27 Ecosystem and Eco-sensitivity

Ajeet Jaiswal

epgp books

 

 

    Contents:

 

1.      Introduction

2.      Ecosystem Ecology

3.      Kinds of Ecosystem

3.1 Natural ecosystems

3.2 Artificial (man-engineered) ecosystems

4.      Structure and Function of an Ecosystem

5.      Eco-sensitivity

6.      Ecologically sensitive area (ESA)

7.      Why Ecologically sensitive area?

8.      Demarcating Ecologically sensitive area

9.      Summary

 

Learning objectives:

  • The course provides introduction information about Ecosystem Ecology
  • It includes Kinds of Ecosystem and Structure and Function of an Ecosystem
  • The study of this module also enables the students at postgraduate level to understand the concept of Eco-sensitivity, Ecologically sensitive area and Demarcating Ecologically sensitive area

    1. Introduction:

 

One of the most striking features of the earth’s biota is its extraordinary diversity, estimated to include about10 million different species. One of the most conspicuous aspects of contemporary global change is the rapid declineof this diversity in many ecosystems. The decline is not limited to increased rates of species extinction, but includes losses in genetic and functional diversity across population, community, ecosystem, landscape, and global scales. The term biodiversity refers collectively to all these aspects of biotic diversity. The wide-ranging decline in biodiversity results largely from habitat modifications and destruction, increased rates of invasions by deliberately or accidentally introduced non-native species, over-exploitation and other human-caused impacts.

 

On a global scale, even at the lowest estimated current extinction rate, about half of all species could be extinct within 100 years. Such an event would be similar in magnitude to the five mass extinction events in the 3.5 billion year history of life on earth. On local and regional scales, biodiversity declines are already pronounced in many areas, especially where natural ecosystems have been converted to croplands, timber plantations, aquaculture and other managed ecosystems. The diversity of these managed ecosystems is often low, and species composition very different, compared with thoseof the natural systems they have replaced (Pimm et.al, 1995; Shahid et al., 1999).

 

What are the consequences of such declines in biodiversity and how might they affect human welfare? The earth’s living organisms contribute to human welfare in a variety of ways. First, humans derive from them goods and products essential to life, including food, medicine, and industrial products, genetic resources for crop breeding, and natural pest control services. Such benefits can be viewed as the market values of biodiversity because they are readily tied to our economy and often can be assigned a dollar value in the marketplace. Second, biodiversity has nonmarket values that can be expressed in terms such as knowledge, aesthetic, existence and othervalues. These non-market values of biodiversity are difficult to quantify, but are, for many, sufficient justification for preserving biodiversity independent of market values (Tilman and Downing, 1994).

 

A third category of value is ecosystem services. The organisms that live, grow, reproduce, and interact with in ecosystems help to mediatelocal and regional flows of energy and materials. Energy flow refers to the capture of light energy bygreen plant or algal photosynthesis and its dispersal as chemical energy throughout the food web to plant- or algal-feeding animals, predators, and eventually decomposers. The flow of materials involves the recycling of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and other elements between living organisms and the air, water, and soil (Shahid et al., 1999).

 

These biologically mediated energy and materials flows contribute to many ecological or life support services that benefit human welfare such as greenhouse gas regulation, water treatment, erosion control, soil quality control, and plant growth. Ecosystem services can also include cultural benefits, such as religious, aesthetic, recreational, or inspirational values that humans derive from ecosystems (Pimm et al., 1995).

 

Determining whether biodiversity per se is important to ecosystem functioning has been difficult, partly because many of the factors such as habitat conversion that reducelocal biodiversity also directly affect many ecological processes, masking the more subtle impacts of species loss on functioning. Recent studies, however, have begun to shed considerable light on the issue. These studies have shown that ecosystems are indeed sensitive to changes in the numbers and kinds of species found in their communities (Shahid et al., 1999).

