ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
- an interdisciplinary study of how
humans interact with living and
non-living parts of their
environment.
- integrates information and ideas
from the natural sciences
(biology, chemistry, geology);
social sciences (geography,
economics, political science); and
humanities (philosophy, ethics)
ENVIRONMENT
- everything around us
- includes the living and non-living
things (air, water, and energy),
with which we interact in a
complex web of relationships that
connect us to one another and to
the world we live in
3 GOALS:
1. to learn how nature works
2. to understand how we interact with
the environment
3. to find ways to deal with
environmental problems and live more
sustainably
NATURAL CAPITAL
- the natural resources and natural
services that keep us and other
forms of life alive and support our
economies
NATURAL RESOURCES
- are materials and energy in
nature that are essential or useful
to humans
- and can be classified as
renewable and non-renewable
NATURAL SERVICES
- are processes in nature such as
purification of air and water,
which support life and human
economies
- earth's biodiversity of species,
ecosystems, and interacting
services provide us with these
essential services at no cost
- use technology to enhance such
services but there are no
substitute for them
- one vital natural service is
nutrient cycling
EXAMPLE:
- air purification
- climate control
- UV protection
- Water purification
- Waste treatment
- Soil renewal
- Food production
- Nutrient recycling
- Population control
- Pest control
NUTRIENT CYCLING
- the circulation of chemicals
necessary for life, from the
environment (mostly from soil and
water) through organisms and
back to the environment
Environmentally Sustainable Society
- one that meets the current and
future basic resource needs of its
people in a just and equitable
manner without compromising the
ability of future generations to
meet their basic needs.

Living sustainably means living on
natural income, the renewable
resources such as plants, animals, and
soil provided by the earth's natural
capital.
RENEWABLE RESOURCE
- can be replenished in days to
several hundred years through
natural processes as long as it is
not used up faster than it is
renewed
Example:
Forests, grasslands, fish populations,
freshwater, fresh air, fertile soil
SUSTAINABLE YIELD
- The highest rate at which a
renewable resource can be used
indefinitely without reducing its
available supply.
ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION
- When use of a renewable
resource exceeds its natural
replacement rate, the available
supply begins to shrink.
TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS
- Garreth Hardin (1968)
- is a situation in a shared-resource
system where individual users,
acting independently according to
their own self-interest, behave
contrary to the common good of
all users by depleting or spoiling
the shared resource through their
collective action.
DEMOGRAPHY
- study of populations
- applies the principles of
population ecology to the human
population.
- Demographers study how human
populations grow, shrink and
change in terms of age and
gender composition. They also
compare population in different
countries.
Populations are characterized by their
population size (total number of
individuals) and their population density
(number of individuals per unit area).
ESTIMATING POPULATION SIZE
The methods used to sample
populations to determine their size and
density are typically tailored to the
characteristics of the organism being
studied.
Methods to Estimate Population Size:
Quadrat
- is a square structure that is
randomly located on the ground
and used to count the number of
individuals that lie within its
boundaries.
Mark and Recapture
- involves marking captured
animals in and releasing them
back into the environment to mix
with the rest of the population.
Later, a new sample is captured
and scientists determine how
many of the marked animals are
in the new sample.
N = (number marked first catch x total number of second
catch)/number marked second catch
SPECIES DESTRIBUTION
- is the distribution of individuals
within a habitat at a particular
point in time—broad categories of
patterns are used to describe
them.
- Individuals within a population
can be distributed at random, in
groups, or equally spaced apart
(more or less). These are known
as random, clumped, and uniform
distribution patterns, respectively.
LIFE TABLES
- provide important information
about the life history of an
organism and the life expectancy
of individuals at each age.
- They are modeled after actuarial
tables used by the insurance
industry for estimating human life
expectancy.
LIFE EXPECTANCY
- is the average number of years
that a person in a particular
population is expected to live
FERTILITY
- is the actual level of reproduction
of a population per individual,
based on the number of live
births that occur.
SURVIVORSHIP CURVE
- is a graph of the number of
individuals surviving at each age
interval versus time.
