Sampling is the process of attaining information of a population by using a subset

of that population, without harming them.

A Quadrat is a frame made of wire or wood that encloses a specific area, such as
0.25m2 or 1m2. 

It is easy to sample the vegetation and sometimes the animal life within a known
area. 

If samples are taken at various places within a habitat, then the results could be
used to estimates of the entire population.

Transects. In some areas, species are not distributed randomly. (e.g. at the beach,
the species change as you move away from the sea). You can record by simply
putting down a tape and recording the vegetation at different intervals. This is
known as line transect. This does not tell us the abundance of the organisms. To
find that, quadrats can be placed at each intervals and the density of each species
recorded. This is known as belt transect.

Beating Tray. This can be a large white sheet placed on the ground or supported
by struts and held below a tree. The tree is shaken to dislodge the small animals.
These can be collected from the ‘beefed tray’ for examination .
Pooter. By sucking through a small tube, small animals are drawn into the glass or
plastic tube for examination.
Sweep nets. These are large nets that are used to catch flying insects. The insects
are examined and released.
Pond nets. These are strong nets that can lift volume of water from ponds or
rivers; the water is drained through the net and the vegetation and animals are
left behind.
Sieves. These are useful for sorting animals by putting them into different size
containers of water for identification and study.
Pitfall Traps. These are aces or jars that are buried in the ground, filled with paper
or cardboard to provide shelter and covered with a lid or stone to keep out the
rain. These are useful for collecting ground dwelling insects that are often
nocturnal.
Mark and release. To improve our estimates of population sizes of animal species
we can use the mark-release-recapture method. Some animals are collected from
a habitat, marked carefully with a non-toxic substance in such a way that they are
not obvious to their predators, and then released back to their habitats. Some time
later, the animals are collected again and the numbers marked and unmarked
individuals counted. This formula is used to calculate the estimate of the total
population in the habitat.

Ecology: is the study of organisms and their surroundings (environment). It is the

scientific study of the distribution and abundance of organisms, the interaction
among organisms, and the interactions between organisms and their abiotic
environment.
Species: is a group of organisms that share a genetic heritage, are able to interbreed
(mate) to create viable, fertile offspring. [For example, when a female horse and a
male donkey mate, they produce hybrid offspring called mules. Although a mule,
pictured below, is perfectly healthy and can live to a ripe old age, it is infertile and
cannot have its own offspring. Because of this, we consider horses and donkeys
separate species.
Habitat: place where an organism or a community of organisms lives, including
all living and nonliving factors or conditions of the surrounding environment. [A
host organism inhabited by parasites is as much a habitat as a terrestrial place such
as a grove of trees or an aquatic locality such as a small pond.]
Population: a group of individuals that all belong to the same species. Populations
are geographically based; they live in a particular area. But the size or scale of that
area can be variable. [We can talk about the human population in a city, a state, a
country or a hemisphere. Or we can talk about the population of palm trees on just
one island in the Indian Ocean, or on all of the islands that make up the Republic
of Seychelles, or all of the islands in the Indian Ocean.]
Communities: are made up of all the populations of different species in a given
area. It is an interacting group of various species in a common location. [For
example, a forest of trees and undergrowth plants, inhabited by animals and rooted
in soil containing bacteria and fungi, constitutes a biological community.]

Environment: the complex of physical, chemical, and biotic factors that act upon
an organism or an ecological community and ultimately determine its form and
survival.
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.

When you’re talking about ecosystems, you’re not only looking at all the different
populations and species in the given area, but you’re also looking at the physical
environment, the non-living or abiotic conditions, and not just what they are, but
how they impact the organisms, and in some cases how the organisms impact the
physical environment. 

For example, temperature and rainfall patterns influence where different terrestrial
species of plants and animals live; some can survive dry desert conditions, others
need the high rainfall found in rainforests. But the forests themselves also
influence temperature and rainfall patterns.

Niche: refers to the way in which an organism fits into an ecological community or
ecosystem. Through the process of natural selection, a niche is the evolutionary
result of a species morphological (morphology refers to an organism's physical
structure), physiological, and behavioral adaptations to its surroundings.

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.
Biotic factors are the living components of an ecosystem: relationship between
organisms, presence of parasites, etc.
Abiotic factors are the physical or chemical aspects of an ecosystem: water, light,
temperature, humidity, availability of chemical elements, wind, etc.