 

2.  Ecosystem Ecology

 

At present ecological studies are made at ecosystem level and it has been one of the most recent developments in ecology, which is generally referrers to as the bioenergetic approach. At ecosystem level, the units of study are comparatively very large. And there are indeed no practical units, if nature is conceived as a single, giant ecosystem- the biosphere. The overall view of this type of approach is that living organisms and their non living environments are inseparable interrelated and interact with each other. Keeping this view in mend, the term ecosystem was proposed by A.G.Tansley in 1935, who derived it as ‘the system resulting from the integration of all the living and nonliving factors of the environment’. Thus he regarded ecosystem as including not only the organism –complex but also the whole complex of physical factors forming the environment. However the idea of ecosystem is by no means so recent, as allusions to the idea of unity of organisms and environment can be traced back to late 1800’s. We find in literature some such parallel terms as biocoenosis by Karl Mobius, 1877; microcosm by S.A. Forbes, 1887; geobiocoensis by V.V, Dokuchaev, 1846-1903; holocoen by Friedrichs, 1930; biosystem by Thienemann, 1939; bioenert body by Vernadsky, 1944 and ecosom, etc. used for such ecological systems. However, the term ecosystem is most preferred, where ‘eco’ implies the environment, and ‘system’ implies an interacting, inter-dependent complex (Sharma, 1996).

 

Thus any unit that includes all the organisms i.e. the communities in a given area, interact with the physical environment so that a flow of energy leads to clearly defined tropic structure, biotic diversity and material cycle (i.e. exchange of material between living and non- living components) within the system, known as an ecological system or ecosystem. Figure 1 shows a generalized scheme of nutritional relationships (food links) amongst the living organisms of such a system. Keeping this in view, we may think of the earth, we live upon as a giant ecosystem where abiotic and biotic components are constantly acting and reacting upon each other bringing forth structural and functional changes in it. This vast ecosystem- biosphere (figure 2) is, however, difficult to handle and thus for convenience we generally study nature by making its artificial subdivisions into units of smaller ecosystems (terrestrial– forest, desert, grassland; man- engineered as a cropland; aquatic– freshwater, marine etc.) of different sizes. An ecosystem may thus be as small as a pond, a cropland, or as large as an ocean, desert or forest. It must be remembered, however, that theses unit ecosystem are simply separated from each other with time and space, but functionally they all are indeed linked with each other, forming as an integrated whole. There exist practically no functional boundaries between them.

 

Figure 1: A generalized scheme of Nutritional relationship among different biotic components of an ecosystem (Sharma, 1996)

 

The recent development in ecological studies has been to undertake besides structure, the similarities and differences in food and energy relationships among living components of ecosystem that is generally referred to as the bioenergetics approach in modern ecology. Modern is thus, broadly defined as the study of ecosystems.

 

 

Figure 2: Diagrammatic representation of the basic types of ecosystems, all of which together constitute the giant ecosystem- the biosphere. Note in all centre, the generalized scheme of the structure and function of any unit ecosystem of the biosphere (Sharma, 1996)

 

An ecosystem is an overall integration of whole mosaics of interacting organisms and their environment. It is normally an open system with a continuous, but variable, influx and loss of materials and energy. It is a basic, functional unit with no limits of boundaries, consisting of both biotic and abiotic components interacting with each other, both necessary for maintenance of life upon earth. Thus, an ecosystem represents the highest level of ecological integration which is energy-based and this functional unit is capable of energy transformation, accumulation and circulation. Its main function in ecological sense is to emphasize obligatory relationship, interdependence and causal relations.

 

3. Kinds of Ecosystem

 

Different types of ecosystem of nature, constituting the giant ecosystem- the biosphere, are shown in figure 2. There may be artificially categorized as follows:

 

3.1 Natural ecosystems

 

These operate by themselves under natural conditions without any major interference by man. Based upon the particular kind of habitat, these are further divided as:

 

1.      Terrestrial: Forest, Grassland, Desert etc.

2.      Aquatic: (water-open): which may be further distinguished as:

a.      Fresh water: whichmay be lotic (running water as spring, stream, or rivers) or lentic(standing water as lake, pond, puddles, ditch, swamp etc.)

b.      Marine: such deep bodies as an ocean or shallow ones as a sea or estuary etc.

