Ecosystem Condition And Sustainable Use

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Introduction

The term "ecosystem "was proposed by British ecologist A. G.Tansley in 1935. Who define that it is system resulting from integration of all the living and non living things. All the living things and their non living environment interact with each other in different point and different places .such interaction takes place due to change in environmental condition where they can’t sustain him. Thus any unit in which all the organism communities in a given area and interact to this physical environment .by which flow of energy leads to a clearly define tropic structure, bio diversity and material cycling within the system and this system is known as ecosystem .this system is provided by human by artificial or by the naturally called ecosystem functions.

An ecosystem may be simplest form ,be defined as self sustained community of plants and animal existing in its own environment .the plants animal and micro organism present in an ecosystem form the biotic component whereas the physical and chemical factor constitutes the A biotic component in that system ecosystem is basic and functional unit of ecology. It give information about the solar energy in an area and about the availability of mineral element their utilization and recycling. Information can also be gathered about the ways of increasing productivity, the sum effects of pollution and the degree of exploitation and the need for conservation resources the sum total all the ecosystems on the earth planet called biosphere, which include all living organism interacting with physical environment .We will also try to describe structure and the function of an ecosystem .The basic concept of ecosystem is ecology.

Classification of ecosystem

Ecosystem is classified on the basis of habitat. An ecosystem may be as small as a drop of pond water or as large an ocean. Different ecosystem develops differently depending on the influence exerted by the biotic components in an ecosystem on the organisms of that ecosystem. The major factors that determine the growth and type of an ecosystem are temperature, rainfall soil type, and location (the latitude and the altitude). These factors and their interaction with the local biotic community have resulted in the formation of a variety of ecosystem. Different type of ecosystems existing in nature constitutes a Giant ecosystem.

Natural ecosystems

An ecosystem that is developed under conditions is called a natural ecosystem. It operates by themselves under natural conditions without interference by humans. Natural ecosystem can be terrestrial as well as aquatic. Habitats exhibit environmental condition which determines the nature and characteristics of biotic communities. Based upon particular kinds of habitat, ecosystem may be classified as fallows. (Dr. K.S.Baig, 2012)

Structure of Ecosystem-

All type of natural and engineering ecosystem consist of two major component one is living or biotic component and other is the nonliving or a biotic component biotic component comprise different species of plants and animals, whereas a biotic component include nutrients, water, and climatic factors .Every ecosystem consist of major classes of organism which help maintaining the biological cycling of materials through it. The main groups are producers, consumers and decomposers. The first group-producers-includes plants and some bacteria that is capable of producing their own food either by process of photo synthesis or by chemical synthesis.

Ecosystem

Natural ecosystem engineered ecosystem

Aquatic terrestrial

Fresh water marine grassland forest desert

Running water standing water

Aquatic ecosystem :

Ecosystem found in water called aquatic ecosystem. tanks ocean rivers lakes etc .are example of aquatic ecosystem are further divide as fresh water ecosystem – only 3%of world water is free 99%of this fresh water is frozen in glacier or buried an aquifer the remainder is found in lakes ponds rivers and stream and forms fresh water ecosystem .fresh water ecosystem may be classified into logic or lentil on the basis of water movement and size .in logic ecosystem or flowing water system water moves at constant pace in a uniform direction .in lentil ecosystem or standing water system the water remains same for a longer duration marine ecosystem –marine water covered two third of the surface of the earth .the water of such ecosystem is saline in nature. Oceans Sea tidal, river etc. are example of saline ecosystem.

Artificial ecosystem or engineering ecosystem

Artificial ecosystem are maintained artificially by human being in these ecosystem natural balance distributed regularly .in artificial ecosystem human try to control the biological and physiological properties of ecosystem .Cropland of maize wheat rice ,and so on are artificial ecosystem where ecology is distributed Regularly by various agricultural activities .

