Introduction of Geography:

Definition and meaning of Geography:

The word Geography is a combination of two words “Geo” and Graphy”. Geo is a greek
word which means “The earth” and the word ‘Graphy” has been driven from Graphy
which means ‘Description’. So geography means “Description of the earth”.
The study of Geography as science of earth began from very early times. However its
study was confined only to environment due to its limited scope. In the ancient time the
Geographer neglected the activities of man on the earth. In fact that man brings thousands
of changes for development and prosperity in the world. Thus in modern times
Geographer included the activities of man on earth as an essential part for the study of
Geography. In those times therefore Geography could be defined as
“The science of Description of the physical features of the Earth”. However we can
define the geography as
“Geography as a whole is regarded that department of knowledge, which studies the
varied physical features of earth’s surface as the environment of mankind”.

Human Geography:
According to Prof. C.H. Rabinson “Human Geography is the study of the Nature and
distribution of relation-ships between geographical environment and human activities and
qualities.”

Man-Environment relationship:
Intro: The relationship between man and environment has attracted the attention of many
scholars. In reality, of course, the balance between men’s freedom and nature control
varies from time to time and place to place. Men’s reaction to the environment and his
action upon it can be considered as interaction model or system.
The three basic elements in this have to described man environment and the
relationship between man and environment about these relationship several hypotheses
have been formulated to explain it. They can be reduced to following three concepts.

Physical Determinism:
Nature is master and man obeys its order as slave.

Possibilism: Nature offers several possibilities and man adopts the one that suits him.

Cultural Determinism: with the help of technology man is becoming independent of

nature.

Environmental Determinism: The view that natural environment has a controlling

influence over the various aspects of human life, such as way of living, dressing,
including cultural development etc. So environmental determinism stresses the
dominance of environment over man. This view has been put by many scholars from
ancient times. The views of some scholar about the dominancy of environment over man
described as under;
1) Hippocrates: Almost in 420 B.C, he wrote on Airs, waters and places and brings
out how the favorable environment of Asia allowed his inhabitants to live easily
while poor mean unfavorable environment of Europe has made its inhabitant
hardy and stingy.
2) Aristotle: Aristotle point out in his famous book “ Politics” That Europeans living
in cool areas as bereave, But deficient in thought and Technical skill. Asian are
thoughtful and skillful but lack of spirit due to that reason that people remains the
subjection and slavery.
Greeks enjoys best quality of the both regions and are hence dominant.
3) Bodin ( Second half of 16th century) and Montesquieu ( 2nd half of 17th century)
talks about the influence of environment upon man.
4) Humboldt ( 1779-1859) and Ritter (1779-1859). The founder of modern
Geogrpahy did stress the influence of environment on man but did not consider
man completely inactive and servile. Darwin came out with his books “ origin of
specie”. This book has profound effect on many scientist as well on the
Geographers. Darwin represents his view about evolution of species and the
survival of fittest. He looked upon man as a living being and therefore subject to
the same laws. This gained favor among biologist. In 1923 the ideas was revived
by Barrows when he termed geography as study of human ecology.
Darwin view’s point gained favor in Geographer as well and as that human
activities are governed and dictated by the physical feature/environment. This concept
is recognized as physical determinism. Ratzel is offen called to be its author. He did
recognize the affect of environment on man but did not sress it too much. And he
believed in diffusion and as such he was aware that the man was not passive like
plants and other animals. Ellen Semple was the student of Ratzel and as discussed
about effect of environment on the man in her book “ Influences of Geographic
Environment” and expended the concept of environmental determinism and she
says.
“Man is a product of the earth’s surface that means not merely that he is a a child of
the earth, dust of her dust but that the earth has mothered him, fed him, set him tasks,
directed his thoughts, confronted him with difficulties and at same time whispered
hints for their solution”.
Under the influence of simple the concept of physical determinism and gained
popularity among large number of Geographers particularly in English speaking
world. They thought that they fully understood the relationship between man and
environment.
Examples:
Man grows the rubber in South-East Asia because the climate is not and
moist and topography and soil suitable.
Environmentalists think that the cool moist climate of Northwestern Europe is
suitable for the human health, energy and progress. All the above mentioned shows
about environment influence over man. In fact the environment is powerful but man
is not passive. He possess the knowledge and technology unlike other animals and
Hence the knowledge and technology are not static. They are making progress and
hence human ability to make use of environment increasing. The use of this
knowledge and technology by human depends upon his economic, social and
religious values. With this realization environmental determinism started to lose
popularity. Griffith Taylor came out with the philosophy of stop and Go-determinism.
He says that man has the option to obey nature. And obedience of nature guides him
to success and glory and its disobedient ends in failure and ruin.
Man can not be equated with other animals. He made a great progress in
knowledge and technology and his onward march continuous. He has brought the
changes on face of earth which no animal can do. Now the response of determinism
alternate concept of possibilism was formulated and was being propagated.

