Everything that surrounds us is environment.

It includes both living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic)

components.

➤ Interaction between these biotic and abiotic components forms an ecosystem. In an ecosystem, living
components depend on each other for their food which gives rise to food chains and food webs in
nature.

➤ Human activities lead to environmental problems such as depletion of ozone layer and production of
huge amount of garbage.

➤ Ecosystem: All the interacting organisms in an area together with the non- living constituents of the
environment form an ecosystem. e.g., forest, pond etc.

Types of Ecosystem: It is of two types:

(a) Natural Ecosystem: The ecosystem which exists in nature on its own. e.g., forest, lake, ocean, etc.

(b) Artificial Ecosystem: Man-made ecosystem is called artificial ecosystem. e.g., crop field, aquarium,
garden, etc.

Herbivores, carnivores, omnivores and parasites are the various type of consumers.

Consumers are those organisms which depend upon the producers for food, either directly or indirectly
by feeding on other consumers for their sustenance. They are also called heterotrophs.

Parasites are those organisms that live outside (ectoparasites) or inside (endoparasites) the body of
another organisms, ir, hoste g., parasites of human include fleas and lice.

➤ Decomposers are those micro-organisms that obtain energy from the chemical break down of dead
organisms or animals or plant wastes. Decomposers break down the complex organic substances into
simple inorganic substances that go into the soil and are used up again by the plants.

Food chain is the sequence of organisms through which food energy flows in an ecosystem. It is a
succession of organisms that eat other organisms and may, in turn, be eaten themselves. Examples:

Grass

(Producer)

Grasshopper (Herbivore)

Frog (Carnivore)

Snake (Carnivore)

Eagle (Top Carnivore)

Trophic Levels are the various steps or levels in the food chain where transfer of food or energy takes
place. Producers are the first trophic level, herbivores are the second trophic level, carnivores or
secondary consumers are the third trophic level and large carnivores or tertiary consumers are the
fourth trophic level.

Food Web is the network of various food chains which are interconnected at various trophic levels. Since
an organism can occupy position in more than one food chain, in a food web it occupies more than one
trophic level. It represents the feeding relationship within the community.

Energy Flow: The flow of energy through different steps in the food chain is unidirectional. This means
that the energy that is captured by the autotrophs does not revert back to the solar input and the
energy which passes to the herbivores does not come back to autotrophs.

10 Percent Law: It states that only 10 per cent of food energy is transferred from one trophic level to the
next level. The remaining 90 per cent energy is used in life processes (digestion, growth, reproduction,
etc.) by the present trophic level.

Due to this gradual decrease in energy, food chains contain 3-4 trophic levels

Biological Magnification: The concentration of harmful chemicals goes on increasing with every next
trophic level in a food chain. This is called as biological magnification.

➤ Maximum concentration of such chemicals get accumulated in human bodies as human occupy the
top level in any food chain.

Waste Materials: Improvements in lifestyle have resulted in accumulation of large amounts of waste
materials.

➤ Garbage contains following type of materials:

(a) Biodegradable Wastes: Substances which can be decomposed by the action of micro-organisms are
called as biodegradable wastes. e.g., fruit and vegetable peels, cotton, jute, dung, paper, etc.

(b) Non-biodegradable Wastes: Substances which cannot be decomposed by the action of micro-
organisms are called as non-biodegradable wastes. e.g., plastic, polythene, metals, synthetic fibres,
radioactive wastes, pesticides, etc.

Methods of Waste Disposal:

(a) Biogas Plant: Biodegradable waste can be used in biogas plant to produce biogas and manure.

(b) Sewage Treatment Plant: The drain water can be cleaned in sewage treatment plant before adding it
to rivers.

(c) Land Fillings: The wastes are buried in low lying areas and are compacted by rolling with bulldozers.
(d) Composting: Organic wastes are filled in a compost pit and covered with a layer of soil, after about
three months garbage changes to manure.

(e) Recycling: Non-biodegradable waste are recycled to make new items.

(f) Reuse: It is a conventional technique to use an item again e.g., newspaper for making envelops

Ozone (O3) is not the isotope of oxygen. It is a molecule formed by three atoms of oxygen. Ozone
performs an essential function of shielding the surface of the earth from ultraviolet radiation of the sun.

Ozone layer is a layer of the earth's atmosphere in which most of the atmosphere's ozone is
concentrated.

➤ Ozone layer protects the earth from harmful UV radiations.

➤ There are several reasons for depletion of the ozone layer.

➤ The foremost is the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). The other factor responsible for ozone
destruction is the pollutant nitrogen monoxide (NO).

➤ When the harmful chemicals like chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are released into the air, it accumulates
in the upper atmosphere and reacts with ozone resulting in reduction in thickness of the ozone layer.

➤ Thus, the ozone layer in the atmosphere becomes thinner and gets depleted allowing more

ultraviolet rays to pass through it. This phenomenon is referred as the Ozone hole.

➤ The Antarctic hole in ozone layer is caused due to chlorine molecules present in chlorofluorocarbons
(CFCs), that are used by human beings.