 

3.2 Artificial (man-engineered) ecosystems

 

These are maintained artificially by man where, by addition of energy and planned manipulations, natural balance is disturbed regularly. For example crop lands like maize, wheat, rice field etc., where man tries to control the biotic community as well as the physic-chemical environment, are artificial ecosystems.

 

In addition to above the rapid progress made during recent years led to the recognition of some other such types of ecosystem as space ecosystem etc.

 

4. Structure and Function of an Ecosystem

 

The two major aspects of an ecosystem are the structure and function. By structure we mean

(i) The composition of biological community including species, numbers, biomass, life history and distribution in space, etc.,

(ii)  The quantity and distribution of the non-living materials, such as nutrients, water etc., and

(iii) The range, or gradient of conditions of existence, such as temperature, light, etc.,

 

By function we mean:

(i)      The rate of biological energy flow i.e. the production and respiration rates of the community

(ii)     Rate of materials or nutrient cycles, and

(iii) Biological or ecological regulation including both regulation of organisms by environment (photoperiodism etc.) and regulation of environment by the organism, (nitrogen fixing organisms etc.).

 

Thus in any ecosystem, structure and function (rate functions) are studied together.

 

5. Eco-sensitivity

 

The concept of an ecologically sensitivity or eco-sensitivity is appealing but difficult. Consequently, eco-sensitivity is among themost widely used terms with no unequivocally accepted definition. In fact, eco-sensitivity is often considered synonymousto: environmentally sensitive areas (MacDonald, 2000; . Steiner, et al., 2000; Capuzucca, and Hill, 2001; Saxena, et al., 2007; Hemkumara, 2009), environmentally sensitive zones (Anon, 2008), ecologically sensitive ecosystem (Lin, 2006), ecologically sensitive sites etc., depending upon the context and the area or location of conservation interest. In mostof these situations, the terms used are without any specific definition or with variable meanings (Table 1) (Gadgil et al., 2011). For this reason, while it is possible only to list a set of criteria that characterise eco-sensitivity, all of them will not be applicable in all situations.

 

One such criterion is that eco-sensitivity is expected to have low levels of resilience, and hence is difficult to be recovered or restored if perturbed by external influences. Ecology Expert Panel (EEP), set up by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India (GOI), noted that, world over a number of features are being used foridentifying ecologically sensitivity or eco-sensitivity in different contexts. In fact, several of these criteria refer more to the significance, either ecological or economic, than to the resilience of the locality (Table 1) (Gadgil et al., 2011).

 

Given that the ultimate purpose of identifyingecologically sensitivity or eco-sensitivity is to promote environment-friendly management regimes and conservation of the ecological wealth of thesites, it is evidently necessary to consider features that define ecological and economic values, along with there silience of the locality while identifying ecologically sensitivity or eco-sensitivity area. Therefore, following a country-wide consultation among expertsand interested stakeholders, Ecology Expert Panel has attemptedto re-evaluate the concept of eco-sensitivity area, redefine it for thepurpose at hand and develop a consensus protocol forscoring levels of ecological significance and sensitivity, leading eventually to a mapping of eco-sensitivity area.

 

Table 1. Terminologies used and the attributes suggested to be used while assigning ‘ecological salience’ scores or eco-sensitivity (Gadgil et al., 2011).

 

6. Ecologically sensitive area (ESA)

 

Focusing on resilience, the Macmillan Dictionary (http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/environmentally-sensitive-area) defines an environmentally sensitive area as ‘an area where the natural environment caneasily be harmed’. We may therefore employ as a starting point the definition of ecologically sensitive areas as those ‘ecological units that may be easily affected or harmed’.