Natural resources are things that we get from our environment. Consider that we
get the following from nature:

 provision of food, fuel and fibre

 provision of shelter and building materials
 protection of coastal shores from erosion by waves (including tsunamis)
 renewal of soil fertility
 revenue and employment from tourism
  provision of medicines
 natural purification of air and water
 cycling and movement of nutrients
 enjoyment and aesthetic benefits.

It is important to use these resources carefully and to make sure that they are
available for the future (sustainability). The World Resources Institute estimates
that about 40% of the global economy is based on services from nature.In island
(Caribbean) like ours, they are even more heavily dependent on the natural
environment for food, services and to generate income from tourism.
According to the United Nations, in 2013 there were over two billion poor people
on Earth. 

Over 75% of these poor people live in rural areas and they sustain themselves by
using the resources in their environment. 

These people are highly dependent on natural resources and the biodiversity of
ecosystems for their survival. 

Biodiversity is the variety of living things and habitats.

Many of the natural resources we use are renewable, such as sunlight, soil, plants
and water. This means that they can be replaced naturally as they reproduce or
cycle through ecosystems.

However, some resources, particularly those used in mining and industry, are non-
renewable in our lifetimes. These resources are called finite resources, because
they get used up and they cannot be replaced. Examples are coal, gas and oil.

Most of our energy needs are supplied by burning fossil fuels like coal, gas and oil.

Population growth means that there is a greater demand for resources. In addition,
modern lifestyles demand more and more finite resources. 

More cars mean we use more fossil fuels. More appliances (including cell phones)
mean we need more electricity, usually from finite resources. 

The problem with finite resources is that if we continue to use them at ever
increasing rates, they will run out. 
There is a great need for us to use resources in sustainable ways that conserve them
for future generations.

According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the Earth has a limited
carrying capacity, with only 12 billion hectares of productive land and ocean
available to be used by the human population. The carrying capacity is the
maximum population size that an environment can support. 

WWF reports that that was equivalent to 1.8 hectares per person (population in
2008). This amount is called an ecological footprint, and it is an indication of how
much of the Earth’s resources each person uses as a result of their lifestyle (food,
energy, transport and other uses of resources). In 2012, the WWF reported that
each person had an ecological footprint of 2.7 hectares per person in 2008, which
meant that humans were using 50% more than the Earth could provide and sustain.

Biodegradable substances are those which decompose naturally in the

environment naturally and are considered beneficial for the environment. The
natural agents involved in the degradation are air, water, microorganisms, sunlight,
soil, etc.

Examples of biodegradable substances are dead plants and animals, their waste,
fruits, vegetables, flower, paper, etc.

Non-biodegradable substances are those wastes which do not decompose

naturally in the environment, causes pollution and are also harmful to the living
being.

Examples of non-biodegradable substances include chemicals, paints, plastic,

rubber, toxic, plastic, metals, etc.

The rate of decomposition of biodegradable substances is high or fast, which

completes within few days or months, whereas the non-biodegradable items either
do not decompose and maintain their originality, even their decomposition is so
slow that it may take thousands of years.

Biodegradable substances after degradation can be used to produce biogas,

manure, fertilizers, compost and thus they are profitable to the environment even
after degradation. But in non-biodegradable substances the degradation rate is
slow, and the separation and recycling are not easy, even expensive too and is not
beneficial to the environment.
Plastic forms one of the largest components of non-biodegradable waste. It is used
for packaging because it does not decay easily. This is a problem when we want to
dispose of plastics. Most plastic waste goes into rubbish dumps or landfill sites
where it takes up a lot of space, and causes special problems in the sea:

 Turtles eat plastic containers and plastic bags mistaking them for jellyfish
 Marine mammals and many fish get trapped in discarded plastic wire and
netting and suffocate
 Plastic may break up into tiny pieces that are ingested by small animals and
build-up in food chains
 Plastics absorb toxic substances, such as PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls)
and DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane); these chemicals persist and
build up in food chains (bioaccumulation)
The quantity of solid waste in the Caribbean has doubled over the past 30 years.
Over time the wastes have become more non-biodegradable and hazardous. 

 In Jamaica, 1.2 million tonnes of waste is generated each year. 

