ENVE206 Environmental Engineering Ecology

This course introduce students the concepts of environmental sustainability, ecosystems  and energy. On completion of this course, students will be able to: 1-) Distinguish among highly developed countries, moderately developed countries, and less developed countries; among the following ecological levels: population, community, ecosystem, landscape, and biosphere; factors that affect population size; between nuclear energy and chemical energy;  between energy conservation and energy efficiency; between municipal solid waste and nonmunicipal solid waste. 2-) Describe factors that determine human impact on the environment; sustainable development; typical pyramids of numbers, biomass, and energy; the main steps in biogeochemical cycles: carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, and hydrologic cycles; the four layers of Earth’s atmosphere; the eight aquatic ecosystems; global energy use; the processes that formed coal, oil, and natural gas; the nuclear fuel cycle; the relationship between nuclear power and greenhouse gas reduction; use of renewable energies; the composition of the atmosphere; the adverse health effects of specific air pollutants; climate change impact nonhuman life; the features of modern sanitary landfills; the various types of pesticides. 3-)  Define environmental sustainability; ecology; energy relation to work and to heat; energy flow, trophic level, and food web; evolution; competition ; symbiosis, mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism; predation; keystone species; ecological succession; prevailing winds, polar easterlies, westerlies, and trade winds; plate tectonics; the nine major terrestrial biomes; population and population ecology; growth rate (r); energy density and energy efficiency; fossil fuel; resource recovery and fluidized-bed combustion;  radioactive decay; biomass; stratospheric ozone thinning; forest decline; water pollution; primary and secondary sludge; persistent organic pollutant; hazardous waste. 4-) List the five stages in addressing environmental problems; the seven major classes of air pollutants; eight categories of water pollutants and state the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and discuss the implications of these laws as they relate to organisms. 5-) Summarize how energy flows through a food web; the effects of solar energy on Earth’s temperature; the important environmental factors that affect aquatic ecosystems; the environmental problems associated with using coal; the problems associated with pesticide use; persistence, bioaccumulation, and biological magnification. 6-) Write summary reactions for photosynthesis and cellular respiration, and contrast these two biological processes and give examples to contrast potential energy and kinetic energy; Give examples of effects of climate change on humans.