Environment & Ecology GK Questions with Answers – Page 13

In the restructured Act the plant schedule moved from the old Schedule VI to the new Schedule III, and it still protects a short list of species such as the blue vanda, the pitcher plant and other threatened orchids and cycads, whose uprooting and trade are controlled.

The amendment of 2022 rationalised the schedules of the parent Act: Schedule I now lists animals given the highest protection, Schedule II lists animals with a lesser degree of protection, Schedule III lists specified plants and Schedule IV lists specimens figuring in the appendices of the Convention on International Trade…

The Wild Life (Protection) Act received the assent of the President on 9 September 1972 and remains the principal wildlife law of the country, covering hunting, protected areas, trade in animal articles and the schedules of protected species.

Carbon monoxide binds with haemoglobin far more strongly than oxygen does, so the blood can no longer carry enough oxygen.

In ecology, a population is defined by three things together: one species, one place and one time. Ecology studies life in levels.

A large part of the energy is lost at every trophic level, so after four or five links too little is left to support another level.

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) used in refrigerators, air conditioners, aerosol sprays and foams were the main cause of ozone depletion in the twentieth century.

Burning coal, petrol and diesel releases oxides of sulphur and nitrogen (and carbon), which dissolve in rain water to form acids.

Chewing gum pollutes because its gum base is largely made of synthetic plastic polymers that do not break down. Gum was once made from chicle, a natural latex from the sapodilla tree.

The Western Hoolock Gibbon is an Endangered ape protected in a sanctuary in Assam, and it moves by swinging from branch to branch, but it is a light, slender animal, not heavily built like a gorilla.

The Great Hornbill lives in tall, evergreen and moist deciduous forests, and the Western Ghats are one of its two main homes in India.

Lichens and mosses can live on bare rock, tree bark and walls without any soil, and they are the pioneer species of primary succession.

Copper smelting is a concern for its sulphur dioxide emissions and for heavy metals leaching from its slag, not for lethal carbon monoxide.

Of all the sunlight that falls on their leaves, green plants fix only about one per cent as chemical energy in food.

The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve spreads across Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka, meeting where the Western and Eastern Ghats join. Set up in 1986, the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve was India's first biosphere reserve and in 2000 became the first in India to join UNESCO's World Network of Biosphere Reserves.

Blue baby syndrome, or methaemoglobinaemia, strikes infants who drink water with excess nitrate, usually from fertiliser runoff or sewage. In an infant's digestive system, nitrate is converted into nitrite, which oxidises the iron of haemoglobin and turns it into methaemoglobin.

Vermicompost is a nutrient-rich organic manure and crop rotation helps control pests and weeds, but organic farming does use biofertilizers and bio-pesticides.

Nuclear power runs on uranium and thorium, mined minerals whose stock is finite, so it is a non-renewable source even though it is low in carbon.

R2, short for Responsible Recycling, is a standard for environmentally responsible electronics recycling. The R2 standard was developed with the support of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and is now managed by the non-profit SERI (Sustainable Electronics Recycling International).

All three statements are correct about PFAS, the so-called 'forever chemicals'. PFAS are a large family of man-made chemicals built on very strong carbon-fluorine bonds.