With Effect From June-2009
Paper Marks
ES 101 Introduction to Environment and its components 100 Marks
ES 102 Biodiversity and Environmental Biotechnology 100 Marks
ES 103 Analytical techniques & Professional practices in Environmental Science 100 Marks
Practical-II 150 Marks
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Total 450 Marks
ES 101 - Introduction to Environment and its components
Section I
Unit 1 Understanding the Earth as a Home of Man
1. Origin and Structure of Earth and Life on Earth
2. Earth as a living organism
3. Dynamic Earth, its primitive and current environment
4. Earth’s climatic zones and biomes
5. Basic components of Environment
Unit 2 Environmental Components and Processes
1. Atmosphere: Structure and composition of atmosphere, The Energy system, Atmospheric temperature, pressure and wind, Air masses, Fronts,
Storms and Climate change and Precipitation
2. Hydrosphere: The Hydrological Cycle and Significance of Water, Forms of Hydrosphere, Fresh water bodies, Types, Structures and life forms,
Marine water, types, zones, life forms and marine resources, Floods and flood plains
3. Lithosphere: Earth Materials, The Rock Cycle and Rock types, Weathering of Rocks, Soil genesis, composition, profile and properties, Managing
Soil resources
Unit 3 Chemistry of Living organisms in Environment
1. Basics of Chemistry for biologist
2. Principles of thermodynamics and bioenergetics
3. Carbohydrates : Characteristics and types of carbohydrates; metabolism of carbohydrates (EMP, ED,PPP, TCA etc. ), Gluconeogenesis and
glyoxylate cycle
4. Amino acids : Characteristics and types of Amino acids; Biosynthesis and catabolism, protein turn over
5. Lipids : Characteristics and types of Lipid; lipid metabolism : biosynthesis of fatty acids and lipids, catabolism of fatty acids and other lipids
6. Nucleotide metabolism : Characteristics and types of Nucleic acids; Biosynthesis and catabolism of purines and pyrimidines
Section II
Unit 4 Fundamentals of Ecology
1. Definition and Scope of Ecology, Matter and energy in the environment
2. Principle and concept of Ecosystem
3. Concept of productivity, Energy Efficiencies
4. Habitats in the ecosystem: Fresh water, marine, estuarine, terrestrial and deserts
5. Limiting factors, laws and combined concept of limiting factors
6. Development and evolution of the ecosystem
7. Ecotone and edge effect, Ecades, ecotypes and Ecological Indicators
Unit 5 Population Dynamics, Species and individual in Ecosystem
1. Population properties, Population Density and Indices of relative abundance
2. Demography: A study of Population, Population Growth and concept of Carrying capacity
3. Regulation of a Population
4. Species richness and diversity
5. Species Interaction and Concept of habitat and ecological niche
6. Species as an indicator of Environment
Unit 6 Cycling of elements in Environment
1. Hydrologic, Gaseous and Sedimentary Cycles
2. Role of Microbes in Nutrient Cycles
3. Nitrogen, Carbon and Oxygen Cycle
4. Phosphorus, Sulfur, Iron and Calcium Cycles
5. Cycling of toxic elements in the environment and its effects on life
ES 102 - Biodiversity and Environmental Biotechnology
Section I
Unit 1 Concept of Biodiversity
1. Biodiversity Basics; Biodiversity: Origin, speciation and extinction and ecological role of biodiversity; Types of biodiversity: alpha, beta, and
gamma diversity
2. Techniques for molecular identification: Morphological methods, Biochemical, serological, Molecular methods, Fatty acid profiling, metabolic
fingerprinting ( Biolog ), DGGE and TGGE
3. Taxonomy methods: Taxonomy and classification: Taxonomic Hierarchies; Classical approach to classification; Numerical taxonomy; Molecular
taxonomy; modern methods of taxonomy and systematic.