Possibilism:
Introduction: The school of possibilism believes that physical environment present
the number of possibilities and it is depends up to man to select the possibility that he
desires. Thus he does according to his culture. i.e in accordance with his technical
competence and economic, political, religious and social values. Man can cross the
river by swimming, or enginge-boat, and as well man can reached to its target place
by road mean by bus or by air means by airoplane it depending on his technical
competence.

The views of different scholar about possibilism:

Different scholar of world present his views about possibilism as
Febvie:
Febvre was first to used the term possibilism. He strongly described this view
point in his book “ Geographical interpretation of Hisotry” (1925). He said there are
no necessities but everywhere possibilities and man as master of possibilities is judge
by their use.
George perkins: Before the febrve, George Perkin harsh had strongly warned the
ecological disaster of America in book “ Man and Nature” (1864) Vidal de la Blache.
Among these vidal de la Blache emerged as great exponent of possibilism. He
took at man as an active agent and nature is an advisor in his book “ Principles of
Human Geography”. In america Carl O. sauer, Isaiah Bowman an other were
critic of determinism and supporter of possibilism.

Explanation: As the possibilism means that nature mean physical environment

presents a number of possibilities and it is depend upon man to select the possibility
that he desires. Along with these Man possesses the knowledge and technology with
which he has changed the face of the world. He has domesticated plants and animals.
He cleared the forest and grassland and turned them into the farm lands with the help
of irrigation he has extended the agriculture in the desert areas. Green houses and
heaters have been used in orchards and farm of cold regions. An ..fertile soil have
been enriched by application of manures and fertilizer. Green manuring, roation of
Crops and following development in means of transport has made possible the
collection of huge raw materials for big factories and distribution of finished goods to
the market. Automobilies, locomotives and areoplanes have contributed in
annihilation of time and distance. The Mountain have been tunneled. Rivers have
been bridged. Oceans and seas have been connected by narrow necks of land with
separate them.
Progress in the knowledge and technology has expended the resource base, Rice
plant, weed in taro field. Now one of mainhuman diet. The old Babylonians and
Assyrians used the petroleum to cement the Bricks which today is important source of
energy and lubricant. Within in century uranium and thorium were ignored as usless
rocks but today they are greatly valued as raw material of nuclear energy.
Human progress in that closely linked with advance in technology. However all
the human groups do not share the equal level of technology. Broadly the world may
be divided into the two groups on basis of technological attainments. The people
possessing advance in technology are Americans, Japans and Chinese. On the other
hand most of Asians, Africans, and latin Americans countires possess less advanced
technology. Granted equal competence of technology of all human groups do not
exploit the environment in a similar manner. Much depend upons his economic goals,
political aspirations, social obligations, religious values and his perception of the
environment.
The earth and the universe have been placed at the service of man and he can use
them as he likes. Technically it is possible to grow banana in an Arctic region. But
economically it will be futile attempt. Beet-sugar is produced in temprate region,
though cane-sugare, a product of tropical region, is cheaper. From the days of
Napoleon beet-sugar has been produced in Europe. And later in America to ensure the
supply of sugar during war time when the supply of sugar from tropical region may
be call off. In Pakistan railway line from Quetta to Chaman and that from Peshawar to
Landikotal are strategic than economic.
Thus physical environment presents the number of possibilities to man depend
upon the man to accept that he desires. Thus man is not machine. He is a member of a
society therefore man acquires and applies technology he keeps in mind his economic
goals, political aspirations, religious values and social code.

