By: Engr.

Marlon Occea Martinez

Engr. Marlon Occea Martinez

June 24, 2010

By: Engr. Marlon Occea Martinez

Ecological Concepts
Ecology is the study of the relationships between
organisms and the environment.
is the scientific study of the distributions, abundance,
share affects, and relations of organisms and their
interactions with each other in a common
environment.
An ecosystem is the unique network of animal and
plant species who depends on the other to sustain life.
The interactions between and among organisms at
every stage of life and death can impact the system. An
ecosystem can be a small area or big as the ocean.

By: Engr. Marlon Occea Martinez

Ecological Concepts
An ecosystem consists of all the organisms living in a
particular area, as well as all the nonliving, physical
components of the environment with which the
organisms interact, such as air, soil, water, and
sunlight.
A fundamental classification of biomes (similar
climatic conditions) is:
Terrestrial (land) biomes
Freshwater biomes
Marine biomes

By: Engr. Marlon Occea Martinez

Ecological Concepts
Different Ecosystems
Tundra is a biome where the tree growth is hindered by
low temperatures and short growing seasons.
Taiga also known as the boreal forest, is a biome
characterized by coniferous forests.
A desert is a landscape or region that receives an
extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough
to support growth of most plants. Deserts are defined as
areas with an average annual precipitation of less than
250 ml (10 in) per year, or as areas where more water is
lost by evapotranspiration than falls as precipitation

By: Engr. Marlon Occea Martinez

Ecological Concepts
Different Ecosystems
Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with
definitions setting minimum normal annual rainfall between
17502000 mm (68-78 inches). The monsoon trough, alternately
known as the intertropical convergence zone, plays a significant
role in creating Earth's tropical rain forests.
Coral reefs are underwater structures made from calcium
carbonate secreted by corals. Corals are colonies of tiny living
animals found in marine waters containing few nutrients.
A savanna, or savannah, is a grassland ecosystem characterized
by the trees being sufficiently small or widely spaced so that the
canopy does not close.

By: Engr. Marlon Occea Martinez

Ecological Concepts
Different Ecosystems
A forest (also called a wood, woodland, wold, weald, wellard or holt)
is an area with a high density of trees.
An aquatic ecosystem is an ecosystem located in a body of water.
Marine ecosystems are among the largest of Earth's aquatic
ecosystems. They include oceans, salt marsh and intertidal ecology,
estuaries and lagoons, mangroves and coral reefs, the deep sea and the
sea floor. They can be contrasted with freshwater ecosystems, which
have a lower salt content.
Urban ecosystems are the cities, towns, and urban strips constructed by
humans.
Human ecosystems are complex cybernetic systems that are
increasingly being used by ecological anthropologists and other scholars
to examine the ecological aspects of human communities in a way that
integrates multiple factors as economics, socio-political organization,
psychological factors, and physical factors related to the environment.

By: Engr. Marlon Occea Martinez

Ecological Concepts
A population is a group of organisms of the same species that

live in the same area at the same time.

The term habitat refers to the kind of place where an organism
normally lives. It includes the arrangement of food, water,
shelter and space that is suitable to meet an organism's needs.
You can think of this as the "address" where an organism lives.
A niche is the "occupation" of an organism. It defines the role
of an organism in an ecosystem, such as a "fish-eating wader"
for a heron, or a "plant-juice-sipping summer buzzer" for a
cicada. An organism's niche may change during different life
stages. For example, a tadpole typically lives in the water and
eats plant material, while the adult frog may catch insects from
the shore.

By: Engr. Marlon Occea Martinez

Ecological Concepts
The flow of sunlight energy is therefore passed from producers

(green plants) to primary consumers (animals that eat plants,

such as leafhoppers) to secondary consumers (animals that eat
other animals, such as birds); this sequence is known as a food
chain.
As energy is passed along the food chain, much is used up at
each level as it works to run each organism. This energy is given
off as heat and results in less energy being available at each
stage along the food chain. It takes a lot of grass to support one
rabbit, and many rabbits to support one hawk. As a
consequence, there are many, many green plants on the Earth,
fewer animals that eat plants, and even fewer animals that eat
animals; this is known as the energy pyramid.

By: Engr. Marlon Occea Martinez

Ecological Concepts
Parasitism- it is a kind of relationship where one organism benefits while
the other is badly affected.
Commensalism- a kind of relationship where one organism is benefited
while the other is unaffected.
Predation -a kind of relationship where small organisms are hunted and

eaten by bigger organisms.