Unit 2 Overview of Eukaryotic Biodiversity
1. Overview of plant biodiversity: Taxonomic criteria of classification; Classification system; Distinguishing and significant characteristics of
representative group
2. Overview of animal biodiversity : Taxonomic criteria of classification; Classification system; Distinguishing and significant characteristics of
representative group
3. Mycology : Taxonomic criteria of fungal classification; Distinguishing and significant characteristics of Mastigomycotina, Ascomycotina,
Basidiomycotina, Zygomycotina and Deuteromycotina; Fungal growth and differentiation;
4. Protozoa: Structure, classification, reproductive strategies and economic importance;
5. Algae : structure, classification, reproductive strategies and economic importance; algal ecology ; lichens
Unit 3 Biodiversity Monitoring, Assessment and Conservation
1. Techniques to monitor the biodiversity of Forest, wetland, marine and urban ecosystem
2. Assessment of Biodiversity through various indices
3. Recent techniques to assess vegetational and faunal diversity
4. Conservation of Biodiversity, Role of IUCN, Red Data Book, Protected Areas and Local people in biodiversity conservation
5. Biodiversity Hot Spots in India and Gujarat
6. National Biodiversity Act, 2002 and International Convention on Biodiversity Conservation
7. Threats to the Biodiversity and their mitigation
Section II
Unit 4 Environmental Biotechnology Essentials
1. Introduction to environment and its component ; Principles of ecology; Concept of ecosystem; abiotic and biotic components;
2. Environmental pollution: air, water, marine, land, noise, and solid waste pollution;
3. Environmental Sample collection, processing and indicator microorganisms
4. Environmental Impact Assessment, Risk Assessment, Environmental auditing & public hearing
Unit 5 Eco- friendly Bioprocess
1. Biofertilizers : Growth promotion by Free living bacteria, Phosphate solubilizing microorganisms, microorganism to enhance Nitrogen fixation,
2. Bio-control of pathogens: Siderophores, antibiotics, enzyme, ice Nucleation and antifreeze Proteins, microbial insecticides : toxin of Bacillus
thuringiensis, Baculoviruses as biocontrol agent
3. Biofuels: Gasohol, Bioconversion of agriculture waste, Hydrogen and electricity
4. Biosurfactant: Microbial production and application
Unit 6 Cleaner Bioprocess
1. Biotechnology of Waste Management : Types and characteristics of wastes; Principles and aim of biological waste treatment;
2. Biochemistry and microbiology of treatments for removal of nitrogen, inorganic phosphorous; Fixed film technologies: Trickling filters, rotation
biological contactors, activated bio-filters, fluidized bed reactors; Suspended growth technologies: activated sludge process; oxidation
ditches, aerated lagoons; Stabilization ponds sludge treatment and disposal; Anaerobic treatments
3. Solid waste management
4. Biodegradation: Principles and mechanisms of biodegradation, Biodegradation of xenobiotic compounds (lignin, hydrocarbons, detergents, dyes
and pesticides)
5. Bioremediation: Principle and techniques; in situ solid phase treatment; immobilized cells; Biosorption; bioaccumulation and Co-metabolism;
Bioremediation of oil spills, metal, hazardous wastes
6. Biodeterioration: Principle, microbial mechanism, prevention and control of wood, petroleum, textile, metal, paper, leather and food
Biodeterioration
7. Bioleaching: Principles and application; Biopulping and biobleaching
ES 103 - Analytical techniques & Professional practices in Environmental Science
Section I
Unit 1 Analytical techniques I
1. Electrochyemistry : pH and buffers, potentiometric and conductometric titration
2. Principle and application of light, phase contrast, fluorescence, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, scanning tunneling
microscopy, atomic force microscopy and confocal microscopy; Cytophotometry and flow cytometry; fixation and staining
3. Principle and application of gel- filtration, ion-exchange, affinity chromatography, Thin layer and gas chromatography, High pressure liquid ]
(HPLC ) chromatography and FPLC
4. Centrifugation: Basic principle and application; Differential, density and Ultracentrifugation
5. Principles of biophysical method used for analysis of biopolymer structure, X ray diffraction, fluorescence, UV,ORD/CD, visible, IR, NMR and
ESR spectroscopy
Unit 2 Analytical techniques II
1. Hydrodynamic methods; Atomic absorption and plasma emission spectroscopy; MALDI- TOF
2. Principle and technique of nucleic acid hybridization and cot curve; sequencing of proteins and nucleic acids; southern , Northern and South-
western blotting technique; Polymerase chain reaction; Methods for measuring nucleic acid and protein interactions
3. Electrphoresis: Principle and application of native, SDS , agarose, 2D gel electrophoresis
4. Principle and applications of tracer technique in biology; Radiation dosimetry ; Radioactive isotopes and half life of isotopes; Effect of
radiation on biological system; Autoradiography; Cerenkov radiation; liquid scintillation spectrometry
5. Biosensors : Principle and application
Unit 3 Research Methodology and Scientific Presentations
1. Characteristic and type of scientific research
2. Research and Experimental design
3. Method of Data collection and Data analysis
4. Scientific Writing : Research proposal, Research Paper, Review paper, Thesis, Conference report, Book review and Project report;
Reference writing, scientific abbreviations
5. Preparation and delivery of scientific presentations
Section II
Unit 4 Remote Sensing and GIS
1. Introduction to remote sensing, physical basis for remote sensing
2. Types of satellite information, process of information extraction
3. Remote sensing as a tool for study and management of ecosystems
4. Geographical Information System (GIS): Introduction, principles
5. Setting up a GIS laboratory, GIS data structure
6. Data for GIS, GIS analysis capabilities, Applications of GIS
7. GPS: Introduction, principle and working, applications of GPS
Unit 5 Biostatistics
1. Bio statistics: Definition and scope, collection, classification, tabulation of data and its graphical and diagrammatic presentation
2. Measures of central tendency, dispersion and standard error; Probability distributions: binomial, poisson and normal distribution
3. Statistical significance: Hypothesis testing, types of error, level of significance, Student’s t test, F test and Chi square goodness of fit
