ENV120 Introducing the Environment: Ecology and Ecosystems - OPEN University

Course Description

This unit starts by looking at ecosystems and at some of the living and non-living components they contain. We will then move on to look at the importance of being able to identify and name the living things in an ecosystem, and examine some of the ways in which we can start to record some of the interactions between them. But we must never forget that we ourselves are members of – and manipulators of – the ecosystems we inhabit. We are a part of the biosphere. We were produced by it; we live within it; and we are beginning to change it in ways we don't yet fully understand. The unit will end by introducing the concept of ‘ecological health’, the idea that our growing exploitation of the resources of ecosystems is endangering their ability to support themselves … and us.