Ecology, Ecosystems and Coastal Management

Community ecology and population biology are particular areas of strength, covering the nature of species interactions, the composition of species assemblages over space and time, evolutionary ecology, and population dynamics. Current foci include disease ecology, plant-animal interactions, and trait-mediated interactions and other conceptual areas including behavioral ecology, climate change, ecosystem ecology, evolutionary genetics, and phylogenetics.

One area that has captured the attention of several labs is how rapid evolutionary change can shape population and community dynamics. Community ecology and population biology interfaces with Organismal Biology, which concentrates on the ecology and life-history evolution of single species. Applied research in community ecology and population biology includes work on conservation biology, invasions, biodiversity, disease dynamics, and agroecology in systems that range from the coral reefs to local corn fields.

The interaction between biological molecules, cells or individuals often leads to emergent properties that cannot be predicted from the characteristics of a single unit. Systems Biology attempts to quantify the richness of such interactions in living systems. Evolutionary Systems Biology takes the research one step further by examining the consequences of changing the interaction through evolution by natural selection. By combining mathematical model, population genetics and experimentation, Evolutionary System Biology attempts to determine the causal relationships generating the interactions. We are interested in taking this research one step further by examining the consequences of changing the interactions through evolution by natural selection. We combine a variety of approaches including mathematical modeling, population genetics, molecular genetics, microscopy, and experimental evolution.

The study dealing with both biotic and abiotic features of an ecosystem and their interaction with one another which allow us to study the life and the base unit for supporting it, as the whole life hinge on resource recycling among the biotic and abiotic component the main objective of the ecosystem ecology is to work out on these interactions working on fields like atmospheric chemistry, physiology, hydrology, social science and ecology. Understanding the function of ecosystem begins with understanding the conversion of sunlight to usable energy, nutrition cycle and the impact of all on the mankind. In other words, ecosystem ecology is the study of biotic and abiotic components within the surrounding and their interaction with both natural and artificial changes.

Human ecology is an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary study of the relationship between humans and their natural, social, and built environments. Environmental psychology is an interdisciplinary field that focuses on the interplay between individuals and their surroundings. It examines the way in which the natural environment and our built environments shape us as individuals. The field defines the term environment broadly, encompassing natural environments, social settings, built environments, learning environments, and informational environments.

1. Characteristics of Environmental Psychology
2. Influence of Environment on Behavior
3. Applied Environmental Psychology
4. The Nature and Scope of Environmental Psychology

Ecological economics is both a transdisciplinary and an interdisciplinary field of academic research addressing the interdependence and coevolution of human economies and natural ecosystems, both intertemporally and spatially. By treating the economy as a subsystem of Earth's larger ecosystem, and by emphasizing the preservation of natural capital, the field of ecological economics is differentiated from environmental economics, which is the mainstream economic analysis of the environment. One survey of German economists found that ecological and environmental economics are different schools of economic thought, with ecological economists emphasizing strong sustainability and rejecting the proposition that natural capital can be substituted by human-made capital.

1. Methodology
2. Allocation of resources
3. Weak versus strong sustainability
4. Energy economics
5. Energy accounting and balance
6. Ecosystem services and their valuation
7. Not 'externalities', but cost shifting
8. Ecological-economic modeling

Track 12: Climate and Global Changes 

Climate change is a major threat to biodiversity. Energy which is a major part of Biodiversity usually defined as the ability to do work. An energy system may be thought of as an interrelated network of Biodiversity and stores of energy, connected by transmission and distribution of that energy to where it is needed. The transformation from stores of energy in food to work and subsequent dissipation of energy is an example of such a system. It is now widely recognized that biodiversity and climate change are interconnected. Biodiversity is affected by climate change, with negative consequences for human well-being, but biodiversity, through the ecosystem services it supports, also makes an important contribution to both climate change mitigation and adaptation. Conserving natural terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems and restoring degraded ecosystems (including their genetic and species diversity) is essential for the overall goals of both the Convention on Biological Diversity and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change because ecosystems play a key role in the global carbon cycleand in adapting to climate change, while also providing a wide range of ecosystem services that are essential for human well-being and the achievement of  the Millennium Development Goals

• Global Environmental Issues
• Environmental Pollution
• Disasters and their Management
• Conservation of Natural Resources
• Environmental Monitoring Analysis

Behavioral Ecology, additionally spelled conduct biology, is the investigation of the transformative reason for creature conduct because of natural weights. Conduct biology rose up out of ethology after Niko Tinbergen delineated four inquiries to address when concentrating creature practices that are the proximate causes, ontogeny, survival esteem, and phylogeny of conduct.