Cultural Determinism:
Intro: Cultural determinism means that with help of technology man is becoming
independent of nature. In early time man lived like other animals. They used wild
fruits and raw meat as his food. He slept in the open and at that time they used stones
and branches of trees only as their weapons. With the passage of time man started to
make progress. Soon he left behind all other animals in their primeval state.
Now a day man used eat variety of things as their food and he lives in hats, houses,
and places. In his early life man used his muscles for all his worth and then he put the
animal to work. Today atomic energy, solar energy and tide are providing him power.
In his early days he moved about on his feet. Later he started to ride animals and
animals drawn carts. Today locomotives, automobiles, and aeroplanes are at his
service and man reaches the moon and plans to move to other planets.
Human knowledge is very limited. We plan to conquer the universe but we do
not know how many heavily bodies are there and till we do not physical properties of
stars and planet and our knowledge about earth is not perfect. We have been
damaging environment.
 In Pakistan to make greater use of land and soils intricate and ingenious networks
of canals has been developed. But this has led the problem of waterlogging and
salinity which have been damaging the land and soils. In order to obtain higher crops
field chemical fertilizer insecticide has been used which have decrease natural
potential of soil and also poisoned the land.
The establishment of factories, a symbol of progress has polluted the environment
by smoke, gases , and industrial refuse. It is also became cause of acide rain.
Automobiles has been emitting poisons gas and smoke which impacts human health
badly.
Global warming by emission of carbon dioxide from fassil fuels is likely to melt the
most of snow. Thus became cause of rise of water in river and drawing large part of
coastal area.
Chlorofluorocarbons used for refrigeration, air-conditioning and areasol sprays
stared to damage the ozone layer locate at 10-50 km above level which absorbs ultra-
violet rays and protects earth. If these ultra-violet rays reached the earth directly they
would kill all bacteria and severly burn animal tissues and would become cause of
many diseases such as skin caner and existence of life on earth will be in danger.
Thus cultural determinism that present the view the man get became independent
of nature of with help of technology.

Conclusion:
We can conclude all the above mentioned discussion as neither physical
determinism nor cultural determinism is acceptable. Neither man is completely slave
of nature nor he is independent of nature. And natre provide number of possibilities
and man chooses the one which is his technical competence and is in conformity with
his economic, political, social and religious values. The concept of possibilism gives
a better explanation of man environment relationship.

Population:
Introduction: population Geography is branch of geography which involves not only
the magnitude of human population but also its different characteristics, growth and
mobility. Population geography as a separate discipline of study has been recognized
recently. It has common relation with other disciplines as demography,sociology,
economics etc

Definition of population Geography:

The population geography is spatial study of human population. It is mainly
concerned with one aspect of the study of population , its distribution and
arrangements.
Distribution of Population and resources:
Introduction: As we discussed about the distribution of population on earth surface
as earth is a planet where man live so one earth human population and resources are
very unevenly distributed High density does not always comcide with rich resources
nor low density with low resources.
 The exploitation of the resources does not depend upon the present of population
alone. The level of technology, social institution, value system, economic system and
political set up have a role to play.
Generally densely populated areas has planty of water. It is estimated that such
areas of south and east Asia, Europe and Eastern U.S.A taken together account for 10
percent of land area and more 60 percent world’s population on other hand 40 percent
of world is almost uninhabited. These areas are either too cold, too dry, too rugged or
very marshy. The physical factor like relief soil and climate, the demographic factor
birth, death and migration and cultural factor like history of settlement, social
attitudes, and institutions and economic factors like development of irrigation,
minerals and other resources control distribution of population.
The main reason behind the variation of difference in distribution of several
factors such as climate, physiography, soils, vegetation, mineral resources and
industry.

