Ecology & Environment Test 4

Solution: c)

Solution: a)

Schedule I animals under the Wildlife Act enjoy the highest protection in India. Since tiger is also covered in Schedule I, option A is correct.

Solution: b)

• Option A: Gharials inhabit deep freshwater habitats, not both freshwater and saltwater habitats as inhabited by crocodile species. So, A is ruled out. Option A is the home of saltwater crocodile.
• Option B: Gharials can be naturally found in National Chambal Gharial Wildlife Sanctuary.
• The gharial is one of three crocodilians native to India, the other two being the mugger crocodile and the saltwater crocodile.

Solution: b)

• Statement 1is incorrect because the concept of Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) was originally developed by FAO and officially presented at the Hague Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change in 2010, through the paper “Climate-Smart Agriculture: Policies, Practices and Financing for Food Security, Adaptation and Mitigation”. In 2014 an alliance was set up with this issue as its focal point: the GASCA (Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture).
• GACSA is an inclusive, voluntary and action-oriented multi-stakeholder platform on Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA). Its vision is to improve food security, nutrition and resilience in the face of climate change.
• Statement 2 is correct because membership in the Alliance does not create any binding obligations and each member individually determines the nature of its participation.
• Statement 3 is incorrect because India is just a signatory.

Solution: d)

• Nematodes, snails, birds, and wild and domestic animals often help dissemination of plant diseases.
• The spores of many parasitic fungi are disseminated by air currents from diseased to disease-free host Pathogens like, bacteria are often disseminated by splashing of raindrops, as in case of Citrus canker disease.
• Soil and field operation also disseminate the diseases as they result in dust blowing.

Solution: d)

A biofertilizer is a substance which contains living microorganisms which, when applied, colonize the rhizosphere or the interior of the plant and promotes growth by increasing the supply or availability of primary nutrients to the host plant.

There are five biofertilizers viz. Rhizobium, Azotobacter, Azospirillum, Phosphate Solubilizing Bacteria and mycorrhiza , which have been incorporated in India’s  Fertilizer Control Order (FCO), 1985.

Rhizobium, Azotobacter, Azospirillum and blue green algae (BGA) have been traditionally used as Biofertilizers. Blue green algae such as Nostoc, Anabaena, Tolypothrix and Aulosira fix atmospheric nitrogen.

Solution: b)

The IPCC was created to provide policymakers with regular scientific assessments on climate change, its implications and potential future risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation options.

The assessment reports are a key input into the international negotiations to tackle climate change. Created by the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988, the IPCC has 195 members.

Solution: b)

Statement 1: It is a NGO, not a bureau under UNEP. So, 1 is wrong.

TRAFFIC is governed by the TRAFFIC Committee, a steering group composed of members of TRAFFIC’s partner organizations, WWF and IUCN.

Statement 2: It is working globally on Wildlife trade monitoring network.

It specializes in investigating and analysing wildlife trade trends, patterns, impacts and drivers to provide the leading knowledge base on trade in wild animals and plants.

Solution: c)

Biomagnification, also known as bioamplification or biological magnification, is the increasing concentration of a substance, such as a toxic chemical, in the tissues of tolerant organisms at successively higher levels in a food chain.

Solution: c)

Parties to the UNFCCC are classified as: Annex I, Annex II and Non-Annex I.

Annex I Parties include the industrialized countries that were members of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) in 1992, plus countries with economies in transition (the EIT Parties), including the Russian Federation, the Baltic States, and several Central and Eastern European States.

Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) are a type of emissions unit (or carbon credits) issued by the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Executive Board for emission reductions achieved by CDM projects under the rules of the Kyoto Protocol.

Solution: a)

Gumti Wildlife Sanctuary is a Wildlife Sanctuary in Tripura.

Solution: a)

This was in news in 2017. Parali I island, one of the uninhabited islands that is a part of Lakshadweep has vanished due to coastal erosion and another four such territories in the sea are shrinking fast, claims a new study.

Solution: b)

Polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) play a central role in the formation of the ozone hole in the Antarctic and Arctic. PSCs provide surfaces upon which heterogeneous chemical reactions take place. These reactions lead to the production of free radicals of chlorine in the stratosphere which directly destroy ozone molecules.

Solution: c)

The percentage of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is a mere fraction of a percent because carbon dioxide is ‘fixed’ in two ways: (i) Green plants convert carbon dioxide into glucose in the presence of Sunlight and (ii) many marine animals use carbonates dissolved in sea-water to make their shells.

Solution: c)

Earth Day

Earth Day is an annual event celebrated on April 22. Worldwide, various events are held to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First celebrated in 1970, Earth Day events in more than 193 countries are now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network.

Earth Hour is a worldwide movement organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). The event is held annually encouraging individuals, communities, and businesses to turn off non-essential electric lights for one hour, from 8:30 to 9:30 pm on a specific day towards the end of March, as a symbol of commitment to the planet. It was started as a lights-off event in Sydney, Australia, in 2007. Since then, it has grown to engage more than 7,000 cities and towns across 187 countries and territories.

Answer – c

• The planet earth initially was a barren, rocky and hot object with a thin atmosphere of hydrogen and helium.

Answer – a

• During the formation of the moon, due to the giant impact, the earth was further heated up. It is through the process of differentiation that the earth forming material got separated into different layers.

Answer – d

• There are three stages in the evolution of the present atmosphere. The first stage is marked by the loss of primordial atmosphere. In the second stage, the hot interior of the earth contributed to the evolution of the atmosphere.
• Finally, the composition of the atmosphere was modified by the living world through the process of photosynthesis.
• The early atmosphere, with hydrogen and helium, is supposed to have been stripped off as a result of the solar winds.

Answer – c

• During the cooling of the earth, gases and water vapour were released from the interior solid earth. This started the evolution of the present atmosphere. The early atmosphere largely contained water vapour, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, methane, ammonia and very little of free oxygen.
• The process through which the gases were outpoured from the interior is called degassing.

Answer – c

• Sometime around 3,800 million years ago, life began to evolve. However, around 2,500-3,000 million years before the present, the process of photosynthesis got evolved.
• Life was confined to the oceans for a long time. Oceans began to have the contribution of oxygen through the process of photosynthesis.
• Eventually, oceans were saturated with oxygen, and 2,000 million years ago, oxygen began to flood the atmosphere.