Jhora Sector
Land Distribution Act, 1972 ; Town Development Plan (Implementation) Act, 1970 ; Rapti Doon
Land Development Area (Sale and Distribution) Act, 1967 ; Canal, Electricity and Related Water
Resource Act, 1967 ;Forest Protection (Special Arrangements) Act, 1967 ; Food Act, 1966 ;
Agriculture Development Bank Act, 1966 ; Malaria Eradication Act, 1965 ; Contagious Diseases
Act, 1965 ; Nepal Medical Council Act, 1965 ; Tourism Industry Act, 1965 Tourism Act, 1957,
and Mountaineering Regulation, 1979 ; Highway Construction Act, 1965 ; Mills Act, 1965 ;
Town Development Committee Act, 1964 ; Vehicles Act, 1964 ; Nepal Electricity Act, 1964 ;
Explosives Act, 1963 ; Land Acquisition Act, 1963 ; Forestry Act, 1963 ; Irrigation Act, 1963;
Industrial Enterprises Act, 1962 (revised 1982; new Act, 1992); New Civil Code, 1962 ; Aquatic
Animals Protection Act, 1961; Land Survey Act, 1961; Birta Abolition Act, 1959; Nepal Factory
and Factory Worker's Act, 1958; Civil Aviation Act, 1958; Nepal Industrial Development
Corporation Act, 1958; Wildlife Protection Act, 1957; Nepal Mines Act, 1956 (new Act in
1985); Private Forest Nationalization Act, 1956; Forest Protection Act 1956; Lands Act, 1956
(Revised 1965); Ancient Monuments Protection Act, 1956; Animal Feed Act, 1956; Royal Nepal
Airlines Act, 1956 (revised 1963);

International Conventions/Treaties/Protocols (ICTPs) in the Field of Environment to which

Nepal is a Party

Plant Protection Agreement for the South-East Asia and Pacific Region, Rome, 1956. Nepal
acceded to the Agreement on 12 August 1965.

Convention on the High Seas, Geneva, 1958. Nepal ratified the Convention on 28 December
1962.

Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, Outer Space and Under Water,
Moscow, 1963. Nepal ratified the Convention on 7 October 1964.

Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer
Space Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, Washington, 1967. Nepal ratified the
Convention on 10 October 1967.

Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat, Ramsar,

1971. Nepal acceded to the Convention on 17 December 1987.

Treaty on the Prohibition of the Emplacement of Nuclear Weapons and other Weapons of Mass
Destruction on the Sea Bed and Ocean Floor and the Subsoil Thereof, London, Moscow,
Washington, 1971. Nepal ratified the Convention on 6 July 1971.

Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, 1972. Nepal
accepted the Convention on 20 June 1978.

Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and other Matter,
1972. Nepal ratified the Convention on 1 January 1973.

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, 1973.
Nepal acceded to the Convention on 18 June 1975.
Vienna Convention on the Protection of the Ozone Layer, 1985. Nepal ratified the Convention
in 1994.

Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, 1987. Nepal acceded to the
Protocol in 1994.

London Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer,
1990. Nepal acceded to the Convention on : 1994.

Agreement on the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia and the Pacific, 1988. Date of
Ratification/Accession (AC): 4 April 1990 (AC).

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 1992. Nepal ratified the
Convention on 2 May 1994.

Convention on Biological Diversity, 1992. Nepal ratified the Convention on 23 November

1993.

Environmental Education

It refers to organized efforts to teach how natural environments function, and particularly, how
human beings can manage behavior and ecosystems to live sustainably. It is a multi-disciplinary
field integrating disciplines such as biology, chemistry, physics, ecology, earth science,
atmospheric science, mathematics, and geography. The United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) states that EE is vital in imparting an inherent respect for
nature amongst society and in enhancing public environmental awareness. UNESCO emphasises
the role of EE in safeguarding future global developments of societal quality of life (QOL),
through the protection of the environment, eradication of poverty, minimization of inequalities
and insurance of sustainable development (UNESCO, 2014a). The term often implies education
within the school system, from primary to post-secondary. However, it sometimes includes all
efforts to educate the public and other audiences, including print materials, websites, media
campaigns, etc.. There are also ways that environmental education is taught outside the
traditional classroom. Aquariums, zoos, parks, and nature centers all have ways of teaching the
public about the environment.

Focus

Environmental education focuses on:

1. Engaging with citizens of all demographics to;
2. Think critically, ethically, and creatively when evaluating environmental issues;
3. Make educated judgments about those environmental issues;
4. Develop skills and a commitment to act independently and collectively to sustain and enhance
the environment; and,
5. To enhance their appreciation of the environment; resulting in positive environmental
behavioural change.
Attributes
There are a few central qualities involved in environmental education that are useful
contributions to the individual.
Environmental education:

1. Enhances real-world problem solving.

2. Strengthens physical activity and diet quality.

Careers
There are various different career paths one could delve into within environmental education.
Many of these careers require discovering and planning how to resolve environmental issues
occurring in today's world. The location of someone with these careers has an impact on the clear
responsibilities each must obtain depending on what environmental issue is most prevalent in the
area. A general outlook of some careers in this field are:

Outdoor Education Teacher- Teach students by using outdoor field and classroom work. Some
invite guest speakers who are experts in their field to help teach how the basic principles of
science are implemented in the real world.

Environmental Scientist- Use of field work to research contamination in nature when writing
plans in creating projects for environmental research. Topics such as air pollution, water quality,
as well as wildlife and how humans affect it are researched. Some requirements for this career
are a bachelor's degree with a double major in environmental science and either biology, physics
or chemistry.

Environmental Engineer- Involves the combination of biology/chemistry with engineering to

generate ways to ensure the health of the planet. Scientific research is analyzed and projects are
designed as a result of that research in order to come up with solutions to issues of the
environment like air pollution. A bachelor's degree in civil engineering or general engineering is
required as well as some experience in this field.