 

However, for operational purposes, we need to also consider the significance, and not just sensitivity, and therefore would like to define ESAs as those areas ‘that are ecologically and economically important, but vulnerable even to mild disturbances, and hence demand careful management’. We consider ‘ecologically and economically important’ areas as those areas that are biologicallyand ecologically ‘rich’, ‘valuable’ and or ‘unique’, and are largely irreplaceable if destroyed. Further, by virtueof their biological richness, they could be potentially of high value to human societies, help in maintaining the ecological stability of the area, and be significant in conserving biological diversity. Similarly, their ‘uniqueness’ may be recognized either by the rarity of the living systems they harbour, that are difficult to replace if lost, or by the uniqueness of the services they offer to human society. Their ‘vulnerability’ could be determined by physiographic features that are prone to erosion or degradation under human and other influences such as erratic climate, and on the basis of historical experience. The Pronab Sen Committee (Sen, 2000) report as well as several other earlier attemptsto define ESAs have also suggested these componentsas directly or indirectly important (Table 1) (Gadgil et al., 2011).

 

As noted above, world over, ESAs are being proposed not merely as sensitive areas, but also as ‘ecologically significant areas’. Their significance may lie in their biologicalvalue, ecological value, economic value, culturaland historical values (for instance, as sacred groves orforts), and also in being sensitive to external natural and anthropogenic pressures. Therefore, they need to be conserved taking the local context into account, on the basisof graduated or layered regulations as well as positive incentives depending upon their intrinsic value and extent of resilience.

 

Indeed we believe that there is a consensus,that ESAs shall not only be ecologically sensitive areas,but also ecologically, economically and culturally significantareas. Since ‘sensitive’ and ‘significant’ each hasits specific connotation, it would be useful to employ anotherword for the broader concept. Such a word is salient,whose meaning includes: ‘relative importance basedon context’. Therefore, we propose to use the term ‘ecologicallysalient areas’ in lieu of ‘ecologically sensitiveareas’ to capture both aspects, while retaining the abbreviation as ESA. Thus in the ensuing pages we use ESAsin this sense and not to refer merely to ecologically sensitive areas (Gadgil et al., 2011).

 

7. Why Ecologically sensitive area?

 

India has a rich history of nature conservation, going back to prehistorical times. These traditions follow many criteria that are being proposed today as the bases for ESAs, such as sacred forests protecting origins of rivers(e.g. Bhimashankar in Pune District, Maharashtra, at the origin of the Bhima River), or important breeding habitats(e.g. Kokkre–Bellur Pelicanry in Mandya District, Karnataka) (Gadgiland Berkes, 1991). In modern times, we have established a substantialset of conservation sites such as biosphere reserves, nationalparks and wildlife sanctuaries that constitute afairly effective network of protected areas (PAS) for conserving biological diversity and natural habitats (Gadgil, and Meher-Homji, 1986; Ravikanth et al., 2000). Mostof these tend to be large forested areas identified for conservation because they harbour high levels of biological diversity, flagship species, or unique landscape elements.

 

However, except in certain cases, such as a few biospherereserves, demarcation of the areas for these conservationprogrammes was not based on any scientific data or on large-scale consultation involving diverse stake holders. Rather, more often they have been identified either on the basis of the understanding of the forest managers or on the basis of historical contingencies (e.g. royal hunting grounds, historically known places for certain speciessuch as lions, buffers of reservoirs, etc.). Nevertheless, the demarcated areas have been quite effective in attaining the goals of the conservation programmes in the post-independence period, notwithstanding the repeated conflicts emerging between local communities and managersin several areas, and distinct limitations in some areas for effective conservation of the focal species, such as lack of the most essential corridors between certain PAs for large animals such as elephants (Menon et al., 2005) etc. We therefore need ESAs to complement the PA network to correct the biases and bring in flexible, people-oriented management systems

 

8. Demarcating Ecologically sensitive area

 

There are three important categories of attributes that need to be considered in defining the ecological salience/significance/sensitivity of an area:

1.      physico-climatic features (geo-climatic features),

2.     biological features and

3.   social relevance (including cultural, economic and historical importance) of the area. All thesemay be grouped as (a) abiotic attributes, (b) biotic attributes and (c) anthropological or socio-cultural attributes.

 

Such attributes have been suggested and used by other workers also (Steiner, et al., 2000). But we are not aware of any structured protocol for using these attributes to arrive at ecologically sensitive area. Biological attributes:Demarcation of an ESA shall consider the following components of biological and cultural uniqueness and richness.

