Ecology and Environmental Science : A Comprehensive Text Book
Contents: 1. Introduction to ecology and environmental science. 2. Organisms, environmental factors and adaptations. 3. Population ecology. 4. Community ecology. 5. Invasion ecology. 6. Gene ecology concept. 7. Ecosystem ecology. 8. Soil ecology and pollution. 9. World Biomes. 10. Biodiversity. 11. Forest resources. 12. Wildlife resources. 13. Water resources. 14. Atmospheric composition and climate. 15. Water pollution. 16. Methodology for water analysis. 17. Atmospheric pollution. 18. Noise pollution. 19. Municipal solid waste. 20. Ecotoxicology. 21. Phytoremediation of heavy metals. 22. Climate and environmental hazards. 23. Remote sensing. 24. Geographical information system (GIS). 25. Instrumentation. 26. Energy from biomass. 27. Energy. 28. Environmental statistics. 29. Environmental impact assessment and laws. 30. Miscellaneous topics. References.
In recent era of Anthropocene, rapid pace of industrialization and urbanization caused severe threat to natural systems and hand in hand perturbed the global ecosystems and environment. Before the launch of Rachel Carson novel Silent Spring in 1962, describing the impact of a pesticide on birds, environment was generally overlooked and development was the prime priority. After ten years of Carson book, occurrence of Stockholm conference in 1972 triggered and further encouraged a cascade of summit and conferences to make our planet a better place of living by following the path of sustainable development. Global Universities also took this opportunity to start the teaching and research in Ecology and Environmental Science in order to generate environmental awareness and quest of technologies to remediate the environment. This book Ecology and Environmental Science is an attempt to present the fundamental concepts covering various topics with in depth analysis. The thrust is to make the concepts clear, in as simple and comprehensive manner. The attempt was to target the academic welfare of undergraduate and post graduate students of all the global Universities. The book will also be useful for UGC-NET examination for post graduate students in India.
The material is organized into thirty chapters. Chapter 1 provides an insight to the concept of ecology and environmental science. Since organisms are integral component of environment, chapter 2 relates to their adaptations towards different environmental factors. Chapter 3-8 focus on ecology of population, community, biotic invasions, geneecology, ecosystem and soil. Chapter 9 (world biomes) and 10 (biodiversity) provides glimpse of variations at different levels. Chapter 11 to 13 emphasizes resources in context of forest, wildlife and water. Chapter 14 deals with atmospheric composition and climate. From here onwards we enter into the vast field of environmental science. Chapter 15-19 covers the environmental pollution aspect in relation to water, air, noise and municipal solid waste. Chapter 20 and 21 deals with the effect of hazardous chemicals in discipline ecotoxicology and heavy metal phytoremediation. Chapter 22 explains climate and environmental hazards. Since the launch of LANDSAT 1, there has been a rapid growth in science, technology and application of remote sensing and GIS. Couples of chapters (23 and 24) are dedicated to this technology. Chapter 25 (instrumentation) is very important for environmental monitoring and assessment. Chapter 26 and chapter 27 discuss energy from Biomass and Energy respectively. Chapter 28 and 29 covers environmental statistics and environmental impact assessment (EIA) with laws respectively. Finally, chapter 30 attempts to cover important miscellaneous topics in environmental science.
