SUSTAINABLE PLANNING AND

ARCHITECTURE

UNIT-2
-ECOSYSTEM AND FOOD CHAIN
-NATURAL CYCLES
-ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT
-CLIMATE CHANGE AND
SUSTAINABILITY

AR.D.SARASWATHI
 ECOSYSTEM
ECOLOGY is the study of connections in nature.

ECOSYSTEM is the community of different species interacting with

one another and with their physical environment of matter and
energy.
Source: Environmental science: Working with the earth,11e
G.Tyler Miller,Jr.

Ecosystem is “a particular category of physical systems, consisting of

organisms and inorganic components in a relatively stable
0
equilibrium, open and of various sizes and kinds”.
- A. G. Tansley

Image Source:
eschooltoday.com
 CLASSIFICATION

Source:
eschooltoday.com
 STRUCTURE

COMPONENTS OF ECOSYSTEM
Made up of two essential components:
1.Abiotic factors
2.Biotic factors

1.ABIOTIC FACTORS
 The non living factors or the physical environment prevailing in
an ecosystem form the abiotic components.

2.BIOTIC FACTORS
 The living organisms including plants, animals and micro-
organisms (Bacteria and Fungi) that are present in an ecosystem
form the biotic components.

Source:
Concepts of Environmental management for sustainable Development – M.C.Dash
 COMPONENTS

Source:
https://3.bp.blogspot.com
 ENERGY FLOW IN ECOSYSTEMS
FOOD CHAIN:

 A sequence of organism, each of which serves as a source of

food for the next, is called a food chain.
 It determines how energy and nutrients move from one
organism to another through the ecosystem.
Source: Environmental science: Working with the earth,11e
G.Tyler Miller,Jr.

Image Source: http://eastmontscience.weebly.com Image Source: Environmental science: Working with

the earth,11e, G.Tyler Miller,Jr.
ENERGY FLOW IN ECOSYSTEMS

FRESH WATER ECOSYSTEM

Image Source: G.Tyler Miller

Living In the Ecosystem,13e,
Slide player-web source.

LAND ECOSYSTEM

Image Source: G.Tyler Miller

Living In the Ecosystem,13e,
Slide player-web source.
 ENERGY FLOW IN ECOSYSTEMS
FOOD WEB:

Most consumers feed on more than one type of organism are eaten
by more than one type of consumers. Because most species
participate in several different food chain, the organisms in most
ecosystem form a complex network of interconnected food chains
called a food web. Image Source: Environmental science:
Working with the earth,11e,
G.Tyler Miller,Jr.

Image source:
http://media.show
meapp.com.
 NATURAL CYCLES
MATTER CYCLING IN ECOSYSTEMS:
Global cycles recycle nutrients through the earth’s air, land,
water, and living organisms and, in the process, connect past,
present, and future forms of life.
Source: Environmental science: Working with the earth,11e
G.Tyler Miller,Jr.

Image source: https://image.slidesharecdn.com/ecologicalcycles

 CARBON CYCLE

Carbon recycles through the earth’s air, water, soil, and living
organisms.

Source: Source: Environmental science: Working

http://www.resilience.org/wpcontent/uploads/articles/ with the earth,11e- G.Tyler Miller,Jr.
General/2016/08_Aug/carboncycle%20graph.JPG
 NATURAL CYCLES

WATER CYCLE

Source: Source:
Concepts of Environmental management for https://lh4.googleusercontent.com.
sustainable Development – M.C.Dash
 NATURAL CYCLES

NITROGEN CYCLE OXYGEN CYCLE

Source: Source:
http://cdn.biologydiscussion.com/wp- http://cdn.yourarticlelibrary.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/09/image-403.png content/uploads/2014/02/image186.png
 ECOLOGICAL
FOOTPRINT
Supplying each person with resources and absorbing the wastes
from such resources use creates a large ecological footprints or
environmental impact.

The Per capita ecological footprint is the amount of biologically

productive land and water needed to supply each person with the
resources he or she uses and to absorb the wastes from such
resource use.
Source: Environmental science: Working with the earth,11e
G.Tyler Miller,Jr.

Image Source: Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing

Human Impact on the Earth
By Mathis Wackernagel, William Rees
 ECOLOGICAL
FOOTPRINT
The ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT is a measure of the “load”
imposed by a given population on nature. It represents the land
area necessary to sustain current levels of resource consumption
and waste discharge by that population.
Source: Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth
By Mathis Wackernagel, William Rees

Source: Environmental science: Working with the

earth,11e - G.Tyler Miller,Jr.
By 2001,humanity’s ecological footprint was about
21% higher than the earth’s ecological capacity.
Think of an economy as
having an “industrial
metabolism”in this
respect it is similar to a
cow in its pasture .the
economy needs to
“eat” resources and
eventually,all this intake
becomes waste and
has to leave the
organism-the economy-
again. So the question
becomes:how big a
pasture is necessary to
support that economy-
to produce all its feed
and absorb all its
waste?
Alternatively,how much
land would be
necessary to support a
defined economy
sustainably at its current
material standard of
living?
 Our ecological footprints keep growing while our per
capita”earth-shares”continue to shrink.since the
beginning of this century, the available ecologically
productive land has decreased from over five hectares
to less than 1.5 hectares per person in 1995.At the same
time,the(phantom)plantes.if
wanted:two average north american’s
everybody foot-print has
lived like today’s
northgrown to over
americans,it 4 hectares.these
would opposing
take at least two additional trends
planetare in
earths to produce the
fundamental resources,absorb
conflict:the the wastes,and
ecological demands of
otherwise
average citizens in rich countries exceed planets
maintain life-support.unfortunately,good per capita
are hard to find….
supply by a factor of three.this means that the earth
could not support even today’s population of 5.8 billion
sustainably at north american material standards.