What is Environmental Sciences? Its Branches| Sciencerack.com

Hello Guys! Do you know what is Environmental Sciences? What is the scope of Environmental Sciences? Guys, now new trend has been arising now a days in respects to save our norms and resources. Most people say that this subject is not so good in the practical field but I am telling you that the future is all about Environmental studies. This subject is a need of the current era. In this post, I will tell you the aspects, scope, and branches of Environmental Sciences.

Environmental Sciences include food, energy, human population, Species, biodiversity, and global change. The trend of environmental sciences is very vast, which deals with many areas like:

• Conservation of natural resources
• Ecological aspects
• Pollution of the surrounding natural resources
• Controlling the pollution
• Social issues that are concerned with that
•  Impacts of the activities of humans and other populations in the environment

Furthermore, while studying the physical aspects of the environment, it also recognized that the need to conserve and improve biodiversity and adopt a more sustainable lifestyle and utilize resources in a responsible way.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) give awareness and guideline among today’s youth on pressing these problems which are concerned with the environment. The UGC has also implemented it and make it compulsory for the universities to make awareness about a course in environmental studies and teach students about the eco-system.

Furthermore, it emphasizes learning about different fluctuations occurring in that particular ecosystem, pollution, and problems concerned with the environment.

What is Environmental Sciences?

Environmental science is a multidisciplinary field that indicates physical, biological, and informational ideas about the study of the environment, and also about the solution of environmental problems. The Environmental sciences move out from the fields of natural history and medicine during the Enlightenment.

Now the Environmental scientists can study subjects like the earth processes, alternative energy systems, pollution control & mitigation, natural resource management and control, and the effects of global climate change. Environmental issues nearly always include an interaction of physical, chemical, and biological processes.

Environmental scientists introduced a system of approaches for the analysis of environmental problems. Essential key elements of an effective environmental scientist include the ability to compare space, and time relationships as well as quantitative analysis.

Although, Western Civilization has settled agriculture and the development of agricultural techniques created a communicative social fabric and spawned the growth of communities, as well as changed the structure of the earth with its overriding impacts on the natural environment.

As farming efficiency increased, a division of labor became possible, and communities began to build public and private structures that engineered solutions for specific public problems. Protection and defense of these structures and of the land became paramount, and other structures subsequently were built purely for defensive purposes.

In some communities, the conquest of neighbors required the construction of machines of war. Builders of war machines became known as environmental engineers. Environmental science is a degree with great career prospects, as well as it provides opportunities for further study.

Jobs in the environmental sector are typically very competitive and can require specialized study and significant work experience related to that field.

Fields of Environmental Sciences

There are five major fields of environmental science; each one made up of multiple disciplines. These five fields are:

•  Atmospheric Sciences
•  Ecology
• Environmental Chemistry
•  Geo-Sciences
• Social Sciences

Atmospheric Science -Environmental Sciences

Atmospheric science is the study of the dynamics and chemical aspects of the layers of gas that surrounds our Earth, other planets, and moons. This encompasses the interactions between various parts of the atmosphere as well as interactions with the oceans and freshwater resources, the biosphere, and human activities.

Examples:

1.  Depletion of ozone in the stratosphere (20–50 km above sea level).
2.  Degradation of air quality due to unwanted substances in many urban areas.
3.  The continued increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Branches of Atmospheric Science

• Climatology
• Atmospheric Chemistry
• Atmospheric Physics
• Paleotempestology

Climatology  -Environmental Sciences

Climatology is the study of climate-changing with the time periods. This helps people better understanding the atmospheric conditions due to which weather patterns and temperature change over time.

Climatology is also a branch of the atmospheric sciences and a subfield of physical geography. By the use of latitude, everyone can determine the likelihood of snow and hail reaching the surface. Climatology is different from meteorology and can be divided into different areas of study.

Atmospheric Chemistry -Environmental Sciences

Atmospheric chemistry deals with the study of the components of planetary atmospheres, particularly from the Earth. It precisely looks at the composition of planetary atmospheres and the reactions and interactions that drive these dynamic and diverse systems in Atmospheric Chemistry.

Atmospheric Physics -Environmental Sciences

Atmospheric physics describes the basic physical principles, atmospheric fluctuations that occur on a variety of temporal and spatial scales. Consequently, atmospheric physics could be interpreted broadly as including all atmospheric phenomena.

Paleotempestology -Environmental Sciences

Paleotempestology concerned about the past tropical cyclone activities through geological proxies and also historical documentary records. This term was coined by American meteorologist Kerry Emanuel. The common approach in Paleotempestology is the identification of deposits that are left by storms.

Ecology

Ecology is the complex study concerned with the spatial and temporal ways of the distribution and abundance of organisms, which includes the causes and consequences. Ecological relationships explain the interactions between and among organisms within their environment.

Fitness is the ability of a population to survive, reproduce and interbreed in its environment. The successful physical traits and behaviors (fitness) are inherited by the offspring of organisms through interbreeding.

Example:

An example of ecology is studying the food chain in a wetlands area.

Types of Ecology – An Environmental Sciences

• Molecular ecology,
• Organismal ecology, 
• Population ecology,
• Community ecology,
• Global ecology,
• Landscape ecology and
• Ecosystem ecology
• Conservation Ecology
• Wildlife Ecology
• Evolutional Ecology
• Aquatic Ecology
• Marine Ecology
• Restoration Ecology
• Urban Ecology
• Deep Ecology

Molecular Ecology -Environmental Sciences

Molecular ecology is the study of evolutionary biology which is concerned with applying molecular population genetics, molecular phylogenetics, and much-advanced genomics to traditional ecological questions. For example,  species diagnosis, conservation of species and assessment of biodiversity, species-area relationships, etc.