Behavioral ecology in its broadest sense is the investigation of adjustments, and the particular weights that yield them, in various biological conditions. A few adjustments are conduct and at times conduct drives the advancement of new adjustments by making new specific conditions.

Ecosystems, whether at the scale of a planet, forest, or urban garden, involve tightly-coupled interactions between social and biophysical processes. Understanding the nature and properties of the resulting feedbacks has its roots in ecosystem science and environmental studies. Sustainable development has two components: “sustainability” and “development.” The basic meaning of the word sustainability is the capacity for continuance indefinitely into the future. Sustainable development has been viewed as an interaction between three systems: biological, economic, and social. Sustainability does not simply mean retaining the material standards of living and environmental preservation. It is a matter of active participation of humankind in the improvement of natural systems and the redesign of global systems that leads to the conservation of our planet for future generations. Inefficient use of land, soils, water, energy, and inappropriate growing of crops and domestic animals are among the major obstacles to sustainable development in improving living standards and the environment.

• Nutrient cycling
• Decomposition
• Ecosystem management
• Oceans
• Cultivated land

A Watershed is the area of land where all of the water that is under it or drains off of it goes into the same place. Watershed Ecology is the study of watersheds as ecosystems, primarily the analysis of interacting biotic and abiotic components within a watershed’s boundaries. Defining an ecosystem as a functioning natural unit with interacting biotic and abiotic components in a system whose boundaries are determined by the cycles and flux of energy, materials and organisms. Then a watershed is just one of many types of ecosystems. An area of land that drains water, sediment and dissolved materials to a common receiving body or outlet. The term is not restricted to surface water runoff and includes interactions with subsurface water. Watersheds vary from the largest river basins to just acres or less in size. The study of watersheds as ecosystems, primarily the analysis of interacting biotic and abiotic components within a watershed’s boundaries. Watershed ecology is essential knowledge for watershed managers because it teaches us that watersheds have structural and functional characteristics that can influence how human and natural communities coexist within them. The gross structure of a watershed -- its headwaters area, side slopes, valley floor, and water body, as well as its soils, minerals, native plants and animals are, in one sense, raw material for all the human activities that may potentially occur there. The watershed’s natural processes rainfall runoff, groundwater recharge, sediment transport, plant succession, and many others provide beneficial services when functioning properly, but may cause disasters when misunderstood and disrupted. It is crucial for people to understand watersheds and how they work before they make decisions or take actions that may affect important watershed structural or functional characteristics.

• Arenal Lake watershed
• Precipitation
• Dams
• Surface runoff
• Infiltration

Marine ecosystems are the biggest of Earth's sea-going environments and are recognized by waters that have a high salt substance. These frameworks stand out from freshwater biological communities, which have a lower salt substance. Marine waters spread over 70% of the outside of the Earth and record for over 97% of Earth's water supply and 90% of livable space on Earth. Marine biological communities incorporate near shore frameworks, for example, the salt bogs, mudflats, sea grass glades, mangroves, rough intertidal frameworks and coral reefs.

Types:

• Salt Marsh
• Mangroves
• Intertidal Zone
• Estuaries
• Lagoons
• Coral reefs
• Deep sea and Sea floor

Environmental chemistry is the scientific review of the chemical and biochemical phenomena that occur in natural places. Environmental chemistry can be described as the study of the sources, reactions, transport, effects of chemical species in the air, soil, and water environments; and the effect of human activity on these. Environmental chemistry is an integrative science that includes atmospheric, aquatic and soil chemistry, as well as uses analytical chemistry. It is allied to environmental and other areas of science. Environmental toxicology is a related interdisciplinary field that uses knowledge from environmental chemistry, toxicology and ecology to understand the ultimate fate and effects of man-made pollutants, the mechanisms by which pollutants impact the health of organisms and entire ecosystems, and how those effects may be mitigated or reversed. Biodegradation discharges carbon dioxide and water as side-effects into the earth. This procedure is regularly restricted in zones influenced by natural toxicants. Hurtful impacts of such concoction and natural specialists as toxicants from contaminations, bug sprays, pesticides, and manures can influence a life form and its locale by lessening its species assorted variety and plenitude. Such changes in populace elements influence the biological community by lessening its efficiency and steadiness.