Now we will find the

Natural ecosystem artificial ecosystem

1. Natural ecosystem developed under natural 1.artificial ecosystem created and many

Condition. -pulsated by human activities.

2. In natural ecosystems plants of one species are 2.in artificial ecosystem plants of the same

Often scattered. Species grow in close proximity.

3. Natural ecosystem usually have alternate source 3.artificial ecosystem usually contain fewer

Of food in case one fails. Food choice.

4. in natural ecosystem inorganic nutrients returns 4.in artificial ecosystem inorganic nutrients

To the soil from which they were taken. Do not return to the soil but are carried.

Ecosystem service

Supporting provisioning regulating cultural

1. Neutrient cyclic 1.food 1.climate regulation 1.asthetis

2. Soil formation 2.fresh water 2.food regulation 2.spritual

3. Primary production 3.wood and fiber 3.desiese regulation 3.education

4. Fuel 4.water purification 4. Recreation

Analysis of ecosystem service :

Any region of Earth produces a set of functions that in turn influences human well-being. It also receives flows of energy, water and organisms and pollutants, and other materials from adjacent regions and releases similar materials into those regions. Various strategies and interventions influence the quantity and quality of the functions pro-vided. An ecosystem is typically composed of a number of different regions, such as forest, agriculture and urban areas each of which produces a different bundle of functions. In an ecosystem assessment, both the production of functions from each area and the flows of materials between areas must be assessed.

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Impact on human and welfare

Ecosystem service

Unit of analysisStrategies and intervention fluxes-water, carbon

Nutrients, pollutants, species.

Functions

Natural forest functions functions irrigated agriculture

Service service

Service wetland urban

Coastal aquaculture

Policies

The most important among the most important factors identified is the degree of functional redundancy found within an ecosystem. This indicates the substitutability of species within functional groups in an ecosystem such that the impact created by the loss of one or more species is compensated for by.

Ecosystem Condition and Sustainable Use:

People seek multiple and different functions from ecosystems and thus perceive the condition of an ecosystem in relation to its ability to pro-vide the functions desired. The efficiency of ecosystems to deliver particular functions can be assessed separately with various methods and measures. An adequate assessment of the condition of ecosystems, the provision of functions, and their implications for human well-being requires an integrated approach.

Condition of Provisioning Functions

The flows of provisioning functions do not accurately reflect their condition, since a given flow may or may not be sustainable over the long term. The flow is typically measured in terms of biophysical production, such as kilograms of maize per hectare or tons of tuna landings. The provisioning of ecological goods such food, fuel wood, or fiber and depends both on the flow and the "stock" of the good, just as is the case with manufactured goods.

Ecosystem Management

Human beings benefit from the smooth functioning of ecosystems in many ways. Healthy forests, streams, and wetlands provide clean air and clean water by enabling impurities to settle down. The biodiversity in an ecosystem provides essential foods, medicines, and other materials. However, as human populations increase and their encroachment on natural habitats expand, humans are causing detrimental effects on the ecosystems and distributing their delicate balance. The survival of natural ecosystems around the world is threatened by many human activities. It might be asked that if ecosystems are self maintaining, then why not throw all waste into nature and let nature take care of it. However, it has been realized and experienced that whether it is an ecosystem, a community, or even an n organism, every system has a certain tolerance limit. The other concern is that in the process of modifying ecosystem to suit our demands, we are unknowingly simplifying them .For instance, on the one hand we clear dense forests containing thousands of interrelated plant and animal species for a variety of ‘development’ requirements, and on the other hand, we try to balance it by forestation programmers which create plantations of single or fewer species and not forests that are made of numerous species in close interaction. Comparatively, such simplified systems are much more vulnerable to any disturbance, natural or anthropogenic .With the growing population, too many of world’s complex, mature ecosystems have been made young and simple. For example ,in last 30 years, populations of loggerhead turtles on south-eastern coasts of united States have been declining at alarming rates due to beach development and the ensuing erosion ,bright slights, and traffic, which makes it nearly impossible for female turtles to build nests on beaches .At sea ,loggerheads are threatened by oil spills and plastic debris ,and offshore dredging ,injury from boat propellers ,and getting caught in fishing nets and equipment .In 1970,the species were listed as threatened under the endangered species act .Ecosystem management treats resources as interdependent ecosystems and encouragement practices that enable humans to obtain necessary resources using methods that protects the whole ecosystem.

