Preface vii I, CellularBasic of life 1.1Levels of organization1 1.2Units of Life and Processes 2 2. Chemical Composition of living Organisms 18 2.1 Chemical Elements 18 2.2 Biotic Substances 3. Biological Communities and Species Interactions 23 3.1Interactions between Spices23 3.2 Natural Seletlion 25 3.3Species Richness 27 3.4 Ecological Succession 28 4 Ecosystems33 4. 1 Structure of ecosystems 33 4.2Functions of ecosystem 43 4.3Type of ecosystem 50 4.4Primary Production 54 4.5Energy Flow in Ecosystems58 4.6Food Chain and Food Web 64 4.7Secondary Productivity 66 4.8Decomposition 67 5. Natural Resources 68 5.1 Forest Resources 68 5.2 Water Resources 74 5.3Mineral Resources 77 5.4Food Resources80 5.5Energy Resources85 5.6Land and Soil Resources98 6. Biodiversity and Conservation 100 6.1IiiipiirtanccoiBiodiversily 100 6.2 Ecosystem in India 102 6.3 Diversity and ecosystem Processes104 6.4 Biodiversity Conservalion 106 7. Water polution and Treatment 112 7.1 Major Pollutants I112 72 Sources ol Pollution 117 7.3 SurfaceWater Pollution 117 7.4 Ground water Pollution 117 7.5 Treatment of water 118 7.6 Waste water 119 7.7 Industrial Wastewater 122 7.8 Tertiury Tretment Processes 146 7.9 Decentralised wastewater treatment 148 7.10 Onsite treatment system 146 7. 1 1 Ecosan Concept 149 7 12 Bacterial Pathogens in Wastewater 150 8. Soil Pollution 152 8.1 Composition of Soil 152 8.2 Sources of pollutants 152 8.3 Xenobiotics in soil Contamination 155 8.4 Degradation of Organic pollutants 156 8.5 Effects of Polluianrs on Soil 156 8.6 remediation of soil Contamination 157 8.7 Control of Soil pollution 158 9. Air Pollution and Control 160 9.1 Sources of Air Pollulion 160 9.2 Air Pollutants161 9.3 Air Pollution and climate change 165 9.4 Control of Air Pollution 167 9.5 Air Qujlily Standards 168 10- Noise Pollution171 10.1 Propeilies of Noise 171 10.2 Sources of Noise 171 10.3Effects of Noise 172 10.4 Control of Noise 173 105 Standards for Noise174 11. Solid and Hazardous Waste management 176 11.1 Types of Solid 177 112 Characlerizalion of Solid 178 1 1 .3 Hazardous Waste Management 189 11.4 Biomedical Waste Management 192 12. Human population Growth and Environment 198 12.1 Mdlthus Tlieory on Population 198 12.2 Population Growth 199 12.3 Age Structure 200 12.4 Fertility Rate and Replacement Growth 204 12. 5 Population Growth Momentum 205 12.6 Factors Affecting Population Growth 206 12.7 Stability and Growth of Population 206 12 .8 Control of Population Growth 207 12.9 Family Welfare programme for population control 208 12.10 Impacts of population on environment 210 12..11 Health and Epidemiology 210 Global Issue on Environment 216 13,1 Ozone Layer Depletion 216 13.2 Antarctic Ozone Hole 221 13.3 Arctic Ozon Hole 222 13.4 Impacts of Ozone222 13.5 The Greenhouse Effect 223 13.6 Water demand and management 225 13.7 Acid Rain 231 13.8 Biodiversiiy 234 13.9 Deforestetion-A Global Phenomenon 234 13.10 Natural Disaster and Mitigation 235 14, Environmental Management 237 14.1Environmental Impect Assessment 237 14.2Benef its of El A 238 14.2Characteristics of EIA Processes 238 14.4EIA Procedure 239 14.5Environmental Management Systems 240 14.6 LifeCycle Assessment 243 14.7Waste Minimization 246 14.8Environmental Risk Assessment (URA) 250 14.9 Precautionary Principle 252 14.10 Polluter Pays Principal (PPP) 233 14.11 Beneficiery Pays Principle 254 14.12 Central and SLEIEC Poll ut ion Control Boards and Pollution Control Acts in India 254 14.13 TamiNadu Pollution Control Board 256 14.14 Constitutional Provisions 258 14.15 International Conventions and Protocols on Environmental Protection 268 Appendix: Conservation Factors (US to SI Units) 272 Glossary 274 Bibliography 284 Internet Resources 290 index 292