Environmental Science Objective Give examples of how parts

Environmental Science Objective: • Give examples of how parts of the environment interact. • Explain how science influences decisionmaking process.

Environment • Environment- everything that surrounds an organism. • How would you describe your environment? • Why do we study the environment?

Environment • Everything that an organism needs is provided by its environment. • As conditions change in an environment and organisms may not be able to survive these changes. • Keeping the environment healthy is important to keep our biosphere healthy and able to continue to support life.

Environmental Science • Is an integrated science • It draws from many different fields – Biology – Physics – Chemistry • Table 2. 1 page 27

Scientists-Water • Hydrologist – Flow of Earth’s water • Oceanographer – Ocean environments

Scientists-Air • Meteorologist – Weather and the atmosphere • Climatologist – Global weather patterns

Scientists-Land • Geologist – Structure and history of Earth • Seismologist – Movements of Earth’s surface

Scientists-Organisms • Biologists – Structure and behavior of organisms • Ecologists – Interactions of organisms with their environment • Paleontologist – Prehistoric life and fossils • Anthropologist – Structure of human societies • Microbiologist – Study of microorganisms

Ecology • Ecology is the study of the interaction of organisms with their environment and other organism • Ecology differs from environmental science in that with ecology the main principles do not change with the addition of man • Environmental science incorporates the impact of man

Parts of the Environment • Two main factors – Biotic factors – Abiotic factors

Biotic Factors • Biotic factors- all the living parts of the environment – Bio- means “living” – -ic means “related to” • Examples – Animals – Plants – microbes

Abiotic Factors • Abiotic factors- all the nonliving parts of the environment. – A- means “not” or “without” – -bio means “living” – -ic means “related to” • Examples – Temperature – Sunlight – Soil

Environmental Interactions • Organism are affected by the biotic and abiotic factors of their environment and they in turn have an effect on the environment • Changes in the environment may require the organisms to make adjustments • Changes on one organism could result in effect on another organisms – Butterfly and the lupine flower

Coyotes, deer, wolves and mountain lions in the Grand Canyon • In the 1900’s coyote, wolves and mountain lions where hunted to almost the point of extinction. • They were believed to be of danger to livestock and farmers • They are the main predator of deer and without them the deer population exploded. (25 times greater) • The deer ate almost all the available vegetation in the area. • The area could no longer support such a large population and 60, 000 deer starved to death. • No one had predicted that the hunting of coyote, wolves and m. lions would lead to the starvation of 60, 000 deer.

Review • How do the biotic and abiotic factors of an environment interact? • How does science influence decision making?