Factors Affecting the distribution of World population: Some of important factors

which affects the distribution of world population as under
Climate, physiography, soil, vegetation, mineral resources, and industry.
Climate:
Climate refers to long term condition of environment. Which greatly affects
the world population distribution. At some extent climate influences the type of
regetation (desert, granland, or forest) kinds crops that can be cultivated and animal
kingdom and over all suitability of region for human habitation. In term of climate
most affecting factor is temperature. Temperature can be too cold or too hot. These
both are not suitable for suitability of population. So the one of moderate temperature
which is suitable for human habitation. Thus sever climate repels the population and
moderate climate attracts the population.
Thus ice cap regions with harsh low temperatures are not suitable for human
population and other hand deserts can not sustain crops with almost high temperature
can sutable for human population.

Physical Relief: ( Physiography)

Physical relief is also one of factor which affects the distribution of world population.
It means that low-land areas and plains areas support more population because of
plain or level land support agriculture and as proper network of communication and
as well proper infra-structure in contrast of that Mountainous area and high land
almost repels the human population because of lack of basic facilities of life which is
required to live. In mountainous area there will be shorten of transport facilities,
medical, facilities etc unless these areas are rich in minerals till consisting low
population at least few mining communities may be settled there and separatedfrom
on and other by high mountain or dense forest.

Vegetation:
At some extent we can say that the presence of vegetation is indicator of soil fertility,
which is responsible for the more human population because incase of fertile soil
there will be availability of food which attracts the human population. But in some
 cases the presence of more vegetation became hurdle in settlement of human
population. Such as dense forests of Congo Basin Amazon basin are good example
which are so dense and so thick that can not be cleared easily to settle the human
population.

Fertility of Soils:
The fertility of soil is one of the factor which is almost related to the
climate, though not always. A well developed, mature soil either in tropics or the
temperate regions with a fair balance of temperature and evaporation is suitable for
agriculture, which is intern support peasant population on other hand excessive of
temperature in the equatorial regions, intense evaporation in deserts, and perpetual
breezing in the polar regions impoverish soil therefore these areas are consisting low
population means sparsely plateau.

Mineral Resources:
Mineral resources includes either in form of metallic ores (e.g tin, copper, zine,
lead, Aluminum, iron ) or in form of fossil fuels ( coal, petroleum, oil, gases) and
these mineral deposits are very unevenly scattered over Globe. The presence of these
Mineral Resources courage the establishment of industries which became the cause of
income which intern support a high population density.

Pattern of World Population:

Distribution:
The planet earth which man inhibits is very vast and these surface area
of earth is 510.72 million sq.km with world population 7.8 billion, so that these
population is equally distributed on surface of earth. Therefore the world may be
divided into the following regions on basis of density of population resources and
technology.
1) The very densely populated parts of world
2) Moderate density of areas
3) Low/Sparsely populated areas.

The very Densely populated Parts of world:

