Environment & Ecology Mixed Quiz: Set 5

The correct answer is B, Producers. Producers, the green plants and algae, are the most numerous living part of an ecosystem because every other organism depends on them for food. They make their own food by photosynthesis using sunlight, so they form the first trophic level of every food chain. Only about 10 per cent of the energy passes from one level to the next (Lindeman's ten per cent law), so each higher level can support fewer organisms. This gives the upright pyramid of numbers in a grassland: many grass plants, fewer grasshoppers, fewer frogs, and very few snakes and hawks. A is wrong because primary consumers, the herbivores, feed on producers and are fewer than them. C is wrong because secondary consumers, the small carnivores, are fewer still. D is wrong because tertiary consumers, the top carnivores such as the tiger or eagle, are the fewest of all. Exam tip: Producer → primary consumer → secondary consumer → tertiary consumer; about 90 per cent of energy is lost at each step; in a single-tree ecosystem the pyramid of numbers is inverted.

The correct answer is B, Endangered species. The Red Data Book is the source book that keeps a record of endangered animals, plants and fungi, so that governments and conservationists know which living species face the greatest risk of dying out. It is linked to the Red List prepared by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which was founded in 1948 and has its headquarters at Gland in Switzerland. Species at risk are placed in categories such as Critically Endangered, Endangered and Vulnerable, which together are called threatened species. Many countries, including India, also prepare their own Red Data Books for local species, and the Botanical Survey of India compiles one for Indian plants. Option A is wrong because the book is meant to help save living species; extinct species cannot be saved and are not its main record. Option C is wrong because common species are not at risk. Option D is wrong because invasive species, such as water hyacinth, are harmful newcomers and are tracked in separate lists. Exam tip: Red Data Book means endangered species; IUCN is at Gland, Switzerland, founded 1948.

The correct answer is A, Norman Myers, the British ecologist who put forward the idea in 1988 to direct scarce conservation money to the places where it would save the most species. A region qualifies when it is exceptionally rich in species found nowhere else and has already lost most of its original vegetation.

Option B, Charles Darwin, gave the theory of evolution by natural selection and has no connection with this classification. Option C, Robert Whittaker, is a real trap because he did give the terms alpha, beta and gamma diversity, which belong to the same chapter, and he is also remembered for a widely used classification of living organisms into five kingdoms. Option D, Alexander von Humboldt, described how species richness rises with the area of a region. Four hotspots extend into India: the Himalaya, Indo-Burma, the Western Ghats with Sri Lanka, and Sundaland.

The correct answer is B, 5th June. The United Nations General Assembly named 5 June as World Environment Day in 1972, and the day has been observed every year since 1974. The date recalls the opening day of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held at Stockholm from 5 to 16 June 1972, the first big world meeting on the environment. The same conference led to the creation of the United Nations Environment Programme, or UNEP, which leads the celebrations each year. Every year the day has a new theme and a host country; India hosted it in 2018 with the theme 'Beat Plastic Pollution'. A is wrong because May's main environment date is 22 May, the International Day for Biological Diversity. C is wrong because July has World Population Day on 11 July, not World Environment Day. D is wrong because 5 August is not linked with this day at all. Exam tip: 22 April, Earth Day; 22 May, Biodiversity Day; 5 June, World Environment Day; 16 September, World Ozone Day.

The correct answer is A, Hailey National Park. Declared in 1936 in the hills of present-day Uttarakhand, it was named after the governor of the United Provinces, later renamed Ramganga and finally named after the hunter turned naturalist Jim Corbett. It is also remembered as one of the first reserves taken up under Project Tiger in 1973.

Option B, Kaziranga in Assam, is famous as the home of the one-horned rhinoceros and is a World Heritage Site, but it became a national park much later. Option C, Gir in Gujarat, protects the Asiatic lion and was first given protection as a sanctuary. Option D, Kanha in Madhya Pradesh, is known for the barasingha and for tigers, and was notified in the mid twentieth century. The year 1936 belongs to only one park, so tie it firmly to Corbett.

The correct answer is C, Polythene bag. Polythene is a synthetic plastic that bacteria and fungi cannot break down, so it is non-biodegradable. A plastic bag can stay in soil or water for hundreds of years. Biodegradable waste is anything that decomposers can break down into simple, harmless substances, and it usually comes from plants or animals. Plastic bags choke drains and cause waterlogging, are swallowed by cattle and sea animals, and give off toxic gases when burnt, which is why their use must be reduced and the bags reused and recycled rather than thrown away. Waste is best kept in two bins: wet (biodegradable) and dry (non-biodegradable). A is wrong because vegetable peels rot within days and make good compost. B is wrong because dead leaves decay into humus that enriches the soil. D is wrong because a rotting fruit is already being broken down by microbes. Exam tip: if microbes can eat it, it is biodegradable; plastic, glass, metal cans and DDT are not.