 

Biodiversity richness: Richness in diversity for all taxonomic groups and hierarchies.

 

Species rarity: Rarity in terms of population size,extent of geographical distribution, and also rarity in taxonomic representation in terms of paucity of closely related taxa. Habitat richness: Spatial heterogeneity of landscapeelements.

 

Productivity: Total biomass productivity.

 

Estimate of ecological resilience: Level of persistenceof original climax vegetation.

 

Cultural and historical significance: Evolutionary–historical value and cultural–historical value of the area.

 

Geo-climatic layers attributes: These include layersthat permit assessment of the innate or natural vulnerability of the area. Obviously features such as slope, aspect, altitude, precipitation, etc. shall be used under the following component attributes:

 

Topographic features: Slope, altitude, aspect, etc.

 

Climatic features: Precipitation, number of wet days, etc.

 

Hazard vulnerability: Natural hazards such as landslides and fires.

 

Stakeholder’s valuation: It is important to take on boardperceptions of the civil society and local bodies, especially the zilla, taluk and gram panchayats, to decide on areas that they consider to be ecologically and environmentallysensitive. Of course, these perceptions will depend on the proposed management regime.

 

9. Summary

  • One of the most striking features of the earth’s biota is its extraordinary diversity, estimated to include about 10 million different species.
  • On a global scale, even at the lowest estimated current extinction rate, about half of all species could be extinct within 100 years.
  • On local and regional scales ,biodiversity declines are already pronounced in many areas
  • The earth’s living organisms contribute to human welfare in a variety of ways.
  • humans derive from them goodsand products essential to life
  • biodiversity has nonmarket values that can be expressedin terms such as knowledge, aesthetic, existence and other values
  • The organisms that live, grow, reproduce, and interact within ecosystems help to mediate local and regional flows of energy and materials.
  • These biologically mediated energy and materials flows contribute to many ecological or life support services that benefit human welfare
  • At present ecological studies are made at ecosystem level and it has been one of the most recent developments in ecology
  • the term ecosystem was proposed by A. G. Tansley in 1935
  • parallel terms as biocoenosis ; microcosm; geobiocoensis; holocoen; biosystem; bioenert body and ecosometc, used for such ecological systems.
  • An ecosystem may thus be as small as a pond, a cropland, or as large as an ocean, desert or forest.
  • An ecosystem is an overall integration of whole mosaics of interacting organisms and their environment.
  • Different types of ecosystem of nature, constituting the giant ecosystem- the biosphere
  • natural ecosystems operate by themselves under natural conditions without any major interference by man.
  • artificial (man-engineered) ecosystems are maintained artificially by man
  • eco-sensitivity is often considered synonymousto: environmentally sensitive areas, environmentallysensitive zones, ecologically sensitive ecosystem, ecologically sensitive sites etc.,
  • Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India (GOI), notedthat, world over a number of features are being used foridentifying ecologically sensitivity or eco-sensitivity in different contexts
  • the ultimate purpose of identifyingecologically sensitivity or eco-sensitivity is to promote environment-friendly management regimes and conservation of the ecological wealth of the sites.
  • environmentally sensitivearea as ‘an area where the natural environment caneasily be harmed’ ESAs are being proposed notmerely as sensitive areas, but also as ‘ecologically significant areas
  • demarcation of the areas for these conservationprogrammes was not based on any scientific data except biosphere.
  • There are three important categoriesof attributes that need to be considered in defining the ecological salience/significance/sensitivity of an area
you can view video on Ecosystem and Eco-sensitivity

 

Glossary

 

Ecological system or ecosystem –

Any unit that includes all the organisms i.e. the communities in a given area, interact with the physical environment so that a flow of energy leads to clearly defined tropic structure, biotic diversity and material cycle (i.e. exchange of material between living and non- living components) within the system, known as an ecological system or ecosystem. An ecosystem is an overall integration of whole mosaics of interacting organisms and their environment.

