ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Surroundings that influencing the growth of people, animals, and plants, etc., is called environment.

IN OUR EARTHS PLANET ENVIRONMENT DIVIDED INTO PARTS:

LITHOSPHERE: the mantle of rocks constituting the earth's crust is called the lithosphere.

HYDROSPHERE: this includes all the surface and groundwater resources. earth is called the blue planet because 75% of the surface is covered with the water.

ATMOSPHERE: This atmosphere includes the mixture of gases, extends up to 1000 km above the earth's surface. atmosphere broadly divided into 5 types:-

TROPOSPHERE: This is often the rock bottom a part of the atmosphere, the part we live in. The troposphere contains about 75% of the air within the atmosphere.

STRATOSPHERE: This extends upwards from the troposphere to about 50 km. It contains much of the ozone within the atmosphere. 

The increase in temperature with height occurs because of the absorption of ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun by this ozone.

Temperatures within the stratosphere are highest over the summer pole and lowest over the winter pole.

MESOSPHERE: The region above the stratosphere is named the mesosphere. Here the temperature again decreases with height, reaching a minimum of about -90°C.

THERMOSPHERE: The thermosphere lies above the mesosphere, and is a region in which temperatures again increase with height. 

This temperature increase is caused by the absorption of energetic ultraviolet and X-Ray radiation from the sun.

EXOSPHERE: The region above about 500 km is named exosphere. It contains mainly oxygen and hydrogen atoms, but there are so few of them that they rarely collide.

they follow "ballistic" trajectories under the influence of gravity, and some of them escape right out into space.

MAGNETOSPHERE: The earth behaves like a huge magnet. It traps electrons (negative charge) and protons (positive),

concentrating them in two bands about 3,000 and 16,000 km above the earth's surface - the Van Allen "radiation" belts. This outer region surrounding the earth,

where charged particles spiral along the magnetic field lines, is called the magnetosphere.

The atmosphere of Earth is consists of nitrogen (about 78%), oxygen (about 21%), argon (about 0.9%), carbon dioxide (0.04%), and other gases in trace amounts.

BIOSPHERE: this includes all the living organisms to exist.this is the interaction of all the parts.

BIOTIC COMPONENTS:

the plants and animals, microorganisms living in an ecosystem form the biotic component.

ABIOTIC COMPONENT:

the physical and chemical components of an ecosystem is called abiotic component.

ENERGY COMPONENT:

source energy is one that can provide an adequate amount of energy in a usable form over a long period of time.

The sources of energies are two types;

RENEWABLE ENERGY:( NON-CONSERVATIONAL)

energy from a source that's not depleted when used.

example:solar,geothermal,wind,tidal etc,.

NON-RENEWABLE ENERGY:(CONSERVATIONAL)

energy from a source that can be depleted by the usage.

example:coal,coke,crude oils,nuclear fuels etc,.

POLLUTANT:

it is a substance released by nature or human that causes the effect of the environment is called a pollutant.

example: sulfur dioxide,carbon monoxide,ozone,nitrous oxide.

CONTAMINANT:

it is released by the human or natural activity into the environment but before it is not present in the environment is called a contaminant.

example: methyl isocyanate.

POLLUTION:

It is the effect of the environment by the cause of change in physical or chemical characteristics of any component is called pollution.

example: air pollution, water pollution, soil pollution.

RECEPTOR:

the medium which is affected by the pollutant.

example: human eyes.

SINK:

the medium which reacts with the pollutant.

example: seawater.

DISSOLVED OXYGEN:

the amount of oxygen present in the water.mg/lit or ppm(parts per minute)

PARTICULATES:

the very fine solid and liquid particles collectively called particulates.

example:dust,smoke,smog etc,.