Saint Ferdinand College

Sta.Ana Street,City Of Ilagan,Isabela

Environmental Science
School Year 2020-2021

Introduction to Environmental Science and its Basic Concepts

Many students thought that Environment focuses solely on the plants and animals that can be seen on their surroundings
whereas, it can be considered correct but not necessarily true. Environment does not only refer to the organisms that can be found
and seen on the surroundings but it also refers to the other factors that are necessary for the survival of varied species. The soil,
water and temperature also can be considered as part of environment. Aside from this, interactions among organisms in a given
ecosystem is also considered. A particular branch of Science deals with this interrelationship among organisms and their
environment which is known as Ecology.

This unit will discuss the components of the ecosystem as well as its impact on the varied organisms in a certain environment.
This module is designed to help you understand the basic concepts of Environmental Science. For you to better understand this
module, the unit will be divided into different modules. Module 1 will discuss about matter and Energy Laws highlighting the Laws
of Thermodynamics. Module 2 will talk about the components of ecosystem specifically the biotic and abiotic components. Module
3 will focus on the intraspecific and interspecific interactions of the components of the ecosystem. Module 4 will describe the
different Limiting factors that may affect the organisms in an ecosystem as well as the Law of Maximum and Minimum tolerance.
Finally, Module 5 will discuss about the different Biogeochemical cycles. Though there are a lot of biogeochemical cycles occurring
in the environment,this module will focus more on the Carbon, Nitrogen,Oxygen,Phosphorus and Sulfur cycle.

But before we proceed with the actual content of this module let’s look first on the different terminologies that you will most
likely to encounter in this module.

 Ecosystem - the complex of a community of organisms and its environment functioning as and ecological unit.
 Ecology - the study that deals with the interrelationship of organisms and their environment
 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
 Energy laws - refers to the transfer of energy from one organism to another on a given food chain or food web
 Food chain - a series of types of organisms in which each one uses the next lower member of the series as a source of food
 Food web - the totality of interacting food chains in an ecological community
 Chapter 2
The Ecosystem

At the end of this module, you should be able to:

1. describe food chain, food web, and energy pyramid
2. discuss the Laws of Thermodynamics and energy transformation
3. cite applications of the Laws of Thermodynamics to their everyday lives
________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The components of an ecosystem can be considered as matter. The biotic components, which is defined as the living
components of the ecosystem such as plants and animals tend to depend on the other components for energy.On the other hand,
abiotic components are the non-living components of the ecosystem such as soil, water, temperature,humidity and salinity among
others. Energy can be produced by the interactions of the biotic and abiotic components of the ecosystem. Energy production and
energy transfer allow the survival of the different organisms.

The process of energy production and transfer follows a certain path in a food Big idea:
Matter is anything that occupies
chain and food web. Both of which are good examples to provide a better
and has mass. Thus, the biotic
understanding on the concept to be emphasized. and abiotic component of the
ecosystem can be considered
The above condition paved the way for the so called energy laws which can be as a matter.
called as the Law of Thermodynamics. The mentioned law emphasizes the concept of
energy production and transfer.

 First Law of Thermodynamics - it states that energy cannot be created nor destroyed but rather transformed from one form of
energy into another. This is also known as the Law of Conservation of energy. Lets have an example, on the given food chain
below, it all started with the presence of the sun giving off solar energy that is being absorbed by the plants. The solar energy
will be utilized by the plants in the process called photosynthesis in order to produce glucose. The solar energy thus, is
converted into chemical energy which is necessary for the functionality of the different organisms. In general, the solar energy
was never lost, but rather converted only into chemical energy.

Figure 1: A food chain showing conversion of solar energy into chemical energy
 Second law of Thermodynamics - states that when energy is transferred, there will be less energy available at the end of the
transfer process than at the beginning. The example below shows transfer of energy from one organism to the other. The
chain started with 10 joules of energy stored in plants upon consumption of the herbivore, there is only 1 joule of energy
available and the 9 joules of energy was released unto the environment. Lastly, upon the consumption of the carnivore, only
0.1 joule of energy is available. Thus, it can be said that energy is not 100% efficient upon transfer from one organism to the
other. The energy decreases as it goes at the end of the chain so how much more if its a food web?
Note: The 10 joules of energy decrease on the food chain does not necessarily mean that it is applicable to an actual food chain. The given
amount of energy is for visualization only to better understand the concept.

Figure 2: A food chain showing the decrease in energy(Source:slideshare.net)

 Energy pyramid shows the flow of each energy from one trophic level to another. The width of each bar represents the unit of
energy available within each level. The flow of energy moves through the layers of the energy pyramid from the bottom-up
and is gradually reduced as energy is used up by the organism at each level.
 Trophic Level - each of the several hierarchical levels in an ecosystem, compromising organisms that share the same function
in the food chain and food web and the same nutritional relationship to the primary sources of energy. The different trophic
levels are discussed below with their examples.

Figure 3: An energy pyramid with trophic levels and eating habits

 The image shows the difference between a food chain and food web. As you can see, a food chain is a simpler series of
organisms where it usually eats the lower member as a source of food while food web is a totality of interacting food chains in
an ecological community. Both of which, exhibits and a good example of the Laws of Thermodynamics.
 Big Idea:
In the energy transfer, there are
two entities involved - the system
and the surroundings. In certain
cases, the system releases the
heat to the environment or vice
versa allowing heat transfer to
maintain balance in the
Figure 4: A comparison of food chain and food web(hinglink.com) ecosystem