Conservation management system (CMS) is a procedure for maintaining a species or habitat in a particular state. A protection administration framework (CMS) is a system for keeping up an animal groups or natural surroundings in a specific state. It is a method whereby mankind secures untamed life in an ideal condition for examination, instruction or research, in unendingness. It is a critical theme in social environment, where preservation administration offsets unchecked exploitative administration of common assets. Preservation administration frameworks are imperative for transforming practical advancement techniques into fruitful operations. In New Zealand the Department of Conservation develops conservation management strategies in conjunction with the community as a means of prioritizing conservation issues.

• Conservation Law
• Land designated for Conservation
• Physical law of Conservation
• Economics and Law
• Conservation of Environment

Track 4: Climate and Carbon Exchange

Climate is the average weather in a place over many years. While the weather can change in just a few hours, climate takes hundreds, thousands, even millions of years to change. The composite or generally prevailing weather conditions of a region, as temperature, air pressure, humidity, precipitation, sunshine, cloudiness, and winds, throughout the year, averaged over a series of years. The aggregate sum of warmth and light vitality ingested from the sun precisely breaks even with the warmth vitality that emanates out into space – nearly, in light of the fact that a little sum is caught by plants and maritime green growth for photosynthesis. As the environment underpins life, so life continues the climate. It does as such through the carbon cycle – a characteristic carbon-reusing framework fueled by photosynthesis. Carbon trading is a market-based system aimed at reducing greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, particularly carbon dioxide emitted by burning fossil fuels. Cap and trade schemes have been very effective in tackling environmental problems in the past, with trading in sulphur dioxide permits helping to limit acid rain in the US. The big attraction for governments concerned with stemming CO2 is that carbon trading is much easier to implement than expensive direct regulations and unpopular carbon taxes.

• Water Cycle
• Weather and Climate
• Hydrologic Cycle
• Regulatory
• Profitability

Our session gives powerful estimation and displaying devices to measure and gauge sources and sinks of carbon dioxide (CO2), and the impacts of land-use change and the executives ashore climate CO2 trade at numerous scales in world earthbound frameworks.

Restoration ecology is the scholarly investigation of the procedure, though natural reclamation is the real undertaking or procedure by reclamation experts. The Society for Ecological Restoration characterizes "biological reclamation" as a "deliberate movement that starts or quickens the recuperation of an environment as for its wellbeing, honesty and sustainability". Ecological restoration incorporates a wide extent of activities including disintegration control, reforestation, evacuation of non-local species and weeds, re-vegetation of aggravated regions, daylighting streams, reintroduction of local species (ideally local species that have neighborhood adjustment), and living space and range improvement for focused species.

Biodiversity, a compression of "organic differing qualities," for the most part alludes to the assortment and changeability of life on Earth. A standout amongst the most broadly utilized definitions characterizes it as a part of terms of the changeability inside species, amongst species and between biological communities. It is a measure of the assortment of creatures present in various biological systems. This can allude to hereditary variety, biological system variety, or species variety (number of species) inside a range, biome, or planet. Biodiversity has a tendency to be more prominent close to the equator, which is by all accounts the consequence of the warm atmosphere and high essential profitability. Biodiversity is not conveyed equally on Earth. It is wealthiest in the tropics. Marine biodiversity has a tendency to be most elevated along coasts in the Western Pacific, where ocean surface temperature is most astounding and in the mid-latitudinal band in all seas. There are latitudinal slopes in species differing qualities. Biodiversity for the most part tends to bunch in hotspots, and has been expanding through time, yet will be probably going to moderate later on.

• Genetic Diversity
• Species Diversity
• Ecological Diversity
• Genetic resources
• Invasive species

Ecology is the scientific study of the interactions that determine the distribution and abundance of organisms. Predicting and maintaining or altering the distribution and abundance of various organisms are the primary goals of natural resource management hence, the effective management of natural ecosystems depends on ecological knowledge. Paradoxically, management of ecosystems often ignores relevant ecological theory and many ecological investigations are pursued without appropriate consideration of management implications. The fundamental thesis of this book is that ecological principles can, and should, serve as the primary basis for the management of natural ecosystems, including their plant and animal populations. Rangeland Ecology and Management focuses on the biological and physical processes of ecosystems and application of this knowledge to sustainable use of range lands. Selection of courses in wildlife or fisheries science, watershed management and Eco hydrology, soil and water science, animal and plant science, or agricultural and resource economics can enhance employment opportunities. 

• Adaptive management
• Integrated natural resource management
• Anthropocentrism
• Eco centrism
• Renewable resources