 

Natural ecosystems- All those Ecosystems which operate by themselves under natural conditions without any major interference by man. Based upon the particular kind of habitat, these are further divided as: 1) Terrestrial: Forest, Grassland, Desert etc. 2). Aquatic: (water-open): which may be further distinguished as: a)Fresh water: whichmay be lotic (running water as spring, stream, or rivers) or lentic(standing water as lake, pond, puddles, ditch, swamp etc.).b) Marine: such deep bodies as an ocean or shallow ones as a sea or estuary etc.

 

Ecology– Ecology is the study of the interaction between living and nonliving components of the environment (Moran 1979). This pertains to the relationship between an organism and all aspects of its environment.

 

Ethnoecology– Ethnoecology is the paradigm that investigates native thought about environmental phenomena (Barfield 1997). Studies in ethnoecology often focus on indigenous classification hierarchies referring to particular aspects of the environment (for example, soil types, plants, and animals).

 

Eco-sensitivity- The concept of an ecologically sensitivity or eco-sensitivity is appealing but difficult. Consequently, eco-sensitivity is among the most widely used terms with no unequivocally accepted definition. In fact, eco-sensitivity is often considered synonymous to: environmentally sensitive areas, environmentally sensitive zones, ecologically sensitive ecosystem, ecologically sensitive sites etc., depending upon the context and the area or location of conservation interest. In most of these situations, the terms used are without any specific definition or with variable meanings.

 

Ecologically sensitive area (ESA)- defines an environmentally sensitive area as ‘an area where the natural environment can easily be harmed’. We may therefore employ as a starting point the definition of ecologically sensitive areas as those ‘ecological units that may be easily affected or harmed’.

 

Interesting facts

  • At ecosystem level, the units of study are comparatively very large.
  • One of the most striking features of the earth’s biota is its extraordinary diversity, estimated to include about 10 million different species.
  • On a global scale, even at the lowest estimated currentextinction rate, about half of all species could be extinctwithin 100 years.
  • On local and regionalscales,biodiversity declines are already pronounced inmany areas
  • ecosystems are indeed sensitive to changes inthe numbers and kinds of species found in their communities
  • The earth’s living organisms contribute to human welfarein a variety of ways. humans derive from them goodsand products essential to life
  • biodiversity has nonmarket values that can be expressedin terms such as knowledge, aesthetic, existence and othervalues
  • The organisms that live, grow,reproduce, and interact within ecosystems help to mediatelocal and regional flows of energy and materials.
  • These biologically mediated energy and materials flowscontribute to many ecological or lifesupport services thatbenefit human welfare
  • At present ecological studiesare made at ecosystem level and it has been one of the most recent developments in ecology
  • the term ecosystem was proposed by A.G.Tansley in 1935
  • parallel terms as biocoenosis ; microcosm; geobiocoensis;holocoen; biosystem; bioenert body and ecosometc. used for such ecological systems.
  • An ecosystem may thus be as small as a pond, a cropland, or as large as an ocean, desert or forest.
  • An ecosystem is an overall integration of whole mosaics of interacting organisms and their environment.
  • Different types of ecosystem of nature, constituting the giant ecosystem- the biosphere
  • natural ecosystems operate by themselves under natural conditions without any major interference by man.
  • artificial (man-engineered) ecosystems are maintained artificially by man
  • eco-sensitivity is often considered synonymousto: environmentally sensitive areas, environmentallysensitive zones, ecologically sensitive ecosystem, ecologicallysensitive sites etc.,
  • Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India (GOI), notedthat, world over a number of features are being used foridentifying ecologically sensitivity or eco-sensitivity in different contexts
  • the  ultimate  purpose  of  identifyingecologically  sensitivity  or  eco-sensitivity  is  to  promote environment-friendly managementregimes and conservation of the ecological wealth of thesites
  • environmentally sensitivearea as ‘an area where the natural environment caneasily be harmed’ ESAs are being proposed notmerely as sensitive areas, but also as ‘ecologically significantareas
  • demarcation of the areas for these conservationprogrammes was not based on any scientific data except biosphere.
  • There are three important categoriesof attributes that need to be considered in defining theecological salience/significance/sensitivity of an area

