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: 1683

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 :	11 Dec 2025 IST
Exam Shift :	Shift-II

Note: This exam date is subject to change based on seat availability. You can check final exam date on your hall ticket.

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).