- These curves allow us to
compare the life histories of
different populations.
3 TYPES OF SURVIVORSHIP CURVE:
TYPE I CURVE
- mortality is low in the early and
middle years and occurs mostly
in older individuals.
- survivorship typically produce few
offspring and provide good care
to the offspring increasing the
likelihood of their survival.
Humans and most mammals exhibit
a type I survivorship curve.
TYPE II CURVE
- mortality is relatively constant
throughout the entire life span,
and mortality is equally likely to
occur at any point in the life span.
Many bird populations provide
examples of an intermediate or type
II survivorship curve.
TYPE III CURVE
- early ages experience the highest
mortality with much lower
mortality rates for organisms that
make it to advanced years.
- Type III organisms typically
produce large numbers of
offspring, but provide very little or
no care for them.
Trees and marine invertebrates
exhibit a type III survivorship curve

POPULATION GROWTH
2 Simplest Model of Population Growth:
Exponential Growth
- describes populations that
increase in numbers without any
limits to their growth.
- The best example of exponential
growth in organisms is seen in
bacteria.
Logistic Growth
- introduces limits to reproductive
growth that become more intense
as the population size increases.
CARRYING CAPACITY
- maximum population size that a
particular environment can
sustain.
K-selected species
- are adapted to stable, predictable
environments.
- Populations of K-selected
species tend to exist close to their
carrying capacity.
- These species tend to have
larger, but fewer, offspring and
contribute large amounts of
resources to each offspring.
- Example: Elephants
r-selected species
- are adapted to unstable and
unpredictable environments.
- They have large numbers of
small offspring.
- Animals that are r-selected do not
provide a lot of resources or
parental care to offspring, and the
offspring are relatively self-
sufficient at birth.
- Examples: marine invertebrates
such as jellyfish and plants such
as the dandelion.
AGE STRUCTURE
- is the proportion of a population
in different age classes.
Populations that interact within a given
habitat form a community.
The number of species occupying the
same habitat and their relative
abundance is known as the diversity of
the community.
PREDATION
- Describes individuals of one
population that kill and then
consume the individuals of
another population.
HERBIVORY
- the consumption of plants for
food
Defense Mechanisms against Predation
and Herbivory
- Defenses may be mechanical,
chemical, physical, or behavioral.
ECOLOGICAL NICHE
-  role a species plays in an
ecosystem.
COMPETITIVE EXCLUSION PRINCIPLE
- states that two species cannot
occupy the exact same niche in a
habitat. In other words, different
species cannot coexist in a
community if they are competing
for all the same resources.
Symbiotic relationships are close,
long-term interactions between
individuals of different species.
3 Types of Symbiosis
Commensalism
- in which one species benefits
while the other is neither harmed
nor benefited;
Mutualism
- in which both species benefit;
Parasitism
- in which the interaction harms
one species and benefits the
other.
Species richness
- is the term used to describe the
number of species living in a
habitat or other unit.
Relative abundance
- is the number individuals in a
species relative to the total
number of individuals in all
species within a system.
Foundation species
- are considered the “base” or
“bedrock” of a community, having
the greatest influence on its
overall structure.
- They are often primary
producers, and they are typically
an abundant organism.
Keystone species
- is one whose presence has
inordinate influence in
maintaining the prevalence of
various species in an ecosystem,
the ecological community’s
structure, and sometimes its
biodiversity.
Invasive species
- are non-native organisms that,
when introduced to an area out of
its native range, alter the
community they invade.
Community dynamics
- are the changes in community
structure and composition over
time, often following
environmental disturbances such
as volcanoes, earthquakes,
storms, fires, and climate change.
Succession
- describes the sequential
appearance and disappearance
of species in a community over
time after a severe disturbance.
2 Types of Succession:
Primary Succession
- newly exposed or newly formed
rock is colonized by living
organisms.
Secondary Succession
- a part of an ecosystem is
disturbed and remnants of the
previous community remain.
Climax Community
- is the final stage of succession,
remaining relatively unchanged until
destroyed by an event such as fire
or human interference.