Ecosystem Resilience

The 2004 Tsunami has proved to be the largest of recent environmental impacts triggered by natural resources causes .The tsunami locally devastated mangroves, littoral forests, coral reefs, and beaches, but at the same time created Tsunami included islands, beaches, and lagoons. The ability of a community to establish itself in a different habitat or area is also a form of ecological resilience. The phenomenon is called shifting mosaics.

Environmental impact housing

At all levels, housing and environment are inextricably linked. A growing number of architects, designers, developers, buildings, and homeowners are working it reduce the environmental impact of housing through innovations in design-using technologies and materials that were not available even a decade ago. This movement goes by several names: ecological housing, factor four housing ,and so on .The common theme is to lower environmental impacts throughout the life cycle of a house from site selection to through design and material choices ,construction, operation, maintenances and demolition.

Communication aided by light and sound are other environmental issues. Light houses have been responsible for the deaths of thousands of migratory birds that misguided and crash into them .Neon lights and advertisement on high rise buildings in many cities have also distracted and killed birds that migrates at night. Nightlight along the beaches have interfered with the movement of hatching sea turtles and prevented thousands that head for the seas from reaching their destination.

A part from choking the air with radio signals, modern telecommunication has usurped the space. Although the tall towers that are erected to send and receive radio signals sometimes serve as perches and nesting sites for birds, they are generally interferences when they fall within the flyways of migratory birds. Communication towers also compete for space with humans when they are located within residential areas.

Present day cities are plagued by sprawling high tech buildings in commercial and residential areas that are built to house are that are built to house and cater to the needs of the IT companies .As a result of the need for spacious apartments and offices that the IT industry demands, vast landscapes have been cleared of natural habitats including forests marshes, waterways, and agricultural lands. Major Indian cities such as Bangalore ,Chennai and Hyderabad that have opened themselves to the establishment of IT companies are also facing some of the most complex of environmental problems .Improved communication s facilities have offered a lot of recreational opportunities to human beings. Outdoor recreations vary from walking, house reading, cycling, car driving, boating, swimming, games, and picnics to visiting fairs and touring. Unfortunately, none of these come free of environment consequences. The ecological footprint of tourism can be locally very high and drastic. Especially, when sessions, festivals, pilgrimages, and cyclic events induce the tourist rush. Common examples of session influenced tourism include the summer rush to hill stations around the world. Annual festivals such as carnivals in Rio De Jenerio, the Karsiva and pilgrimage to holy land. Mecca, Tirupati attract the tourists. Cyclic events such as Kumbh Mela, the Olympics, the commonwealth games, world cups etc... Bring ecological disasters.

Homeostasis in ecosystems

Homeostasis is also referred to as the balance of nature .An ecosystem maintains a biological equilibrium between the different components and this property is referred to as a homeostasis. The balance of ecosystems is maintained by a number of factors. These include the carrying capacity of environment and the capacity of t=recycling of the waste. The one component of ecosystem keeps a check on the population of the other component, and this system is referred to as a feedback system. The feedback system is of different types. They can positive or negative .The increase in the population of the organisms at the different levels increases the population of the organisms at the lower level, is known as the positive feedback. Suppose, when the population of plants increases it leads to increase in the population of herbivores. It increases the population of frogs and birds. Same as, the increased population of insectivorous animal’s acts on the herbivores by the process of predation. This is known as the not positive feedback.

