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MSD-012: Ecosystem and Natural Resources

By Dr. Y.S.C. Khuman; Dr. Jagdamba Prasad   |   Indira Gandhi National Open University
Learners enrolled: 1325
This course focuses on the basic concepts of ecology, ecosystem and its types; ecosystem services, importance of biodiversity, factors responsible for biodiversity loss and conservation and management of biodiversity. The concept of land, soil and water as a resource. The course also tries to understand the importance of natural resources, resource management, types of energy resources, non-renewable and alternative resources, mineral resources and sustainable issues related to energy and mineral resources .The issues related to agrobiodiversity viz. factors responsible for its depletion, the need for managing it in a sustainable way are also being covered in this course.


Course Credit:4
Eligibility: Graduate in any discipline
Summary
Course Status : Completed
Course Type : Core
Duration : 12 weeks
Category :
  • Multidisciplinary
Credit Points : 4
Level : Postgraduate
Start Date : 01 Feb 2022
End Date :
Enrollment Ends : 15 Mar 2022
Exam Date :

Page Visits



Course layout

Block 1: Ecosystem and Biodiversity

WEEK-1: Concepts of Ecosystem

WEEK-2: Biodiversity: Levels, Distribution and Uses

WEEK-3: Loss of Biodiversity

WEEK-4: Biodiversity Conservation

Block 2: Land and water Resources

WEEK-5: Land and Soil

WEEK-6: Water: Status, distribution and quality, Water : Competitive Uses

Block 3: Energy & Mineral Resources

WEEK-7: Renewable and Non-renewable resources

WEEK-8: Alternative Energy Resources

WEEK-9: Mineral Resources, Usage Pattern and Issues

Block 4: Agrobiodiversity: Status and issues

WEEK-10: Agrobiodiversity : Introduction and Importance

WEEK-11: Loss of agrobiodiversity

  WEEK-12: Sustainable use of agrobiodiversity, Agrobiodiversity: Challenges and Opportunities


Books and references

  • Ramakrishnan, P S (2014). The Cultural Cradle of Biodiversity, National Book Trust, India

  • Odum, E.P. (1959). Fundamentals of Ecology. Saunders, Philadelphia.

  • Schmitz, O. J. (2007) Ecology and Ecosystem Conservation. Island Press, Washington, DC

  • Selim Kapur, Hari Eswaran, and W. E. H. Blum. 2011. Sustainable Land Management: Learning from the Past for the Future. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

  • Stanly Manahan - Environmental Chemistry, Mc Graw Hill Publishing company, 1999

  • Tim O’Riordan and Susanne Stoll-Kleemann (2002). Biodiversity, Sustainability and Human Communities: Protecting beyond the Protected. Cambridge University Press.

  • White, R.E. 2006. Principles and Practices of Soil Science. Blackwell Publishing. Pp 363

  • Brady, R.L. and Weil, R.R. 1999. The Nature and Properties of Soils, 13th edn. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.

  • FAO. (2005). The state of food insecurity in the world. FAO, Rome, Italy.

  • Lossau, Annette von, and Qingsong Li (Eds., 2011): Sourcebook on Sustainable  Agrobioidiversity Management, Social Sciences Academic Press (P.R. China).

Instructor bio

Dr. Y.S.C. Khuman; Dr. Jagdamba Prasad

Indira Gandhi National Open University

Dr. Y.S.C. Khuman is Assistant Professor in the School of Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Studies at IGNOU, New Delhi. His Ph.D. from University of Delhi is on fuel wood issues in mountain regions of India. His recent publication is on sustainability issues of fuel wood in Himalayan regions and North East India.. He is the Programme Coordinator, Post Graduate Diploma in Sustainability Science. 

He got extensive training as socio-ecologist in interdisciplinary research team at  SES,  JNU (2001-2005,Under Prof. Brij Gopal) and University of Delhi (2006-2011, Under Prof. K. S. Rao). During his doctoral research period (2008-2011), he has also worked under Prof. M S Swaminathan (Honorary Chair, Chair for Sustainable Development, IGNOU) as Senior Research Fellow. As a Senior Research Fellow in IGNOU, he took key responsibilities for developing different online academic programmes in the area of Sustainability Science. Academic programmes are: Appreciation Programme on Sustainability Science, Leadership Programme of Nutrition Security and Sustainable Development, Leadership Programme on Himalayan Ecosystem, Appreciation Programme on Sustainable Management of Wetlands etc.


Dr. Jagdamba Prasad is a dedicated educationist in the area of Environmental Science and Open and Distance Education with Academic experienceof more than 11 years. Presently he is working as Assistant Regional Director at Regional Centre Dehradun. Before joining IGNOU he worked for Pratham Gujarat Education Initiative (Now Kaivalya Education Foundation) for about 1 year as Research Associate in the field of School Education at project sites in Gujarat and Rajasthan. Subsequently he worked as Assistant Professor (Environmental Science) at GLAUniversity Mathura for 3 years. He has qualified UGC-NET (Environmental Science) and CSIR–NET (Life Science) and was awarded JRF/SRF by UGC during his doctorate research. He didhisM.Phil. and Ph.D.from JNU New Delhi in Environmental Science while carrying out extensive field studies in mid-altitude landscape of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. As a researcher he has contributed more than 24papers and book chapters in reference books, seminars, conferences and workshops includingunits written for different programmes of IGNOU specially Post Graduate Diploma in Sustainability Science (PGDSS).



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