4. Simple linear regression and correlation analysis
5. Non parametric tests: Rank test, F-max test, Mann –Whitney (U) test, and Sign test.
6. Popular software packages : SPSS, MINITAB, Met LAB
Unit 6 Computer Application
1. History, development and types of computers; Computer hardware, software and peripheral devices; Computer logics and languages
2. Basic working on DOS, Windows and Linux
3. Introduction to Internet, Biological research on the web
4. General awareness and use of popular software and packages: Microsoft office ( Word, Excel, Power Point, Access And Front Page)
5. Database : Introduction, types and application of database and database management system
List of Experiments for Based on the Theory Papers ES 101 and 102 and 103
1. To study climatic conditions and weather maps
2. Determination of Atmospheric humidity
3. To study the climatic conditions in open field, desert, wet land and under tree shed
4. To study physical properties of soil
i. colour, Texture, Temperature, pH
ii. WHC, Moisture
iii. Porosity, Bulk density
5. To study chemical properties of soil
i. Chloride
ii. Chemical oxygen demand
iii. Soil minerals
iv. Inorganic phosphorus
v. Sulphate, Nitrogen
6. To study physical properties of water
i. Colour, Odor
ii. pH, Turbidity, Electrical Conductance
iii. Estimation of solids from water (TS, TSS, TDS)
7. To study chemical properties of water
i. Acidity, Alkanility
ii. Chloride
iii. Chemical Oxygen Demand
iv. Biochemical Oxygen Demand
v. Total hardness
vi. Inorganic phosphorus
vii. Sulphate, Nitrogen
8. Identification of planktons and macro invertebrates from lentic and lotic ecosystem
9. Estimation of carbohydrates (Coles, DNS and Anthron method)
10. Estimation of proteins (Folin, Bradford and Biurates)
11. Estimation of lipids
12. Estimation of inorganic phosphorus
13. Estimation of inorganic nitrogen
14. To study vegetation by
i. Species area curve method, Quadrate method, Transect method, Ten tree method
ii. Modified Whittaker Plot method
15. Quantitative analysis of vegetation by IVI, Density, Frequency, Abundance, Richness
16. Staining techniques for microorganisms
i. Grams Staining, Positive staining, Negative staining
ii. Spore staining, Capsule staining
17. Isolation and identification of bacteria belonging to Enterobacteriaceae, Bacillaceae, Sudomonadaceae family
18. Isolation and identification of industrially important molds and fungi.
19. Screening of Extremophiles (Acidophiles, Alkaliphiles, Halophiles, Psychrophiles, Thermophiles)
20. Study of Protozoans and algal permanent slides.
21. Isolation of Xenobiotics (Dyes and Pesticides) degrading microorganisms
22. Isolation of cellulose degrading microorganism
23. Isolation of hydrocarbon degrading microorganisms
24. Study of bioleaching
25. Study of lignin degrading activities
26. Isolation of phosphate Solubilizing bacteria
27. Qualitative and quantitative determination of microbial siderophores
28. Estimation of microbial biomass
29. Identification of birds, mammals and reptiles
30. Identification of mammalian signs
31. To study technique for estimation of wild animal population
32. Quantitative analysis through various diversity indices
33. Standard operation procedure and validation of autoclave
34. Standard operation procedure and validation of PH meter
35. Standard operation procedure and validation of UV spectrophotometer
36. Standard operation procedure and validation of laminar flow
37. Agarose gel electrophoresis for DNA
38. SDS PAGE analysis for protein
39. Determination of pk value
40. Separation of amino acid by paper chromatography
41. Separation of sugars/fatty acid by thin layer chromatography
42. Determination of molecular weight of protein by column chromatography
43. Identification of geological features from Satellitic maps
44. Principal and working of GPS
45. Map requesting with raw and path
46. Use and application of GIS software
47. Computation of Mean, Mode and Median
48. Computation of standard deviation and Co-efficient of variation
49. Calculation of confidence limit for the population mean
50. To perform Student’s‘t’ test. (Paired and Unpaired)
51. To perform ANOVA
52. To perform regression and correlation analysis
53. To perform Chi square goodness of fit
54. To perform non parametric test
55. Application statistical software (SPSS/ Minitab/ metlab)
56. Use of Word, Excel, Power point, Access and Internet
57. Submission of scientific Review in relevant topics