In mammals and birds especially, the member of the same species spend a lot of time and energy harassing each other, to cross each other, fighting(But not hurting each other much),and avoiding each other. If you spend time watching squirrels or birds you will probably notice a lot of threats and hassling. You may also notice that members of different species mostly just ignore each other unless one just got too close. If you watch gray squirrels under a bird feeder eating spilled seed and a chipmunk arrives the squirrels ignore the chipmunks. But a new squirrel arrives, all visibly react to its presence if a second chipmunk arrives, the first chipmunk will react. This behavior within a species often works as a dispersal agent, so that members of a population are evenly distributed. Over an area and ensures that everyone gets to eat, the whole community benefits from the dynamic balancing of its member populations. (K.S Raut, 2010)

Variability, Resilience, Thresholds in Services:

Whenever possible, individuals and governments generally invest in various types of insurance that can buffer human welfare against natural vary-ability. Such investments may be as basic as establishing limited stores of food, medicine, and potable water for disaster relief to more elaborate in-vestments such as building dams, levies, and canals to guard against 100-year floods. How, when, and where to invest in such insurance requires assessing not just mean level of stocks and flows of ecosystem then services but also their dynamics , more specifically, has variability and stability .

In this illustrates the level of provisioning of an ecosystem service that has been perturbed twice. Imaginary, such a service exhibits stochastic (random or un-controlled) and inherent variability (fluctuations above and below the two hori- zontal lines, which represent separation system states). The system regains after the first perturbation, with its resilience be measured by the duration of the recovery phase or return time to its primary state. Note that crossing the threshold of the second state does not cause a shift when in the first state. The second perturbation region the service to cross the secondary threshold, which leads to a regime shift or cata- strophic change to an alternative stable state. The long dashed lines illustrate the primary and secondary thresholds. Only when a system crosses a threshold does it switch to an alternate state.

Cultural Services:

These are the nonmaterial benefits people gain from ecosystems through spiritual enrichment, cognitive developmental, reflection, recreation, and aesthetic experiences, including„ Cultural diversity. The diversity of ecosystems is one factor influencing the diversity of cultures. „ Spiritual and religious value. So Many religions are attaching spiritual and religious values to ecosystems or their components. Knowledge systems (traditional and formal). Ecosystems influence the types of knowledge of systems developed by different cultures. Human interventions can increase some services, though often on the expense of other ones. So human interventions have dramatically increased food provisioning services through the spread of agricultural technologies, although this have resulted in changes to other services such as water regulation. For this cause, a multi directional approach is essential to fully evaluate changes in ecosystem is service and their impacts on people. The multi directional approach examines the supply and condition of each ecosystem service as well as the interactions among them. The MA have adopted just such an approach. When assessing ecosystem services, it is often convenient bound the

Analysis separate and temporally with reference to the ecosystem service or services being examined. Thus a river basin are often the most valuable ecosystem scale for examining changes in water services, while a special agro ecological zone may be more appropriate for assessing changes in crop production. When looking to interactions among services, the combination of services provided by an ecosystem, the variety of services drawn on by a society, question of boundaries becomes more complex. Issues of boundaries, scale, and habitat heterogeneity are important and are dealt with in greater detail in number of factors. These include the carrying capacity of environment and the capacity of t=recycling of the waste. The one component of ecosystem keeps a check on the population of the other component, and this system is referred to as a feedback system. The feedback system is of different types. They can positive or negative .The increase in the population of the organisms at the different levels increases the population of the organisms at the lower level, is known as the positive feedback. For ex when the population of plants increases it leads to increase in the population of herbivores. It increases the population of frogs and birds. Similarly, the increased populations of insectivorous animals act on the herbivores by predation. This is known as the negative feedback.

