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MSD-012: Ecosystem and Natural Resources

By Dr. Y.S.C. Khuman and Dr. Jagdamba Prasad   |   Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi
Learners enrolled: 1008
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 : Upcoming
Course Type : Core
Language for course content : English
Duration : 12 weeks
Category :
  • Multidisciplinary
Credit Points : 4
Level : Postgraduate
Start Date : 15 Jul 2025
End Date : 15 Nov 2025
Enrollment Ends : 15 Sep 2025
Exam Date :

Page Visits



Course layout

Ecosystem and Natural Resources

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 and Dr. Jagdamba Prasad

Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi

Dr. Y.S.C. Khuman is Assistant Professor in the School of Interdisciplinary and Tran disciplinary Studies, IGNOU, New Delhi. His Ph.D. from University of Delhi is on fuel wood issues in mountain regions of India. He has more than 15 publications in peer reviewed journals. Dr. Khuman was involved in the design and development of different programmes in the area of Sustainability Science at IGNOU. He is also a member of Commission of Ecosystem Management, IUCN (2021-25). He is life member of Indian Society for Ecological Economic, Delhi and Indian Academy of Social Sciences, Allahabad.  He is the Programme Coordinator, Post Graduate Diploma in Sustainability Science and Master of Arts in Sustainability Science. He has more than ten years experience in developing online courses and online student support services.  Major Research areas: Sustainability Science, Wetland Ecology, Natural Resource Management, Sustainable Development and Local livelihood.



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).

Course certificate

Exam Registration URL: Announcements will be made when the registration form is open for registrations.


The online registration form has to be filled, and the certification exam fee needs to be paid.


EVALUATION CRITERIA TO GET A CERTIFICATE


·        Assignment: 30% weightage.

·        Term End Examination: 70% weightage.

·        Final Score: Assignment + Term End Examination.

 ELIGIBLE FOR A CERTIFICATE

·        ASSIGNMENT SCORE: Minimum 40%  

·        TERM END EXAM SCORE: Minimum 40%.

Note: If one of the 2 criteria is not met, you will not get the certificate even if the Final score is 40%.



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