 Applications of Molecular Biology

Disease preventions technique, curing regulations, production of new protein-containing products, and manipulation of genes in plant and animal species for obtaining desired phenotypic traits are all applications that are routinely concerning with the application of molecular biology methods.

Importance of Molecular Biology

One of the most useful advances has been applied for the development of molecular biology. In molecular biology, scientists look at the proteins and other molecules that control life metabolism. While these molecules can evolve just as an entire organism can, some important molecules are highly conserved between these species

Organismal Ecology

Organismal ecology has focused on the morphological, physiological, and behavioral adaptations that let an organism survive in a specific habitat. Population ecology studies the number of individuals surviving in an area, as well as how and why their population size changes over time?

Examples of Organismal Ecology

Kramer blue butterfly:-  The Kramer blue butterfly ( scientific name, Lycaeides Melissa Samuel’s) is a common butterfly that lives only in open areas with few trees or shrubs, such as pine barrens and oak savannas. Wild lupine: The wild lupine (Lupines preening) is the host plant for the Kramer blue butterfly.

Population Ecology

Population ecology concerned about the different motions of species populations and how these populations can create interactions with their environment? As well as birth and death quantities, and through immigration and emigration

For example, a larger, denser population will be decimated more easily and rapidly by the spread of disease than a widely dispersed population

Community Ecology – Environmental Sciences

In Community ecology or synecology, the whole concern is about the interactions between species living in a different vast number of communities on many spatial and temporal scales, like distribution, structure, abundance, demography, and interactions between coexisting populations.

In ecology, a neighborhood is the affiliation of populations of two or extra special species occupying the identical geographical vicinity at the identical time, additionally regarded as a biocoenosis.

Global Ecology

Global ecology is learning about the Earth ecosystem. Its reason of finding out about is the entirety of lifestyles (animals, plants, microbes) and life-support structures like, (air, water resources, and soil) on the Earth, variously referred to as the biosphere, the ecosphere, the world ecosystem, Gaia, and the Earth device.

Global ecology is the study of the interactions among the Earth’s ecosystems, land, atmosphere, and oceans.

Landscape Ecology – Environmental Sciences

Landscape ecology is the study of science and correctness of the relationships between ecological processes occurring in the environment and also in the specific ecosystems. This is done through different landscape scales, development spatial patterns, and organizational levels of research and policy.

OR

Landscape Ecology is the model of a well-organized and fast-developing interdisciplinary field of science which focuses explicitly on the ecological understanding of spatial heterogeneity.

Landscape Ecology draws together expertise from both biophysical and socioeconomic sciences to explain basic and applied research questions concerned with the ecology, conservation, management, design/planning, and sustainability of landscapes as coupled human-environment systems.

Ecosystem Ecology

Ecosystem ecology is the complex study of living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) components of the ecosystems and their interactions within an ecosystem framework. This science determines how ecosystems work and relates this to their components such as chemicals, bedrock, soil, plants, and animals.

Examples:  Sustainable food production and sustainable waste management.

Conservation Ecology

Conservation ecology is the branch of ecology and evolution that deals with the conservation and management of biodiversity (in which different populations and species survive) and natural resources. It is a regulation that is emerging rapidly as a result of the accelerating destruction of natural systems and the worldwide epidemic of species extinctions.

Wildlife Ecology

Wildlife ecology is the science about the practice of wildlife management that seeks to manage wildlife populations for the benefit of humans. Although people can enjoy viewing wildlife and hunting animals for food and fur and for their own benefits, conflicts arise because wild animals kill livestock, cause vehicle collisions, and damage crops.

Evolutional Ecology

Evolutionary ecology lies between the intersection of ecology and evolutionary biology. It is about the study of ecology in such a way that in a clear and mannered considers the evolutionary previous events of species and the interactions between them.

The evolution that carefully determines that how interactions between and within species evolve? It explicitly supposed the evolutionary effects of competitors, mutualists, predators, prey, and pathogens that are affecting that particular environment.

Aquatic Ecology

Aquatic ecology is also called an ecosystem in a body of water. Different groups of organisms that are dependent on each other and on their environment live in an aquatic environment. The two main types of aquatic ecosystems are marine ecosystems and freshwater ecosystems.

Aquatic ecology examines the interaction between the physical, chemical, and biological factors of aquatic ecosystems. Water is an important factor for all living things on Earth and it is one of the most precious natural resources flowing through the forests.

Marine Ecology

Marine ecosystems are the greatest of Earth’s aquatic ecosystems and are recognized by different water resources that have a high salt concentration. These systems have a contrast with freshwater ecosystems, which have a lower salt concentration also with respect to different living creations adopted according to their suitable environment.

Urban Ecology

Urban ecology is the systematic study of the relation of living organisms with each other and their surroundings with respect to the urban environment and the living standards of people. The most special concern is the dynamic evolution of cities and contrast in urban structure across most time periods, societies, and urban levels.

Deep Ecology

Deep ecology concerns with environmental philosophy which provides an easy success to the inherent worth of all living beings irrespective of their instrumental utilization for human needs, plus the restructuring of modern human societies in accordance with that concerns and ideas.

Final Words

Hope so you have read this topic carefully in which I have explained the Environmental Sciences scope. I have tried my best to convey complete and authentic information to you. Basically, Environmental Sciences is very in-demand field now a days. f you have any questions related to this topic, you can ask freely in comment section box. Thank You!