In mammals and birds especially, the member of the same species spend too much of time and energy harassing each other, chasing every other, fighting (But not hurting each other much), and avoiding each other. If you spend time watching squirrels or birds you will probably notice a lot of threats and hassling. You may also notice then members of different species mostly just ignore each other unless one just got too close. If you watch gray squirrels under a bird feeder eating spilled seed and a chipmunk arrives the squirrels ignore the chipmunks. But a new squirrel arrives, all visibly react to its presence if a second chipmunk arrives, the first chipmunk will react. This behavior within a species often works as a dispersal agent, such that elements of a population are uniformly distributed. Over an area and ensures that everyone gets to eat, the whole community benefits from the dynamic balancing of its member populations.

Processes of Ecosystems:

There are two main ideas about how ecosystems work: ecosystems have energy flows and ecosystems cycles materials. These two processes are linked to each other but they are not exactly same.

Energy enters the biological system as light energy, or photons which are transformed into chemical energy in organic molecules by cellular processes including photosynthesis and respiration, and which are ultimately converted to heat energy. This energy is dissipated, which means it is lost in to the system as heat and once the heat is lost, it cannot be recycled. Without the continued supply of solar energy, biological systems would quickly close. Thus the earth is an open system in respect to energy. (Taylor, D., Hazenberg, 2007)

Elements like carbon, nitrogen, or phosphorus enter living organisms in a number of ways. Plants obtain elements from the surroundings, water, or soils. Animals may also obtain elements directly from the physical environment, but usually they obtain these by a result of consuming other organisms. These materials are converted biochemically within the bodies of organisms, but sooner or later, due to rejection of waste or decomposition, they turn back in to inorganic state. Often bacteria complete this process, through the process of decomposition.

During decomposition these materials are not vanished or lost, so the earth is a closed system with respect to elements. The elements are cycled repeatedly between their biotic and biotic states within ecosystems. The elements whose supply tries to limit biological activity are called nutrients.

The Transformation of Energy:

The transformations of energy in an ecosystem begin at first with the input of energy from the sun. Energy from the sun is used by the process of photosynthesis. Carbon dioxide combined with hydrogen (derived from the splitting of water molecules) to produce carbohydrates (CHO). Energy is stored in the high energy bonds of adenosine triphosphate or ATP.

Controls on Ecosystem Function:

There are two dominant theories of the control of ecosystems. The first is called bottom-up control which states that it is the nutrient supply to the primary producers that ultimately control how ecosystems work. If the nutrient supply is increased, the resulting increase in production of autotrophy is started through the food web and all of the other tropic levels will respond to the increased availability of food (energy and materials will cycle faster).

The second theory, called top-down control states that predation and grazing by higher tropic levels on lower tropic levels ultimately controls ecosystem functions. For example, if you have an increment in predators, that increase will result in fewer grazers, and that decrease in grazers will result in turn in more primary producers because fewer of them are being eaten by the grazers. Thus the control of population and overall productivity "cascades" from the top levels of the food chain down to the bottom tropic levels.

Conclusion

The term ecosystem was proposed by a British ecologist, in 1935, who defined it as "The system resulting from the integration of all the living and non living factors of the environment".

Ecosystems are classified into natural and man-made ecosystems. All ecosystems are biotic or living components and biotic or non living components. Biotic components comprise of different plants, animals while a biotic components nutrients, water, and climatic factors.

The process of eating and being eaten is known as a food chain .The interlocking patterns formed by several food chains that are linked together are called food webs.

In nature, many mineral nutrient cycles are operating by which elements and their compounds and move continuously from the non living environment to the living organisms and back to the non living environment.

According to the ten-percent rule,90% of the energy involved in degraded at each tropic level and only 10% of the energy is conserved in the organism’ tissue.

The graphical representation of tropic structure is known as an Ecological pyramid where producers occupy the base and top consumers occupy the apex of the pyramid.

The occurrence of the relatively definite sequence of the communities over a pyramid of time in same area is known as ecological succession .It may take place in forest, pond, lake, or grassland and consist of a number of stages .The climax stable community is established after several thousands of years as a result of ecological succession.

Ecosystem management enables human beings to take necessary measures to protect the whole ecosystem.