    References

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  • GadgilMadhav, R. J. Ranjit Daniels, K. N. Ganeshaiah, S. Narendra Prasad, M. S. R. Murthy,C. S. Jha, B. R. Ramesh and K. A. Subramanian. 2011. Mapping ecologically sensitive, significant and salient areas of Western Ghats: proposed protocols and methodology Current science, 100: 2, 175-182.
  • Gadgil, M. and Berkes, F., Traditional Resource Management Systems.Resour. Manage. Optim., 1991, 18(3–4), 127–141.
  • Gadgil, M. and Meher-Homji, V. M., Role of protected areas inconservation. In Conservation of Productive Agriculture (eds Chopra,V. L. and Khoshoo, T. N.), Indian Council of Agricultural Research,New Delhi, 1986, pp. 143–159.
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  • Menon, V., Tiwari, S. K., Easa, P. S. and Sukumar, R. (eds), InRight of Passage: Elephant Corridors of India, Conservation ReferenceSeries 3, Wildlife Trust of India, New Delhi, 2005,287.
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  • Ravikanth, G., Uma Shaanker, R. and Ganeshaiah, K. N., Conservationstatus of forests in India: a cause for worry?J. Indian Inst. Sci., 2000, 80, 591–600.
  • Saxena, M. R., Kumar, R., Saxena, P. R., Nagaraja, R. and Jayanthi, S. C., Remote sensing and GIS based approach for environmental sensitivity studies. A case study from Indian Coast. International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 2007; www.ispres.org
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  • Steiner, F., Blair, J., McSherry, L., Guhathakurtha, S., Marruffo,J. and Holm, M., A watershed at watershed: the potential for environmentallysensitive area protection in the upper San PedroDrainage Basic (Mexico and USA). Landsc. Urban Plann., 2000,49, 129–148.
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  • Tilman, D., and J. A. Downing. 1994. Biodiversity and stability in grasslands. Nature 367: 363-365.
  • (http:// www.macmillandictionary. com/ dictionary /british/environ mentally-sensitive-area)

    Suggested Readings

  • Agarwal, A and Narain, S. 1991. Global warming in an unequal world. Center for science and environment, New Delhi.
  • Andrewartha, H.G. 1961. Introduction to the study of animal population. Univ. Press, Chicago.
  • Ashby, W R. 1956. An introduction to Cybernemetics. Chapman and Hall ltd.
  • Bawa, K., Rose, J., Ganeshaiah, K. N., Barve, N., Kiran, M. C. and Uma Shaanker, R., Assessing biodiversity from space: an example from the Western Ghats, India. Conserv. Ecol., 2002, 6(2), 7.
  • Begon, M and Mortimer, M. 1981. Population Ecology: A unified study of animal and plants. Blackwell, Oxford.
  • Berkes, F., Colding, J. and Folke, C. (eds), Navigating Social– Ecological Systems. Building Resilience for Complexity and Change, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003, 393.
  • Clarke, G.L.1954, Elements of Ecology. John Wiley and Sons Inc. New York.
  • Daniels, R. J. R. and Vencatesan, J., Western Ghats: Biodiversity, People, Conservation, Rupa and Co, New Delhi, 2008.
  • Das, A., Krishnaswamy, J., Bawa, K. S., Kiran, M. C., Srinivas, V., Samba Kumar, N. and UllasKaranth, K., Prioritisation of conservation areas in the Western Ghats, India. Biol. Conserv., 2006, 133, 16–31.
  • Gadgil, M., Empowering gramsabhas to manage biodiversity. Econ. Polit. Wkly., 2 June 2007, pp. 2067–2071.
  • Gadgil, M., Promoting peace and prosperity in tribal heartland: a Gandhian approach. In Timeless Legend of India: Gandhi (ed. Mashelkar, R. A.), Gandhi National Memorial Society, 2010.
  • Gadgil, M. and Meher-Homji, V. M., Localities of great significance to conservation of India’s biological diversity. Proc. Indian Acad. Sci., Anim./Plant Sci. Suppl., 1986, 165–180.
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