Competition-where the two organisms fight in order to survive or "survival

of the fittest"

Mutualism- "the give and take relationship" where the two organisms
benefit each other
Saprophytism-a kind of relationship wherein living things depend on dead
materials for food and existence (ex. Mushrooms growing on a dead tree)

Patterns and Process by which

Nature Sustain Life

By: Engr. Marlon Occea Martinez

Networks
All living things in an ecosystem are interconnected through networks of relationship. They depend on this web of life to survive.
For example: In a garden, a network of pollinators promotes genetic diversity; plants, in turn, provide nectar and pollen to the
pollinators.

Nested Systems
Nature is made up of systems that are nested within systems. Each individual system is an integrated whole and at the same
time part of larger systems. Changes within a system can affect the sustainability of the systems that are nested within it as well
as the larger systems in which it exists. For example: Cells are nested within organs within organisms within ecosystems.

Cycles
Members of an ecological community depend on the exchange of resources in continual cycles. Cycles within an ecosystem
intersect with larger regional and global cycles. For example: Water cycles through a garden and is also part of the global water
cycle.

Flows
Each organism needs a continual flow of energy to stay alive. The constant flow of energy from the sun to Earth sustains life and
drives most ecological cycles. For example: Energy flows through a food web when a plant converts the sun's energy through
photosynthesis, a mouse eats the plant, a snake eats the mouse, and a hawk eats the snake. In each transfer, some energy is lost
as heat, requiring an ongoing energy flow into the system.

Development
All life from individual organisms to species to ecosystems changes over time. Individuals develop and learn, species adapt
and evolve, and organisms in ecosystems coevolve. For example: Hummingbirds and honeysuckle flowers have developed in ways
that benefit each other; the hummingbird's color vision and slender bill coincide with the colors and shapes of the flowers.

Dynamic Balance
Ecological communities act as feedback loops, so that the community maintains a relatively steady state that also has continual
fluctuations. This dynamic balance provides resiliency in the face of ecosystem change. For example: Ladybugs in a garden eat
aphids. When the aphid population falls, some ladybugs die off, which permits the aphid population to rise again, which
supports more ladybugs. The populations of the individual species rise and fall, but balance within the system allows them to
thrive together.

By: Engr. Marlon Occea Martinez

Environmental Engineering
Is manifest by sound engineering thought and practice in the

solution of problems of environmental sanitation, notably in the

provision of safe, palatable, and ample public water supplies; the
proper disposal of or recycle of wastewater and solid wastes; the
adequate drainage of urban and rural areas for proper sanitation;
and the control of water, soil, and atmospheric pollution, and the
social and environmental impact of these solutions. Furthermore it
is concerned with engineering problems in the field of public
health, such as control of arthropod-borne diseases, the
elimination of industrial health hazards, and the provision of
adequate sanitation in urban, rural and recreational areas, and the
effect of technological advances on the environment (ASCE)

By: Engr. Marlon Occea Martinez

Objectives in Learning
Environmental Engineering

1. Provision of safe, palatable, and ample public water

supplies.
2. Proper disposal of or recycling of wastewater and solid

wastes.
3. Control of water, soil, and atmospheric pollution

(including noise as an atmospheric pollutant).

By: Engr. Marlon Occea Martinez

Biogeochemical Cycles
In ecology and Earth science, a biogeochemical

cycle or nutrient cycle is a pathway by which a

chemical element or molecule moves through both
biotic (biosphere) and abiotic (lithosphere,
atmosphere, and hydrosphere) compartments of
Earth. In effect, the element is recycled, although in
some cycles there may be places (called reservoirs)
where the element is accumulated or held for a long
period of time (such as an ocean or lake for water).

By: Engr. Marlon Occea Martinez

Biogeochemical Cycles
Carbon Cycle (15 min)
Nitrogen Cycle (15 min)
Oxygen Cycle (15 min)

Phosphorus Cycle (15 min)

Sulfur Cycle (15 min)
Water Cycle (15 min)

By: Engr. Marlon Occea Martinez

Water Cycle

By: Engr. Marlon Occea Martinez

Assignment
1. Enumerate the Different Ecosystems and

discuss their relationships with each other.

2. Identify Target companies (including target
persons and contact numbers and/or e-mails)
and discuss the different points of topics within
the class.