 Approximately 828 000 tonnes are taken to legal disposal sites. 
 None of these are properly managed landfill sites that take precautions not to
harm the local area. 
 Almost 300 000 tonnes of waste is illegally dumped causing severe
environmental problems
Problems with Poor Waste Disposals:

 Toxic liquids leak from the sites into surrounding land, water courses and
ultimately the sea.
 The partial decomposition of organic matter produces methane (a
greenhouse gas).
 Diseases spread from waste dumps. House Flies transmit diseases, e.g.
diarrhoeal diseases like typhoid.
Integrated waste management system in St Lucia

 This comprises one sanitary landfill site at Deglos in the north of the island
and an upgraded disposal site at Vieux Fort in the south. 
 The Deglos sanitary landfill is a nine-hectare purpose engineered facility
with clay lining, piping and two ponds that prevent toxic substances leaching
from the site and contaminating the groundwater. 
 The site also has an industrial autoclave and a tyre shredder. 
  Waste collection services are provided for both kerb and communal bins,
and are organised into eleven collection zones, which are run by private
contractors, thereby providing garbage collection to 100% of the island.
 The ideal waste management alternative is to prevent waste generation in the
first place. Hence, waste prevention is a basic goal of all the waste
management strategies. 
 Numerous technologies can be employed throughout the manufacturing, use,
or post-use portions of product life cycles to eliminate waste and, in turn,
reduce or prevent pollution. 
 Some representative strategies include environmentally conscious
manufacturing methods that incorporate less hazardous or harmful materials,
the use of modern leakage detection systems for material storage, innovative
chemical neutralization techniques to reduce reactivity, or water saving
technologies that reduce the need for freshwater inputs.

Reduce- This is when people purchase less ‘stuff’ so that it reduces the amount of
energy required to manufacture and transport goods. Initiatives are introduced to
encourage people to turn lights off, share lifts and take shorter showers in order to
reduce energy. Some campaigns have also focused on ensuring that people reduce
the amount of waste that they put into different bins e.g. not putting food waste
into general waste bins but into organic waste bins.

Reuse- This occurs as people use different materials again but do not convert them
into different products.People might reuse food containers and bottles instead of
throwing them out or use travel coffee mugs instead of single-use cups. In recent
years in Northern Ireland, one major success in this area has been different
initiatives to encourage people to reuse their shopping bags.‘Bags for Life’ and
more robust plastic shopping bags have largely replaced single-use supermarket
shopping bags.
Advantage:
When waste materials are collected and separated out into their different
component ingredients, these can then be remade into different products.

Energy is required to recycle the product and to change its physical properties into
something totally different.

For example, the plastic from bottles might be made into public benches or fleece
jackets.
Disadvantages of Recycling:

 the collection and transport of used items needs organisation, workers,

vehicles and fuel
 it can be difficult to sort different metals from one another
 the sorted metal may need to be transported to where it can be turned into
ingots
1. Cell - this is known as the building block of life. All living things are made
up of cells. 

Organisms may be single celled or unicellular (such as amoeba), or

multicellular (man). 

1. Specialized cell - this is a cell that is designed for a specific bodily function,
eg, heart muscle cells, sperm cells, egg cells. 
2. Unspecialized cells - these are ordinary cells that carry out normal functions.
They make up the majority of the organism’s body.
Teeth chew your food – also known as mastication – the process of cutting,
tearing, and grinding the food in the mouth and mix it with the saliva so it
can be swallowed easily before it enters your body. This process is
considered as the mechanical process of digestion.

Because of the hard surfaces of your teeth and the enamel that covers it, as
well as the different shape that each type of the teeth has, it becomes more
adapted to all actions of swallowing, hence, makes the grinding process
more efficient and effective.

In a broader sense, each type of teeth performs specific roles that make the
mechanical process of digestion easier.

When you eat, your food is mixed with your saliva first; this is how the
mastication process starts.
Fourth feature: Must be close to a transport system.
Gas Exchange in Plants
Plants rely on air diffusing in and out of tiny holes
called stomata. Stomata occur mostly on the
underside of leaves but can be found on stems.
Alveoli are tiny balloon shaped structures and are the smallest passageway
in the respiratory system. 

The alveoli are only one cell thick, allowing the relatively easy passage of
oxygen and carbon dioxide (CO2) between the alveoli and blood vessels
called capillaries.

Alveoli are lined by a fluid layer known as a surfactant which maintains the
shape and surface tension of the air sac. 
By maintaining surface tension, there is more surface area through which
oxygen and CO2 molecules can pass.
 ATP is the link
between the breakdown of glucose and muscle
contraction
lung cancer and smoking.