Areas with more 100 persons per sq.km are classed as very densely populated parts of
world. These are found in the industrial West and agricultural East and includes
A) Industrial North West Europe: We can found the most advanced and most
heavily industrialized countries of world in that North-West Europe. Such as
Great Britain, France, Germany, Denmark. The availability of minerals such as
coal and iron courage the development of industry which became source of strong
economy that intern attract and support the dense the population.
B) Industrial Noth-Eastern U.S.A and South-Eastern Canada: That area is
consider to be great industrial belt of United States and Canada stretching from
shore of the Great lakes through Pittsburgh to New York. And Atlantic seaboard.
C) Agricultural Monsoon Asia: Agricultural Monsoon Asia includes populous
countries such as China, Japan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Indonesia ( Java
Particularly). This is largest area of continuous high population density. The
fertile Alluvial soils of the Huang He, change Jiang, and XI Jiang of China, indo
Gangetic plain of Indo-Pakistan and Bangladesh, all those areas almost support
high density human population.
D) The Nile Valley and Delta: this is another area of usually high density, and has
been so since the establishment of the Egyptain civilization. Because of Waters of
Nile converted. This part of barren Sahara Deserts fertile cotton and padi lands.
Annually the Nile floods, which enable Eygptain peasants to practice a form of
Basin irrigation. Today with multi-purpose dams at Aswan more and more land is
being claimed from desert to support growing population.
2: Moderate Density Areas: Areas with population density of 11-50 persons per
sq.km are termed as moderately populated areas. And the most of occupations of
population of these areas are herding and agriculture. These areas includes Prairies in
north America, pampas in South America, the farm is size in these areas in greater
than any where in world.
3: Low/Sparely populated Areas:
About 40percent of world’s area is nearly uninhabited where density of population
is less than one person per sq.km such areas are either too cold or too dry or too ruged
or very marshy. These areas of harsh environment can hardly support any population
level of technology of these in low even incase of some of people in that areas and
food for them will be carried from other areas. The Antarctic and arctic region,
remained covered with snow perpetually. They are unfit for human habitation. The
tundra located to the South of Arctic region also experiences very low temperature
through out the year. Some of nomadic tribe live there any they also depend upon the
hunting and forest. South of the tundra lies the extensive coniferous forests( Taiga)
there winter is very sever and summer is warm but very short. A few lumbermen live
there and agriculture is absent. The swompy Amazon valley with hot and wet climate
is not fit for human habitation and a few person who live there there and hunter and
gathers. Therefore because of sever climate condition of all these mentioned areas not
suitable for human habitation.

Population Growth:
“Population growth is defined as the increase in the number of
human inhabitants of given place or region or country”.

Dimensions of Growth (Growth Rate):

Dimensions of growth means that the how the population of specific place
increase its size, It seems that world population grows increases not in linear method
and but the world population grows exponentially as
Linear Growth:
‘ Whereby the somethings that grows increases by a uniform amount during
a series of equal time period’. For example, If you have 100 rupees to invest and 10
rupees to its in first year. Each successive year your 100 rupees will become 200
 rupees after 10 years 300 rupees after 20 years. This linear growth but the human
population not increase it in such manner Graphically represent as
Exponential Growth:

Exponential growth is somewhat different from linear growth so that human population
increase its size by exponential growth methods. For example; If you invest your initial
100 rupees at rate of interest 10% and it was compounded continuously, and each
increment would be based on the original amount plus previously interest, After 10 year
you 100 would have increased to 259 rupees after 20 years. It would have increased to
637 rupees therefore human population has growing at exponential rates.

Doubling time: It may be defines as “ The time required for a population to double their
size” Every reate of the growth has doubling time.
e.g our invest of 100 rupees at 10% took about 7 years to double to 200 rupee and then
another 7 years to become 400 rupee and so on when the growth rate 10 % therefore
doubling time is around 7 years.
During middle of this century, when the world’s human population was increasing at
an average of 2% its doubling time was 35 years.
During the mid-1980s when decling rate reached 1.8% then doubling time rose to
39 years.
In 1995, the united states population was growing at 0.7%, a yielding doubling time
of nearly a century; 98years.

Natural Increase: The natural growth of population is recorded as difference b/w

number of births and number of deaths during a specific period, these two measure, birth
rate, and date rate are commonly expressed in terms of the number of individuals per
thousand.
The natural increase in population can be calculated by following formula,
NI = OP + B-D
In Above mentioned formula NI represent Natural increase, OP, Original Population, B,
Birth rates and D, Death rates.
Natural increase a population does not reflect either Emigrant or Immigrant
movements.

Crude birth Rate: ( CBR)

Crude birth rate represents, “ The number of births per year per thousand people
in population”.

