1. Environmental Science
Objective:
Give examples of how parts of the environment interact.
Explain how science influences decision-making process.

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

3. 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.

4. Environmental Science
Is an integrated science
It draws from many different fields
Biology
Physics
Chemistry
Table 2.1 page 27

5. Scientists-Water Hydrologist Oceanographer Flow of Earth’s water
Ocean environments

6. Scientists-Air Meteorologist Climatologist Weather and the atmosphere
Global weather patterns

7. Scientists-Land Geologist Seismologist Structure and history of Earth
Movements of Earth’s surface

8. 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

9. 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

10. Parts of the Environment
Two main factors
Biotic factors
Abiotic factors

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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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.

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