Explanation: CBRs is different almost differ from country to country, the highest birth
rates today are recorded in Africa and Southwest Asia. For many years, countries in East
Africa ( most notably Kenya ) have birth rates ranking among the highest in the world.
There are many countries of having almost CBRs less than 15 can found in
Europe. Other areas with low rates are North America, (US, and Canada), Australia, New
Zealand, Japan, China. It is clear that low birth rates are associated with modernization,
with Industrialization and urbanization a generalization that holds for all except china.
Total Fertility Rate ( TFR):
TFR can be define as “ The average number of children born to a woman during her life
time, as expressed for total population” E.g When Kenya was at the height of its
population explosion in the 1980s, number of children per childbearing-age women was
8. In China just 30 year ago the TFR was 6.0. Today it is 1.9 Not only China also India,
Egypt, Brazil and Mexico lower 7FR than one generation ago.
India’s TRF has declined from 5.8 to 3.4, Egypt’s from 7.2 to 3.9, Brazil’s from
6.3 to 2.9 and Mexico from 6.7 to 3.1. But other hand Nigeria’s TFR still exceeds and
Pakistani women still bear an average of nearly 6 children.

Crude Death Rate: “ The crude death rate ( CDR) reports the number of deaths per
thousand people” and Also mortality.
The death rates are highest in tropical Africa, where a number of
countries record more than 20 deaths per thousand in population. Lowest in North
America, and most of South America, Parts of Europe, Japan, China and Australia.

Infant Mortality: It can be defines as “The annual number of deaths of infants under age
1 year per thousand live birth”.

Thomas Malthus and its theory:

Outline:
1) Introduction about Thoma Maltus
2) Basic points of the theory
3) General criticism on Malthus theory
4) Influence of the theory
5) Conclusion

Introduction:
Thomas Robert Malthus was a British economist and demographer and two centuries ago
in 1798 Malthus expressed grave concern about over population and He published a long
essay entitled; “ An Essay on the principle of Population as It affects the future
improvement of society”.
In this essay he highlighted potential danger of over population as described as under

Main Points of Malthus theory: Following are some points of Malthus theory
1) According to Malthus point of views that “ The population of world would
increase in geometric proportion as (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64).
2) Malthus stated that “ the food resources available for the world population would
increase only in arithmetic proportion, mean linear as ( 1,2, 3, 4,5,6,7).
As regarding of above two mentioned points, In simple word, If the human population
would allow to increase in an uncontrolled way, then number of people would increase at
a faster rate than food supply.
3) In such circumstance population will eventually outstrip food resources. Mankind
will be faced with doom. However nature would not allow human extinction. It
 will brings down the population by “ Positive Checks” Like gamine, disease, war,
earthquake, storm, flood, and some other natural disaster. Thus a balance between
population and food supply will be maintained.
4) Malthus advises us to adopt “Preventive checks” to keep down the population, to
save ourselves from diseases and disaster. These check mainly includes the
promote concept of late marriage , celibacy, abstention, Birth Control, and family
planning.
5) Neo-Malthusian:
Malthus was a clever man therefore he did not advocate the use of
contraceptive an He believed would be checked by moral restraint to him the use of
contraceptive was morally and socially not acceptable. The group who advocate birth
control called neo-Malthusian.

Criticism: Some critics the Malthus like Karl Marx, argued that Malthus failed to
recognized the potential human population to increase food supply, further Karl Marx
suggested that the poverty of Masses foreseen by Malthus had less to do wit their
number than with the capitalist system governing.
Malthus himself is accused by many to have failed and ignore human ability to
use technology and science to increase food supply to full file the needs of an
increasing population.

Impacts: Malthus’s theory had great influence on both Charles Darwin and Alfred
Wallace, who are co-founder of ‘modern evolutionary theory”. In his word” Darwin
acknowledged, that he was already aware of “ struggle for existence” among different
species of plants and animals in their stuggle to survive. Thus “ Theory of Natural
selection was born”.

Ecosystem:

Outline
1) Introduction
2) Definision
3) Explanation
4) Components of Ecosystem
• Biotic Components
• Abiotic Components
5) Conclusion

Introduction: The term ecology comes from the Greek words “Oikos” meaning “the
family Household” and logo “ the study of” and this term was originally coined by
German Zoologist Ernst Haeekel in 1866. He called it “ecologic” and defines it as “
the study of the relationship of animals to their environment”.
 Definition: Ecosystem may be defines “ the group of organisms and their
environment with which the organisms interact” or ecosystem is ecological system I
which living things and non-livings live in relation with each other and with
environment through series of links.
Explanation: leback field: Geography should be viewed as ecosystem.

The major unit of ecology is the ecosystem and organisms interact with their
environment within confines of the ecosystem and “eco” is part of the word which is
related to environment and “system” part means a collection of related parts that function
as unit.

Components of Ecosystem: Ecosystem mainly consist of two components as under

A) Biotic Components
B) Abiotic Components

A) Biotic Components: Biotic components includes the living organism including

plants and animal and mirco organism supported by biosphere. Biosphere is spread
out over the surface of earth planet extending about 8-10 kilmeters to upper reaches
of atmosphere and also same distance into the depth of oceans.

C) Abiotic Components: Abiotic components includes all non-living components

air, water, and soil, and climate. In the ecological term they are called as (a)
atmosphere (atom-air) (b) Hydrosphere. (Hydro-water) (c) Lithosphere (litho-
earth, soil)

Some Major Ecosystem:

Major Ecosystem that I have to describe here are as under
1) Aquatic or hydrospheric ecosystem
2) Terrestrial ecosystem

Aquatic Ecosystem: Aquatic ecosystem is also called hydrosphere ecosystem and it

is a “system in water where living and non-living components exchange materials and
transfer of energy also take place within water”. The salt-water ocean and sea are the
largest ecosystem on the earth forming about 10% and some of following main
features of the aquatic ecosystem as under
1) Temperature:
The temperature of aquatic ecosystem is lower the air because of the
presence of water so the aquatic temperature is more moderate to support life.
2) Absorption of energy:
Absorption of energy is necessary for initiation of the photosynthesis and
although water may appear quite transparent, it absorb considerable amount of energy
that sustain life. The intensity of light decrease with depth rapidly so at depth of 100 feet
or more, a little light is left to power photosynthesis.
3) Nutrients: The nutrients in aquatic ecosystem tend to be concentrated near the
bottom sediments supporting life where light levels often are too low to support
photosynthesis.
4) Abundant water with appropriate temperature: Water is an essential
requirement for life. It is available abundantly in aquatic system to support life.
The major factor that determine quality and the type of life in aquatic ecosystem,
are energy and nutrient and appropriate termperature is present in aquatic
ecosystem to carry out all metabolic process.

2): Lithospheric ecosystem: the ecosystem present on the land or soil is called
terrestrial or lithospheric ecosystem. Terrestrial ecosystem received a plenty of light
and soil provides abundant nutrients. Water, however, is limited and very anevenly
distributed both in place and time. The factor which influence life on land are given
below.

Temperature: temperature of the terrestrial ecosystem is comparatively high but like

water, favorable temperatures are very unevenly distributed on land in place and time
on poles, the average temperature is below greezing, In temperature zone, only during
certain seasons of year. It is quite favorable but in tropical zone, uniformly, warm,
moist, climate is present.

Air: In terrestrial ecosystem, air is in constant motion, so its composition is more

uniform, The amount of O2 and CO2 in air is much constant and most beneficial to
terrestrial life.

Adoptation for terrestrial ecosystem: Plants and animals shifting from water to
land developed various types of adoption for land habitat e.g

Supporting tissues

Both plants and animals have evolved supporting tissues like vascular bundles
(.ylem-phloem) in plants and skeleton in animals to support them on land against the
force of gravity.

Conservation of water: Plants and animals evolved various methods to conserve water
in their body e.g homeostasis. The mechanism of temperature regulation was
developed by plants and animals by developing bark and skin respectively.