The correct answer is C, 1986. Parliament passed the Environment (Protection) Act in 1986 and it came into force on 19 November 1986. It was enacted soon after the Bhopal gas tragedy of December 1984, when the country needed one general law to fill the gaps left by the earlier pollution laws. Parliament used Article 253, which allows it to legislate to carry out international agreements, so the Act gives effect to the decisions of the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. It is called an umbrella law because it gives the Central Government wide powers to fix standards, inspect and shut polluting units and frame rules, and most later environmental rules are made under it. A is wrong because no such central environment Act was passed in 1990. B is wrong because 1991 is the year of the Public Liability Insurance Act. D is wrong because 1988 only brought amendments to the Water Act. Exam tip: Water Act 1974, Air Act 1981, Environment (Protection) Act 1986.

The correct answer is A, The International Union for Conservation of Nature. The Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG) is one of the expert groups of the IUCN's Species Survival Commission, and it manages the Global Invasive Species Database. The ISSG is a network of scientists and policy experts that gathers information on alien species that spread and harm native wildlife, and it also compiled the well-known list of '100 of the World's Worst Invasive Alien Species'. The IUCN, founded in 1948 and based at Gland in Switzerland, also publishes the Red List of Threatened Species. Invasive plants such as Lantana, water hyacinth and Prosopis juliflora are a major threat to Indian forests and wetlands. Option B is wrong because UNEP runs environmental programmes and conventions but not this specialist group. Option C is wrong because the World Commission on Environment and Development, the Brundtland Commission, is known for its 1987 report 'Our Common Future'. Option D is wrong because WWF is a separate conservation NGO. Exam tip: IUCN means the Red List, the Species Survival Commission and the invasive species database.

The correct answer is A, 5 NTU. Under the Bureau of Indian Standards specification for drinking water, IS 10500:2012, turbidity has an acceptable limit of 1 NTU and a maximum permissible limit of 5 NTU in the absence of any alternate source. Turbidity is the cloudiness of water caused by suspended clay, silt and organic matter, and it is measured in nephelometric turbidity units by how much light a sample scatters sideways. It is kept low because suspended particles shelter bacteria and viruses from chlorine and make disinfection less effective. Option B is wrong because 1 NTU is the acceptable limit, not the maximum permissible one. Option C is wrong because 3 NTU appears in neither column of the standard. Option D is wrong because 7 NTU is above what the standard allows in any circumstance. Exam tip: for IS 10500:2012 remember the pair — turbidity acceptable 1 NTU and permissible 5 NTU, with pH held between 6.5 and 8.5.

The correct answer is A, 1 and 4. Valmiki National Park and Bhimbandh Wildlife Sanctuary are both in Bihar, while the other two are in other States. Valmiki National Park, with its tiger reserve, lies in West Champaran district in the far north-west of Bihar, along the Nepal border, where it adjoins Nepal's Chitwan National Park. It takes its name from the sage Valmiki, whose ashram is believed to have stood in this forest. Bhimbandh Wildlife Sanctuary lies in Munger district in south Bihar and is known for its hot springs. Option B is wrong because both Dudhwa and Gajner are outside Bihar. Option C is wrong because Gajner Wildlife Sanctuary is near Bikaner in the Thar desert of Rajasthan. Option D is wrong because Dudhwa National Park is in Lakhimpur Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh, famous for its swamp deer. Exam tip: Valmiki is in West Champaran in north Bihar, Bhimbandh in Munger in south Bihar; Dudhwa is Uttar Pradesh and Gajner is Rajasthan.

The correct answer is B, Marine. In the sea the producers are tiny phytoplankton. At any given moment their total mass is smaller than the mass of the zooplankton and fish that feed on them, so the pyramid of biomass stands upside down. This happens because phytoplankton grow and divide very fast and are eaten almost as quickly as they are produced, so a small standing crop can support a larger mass of consumers. The pyramid of energy, however, is always upright in every ecosystem, because energy is lost as heat at each step and only about 10 percent passes to the next level. Option A is wrong because in a grassland the grasses far outweigh the grazing animals, giving an upright pyramid. Option C is wrong because the tundra also has more plant mass than animal mass. Option D is wrong because in a forest the huge trees give a large biomass base, so the pyramid of biomass is upright, even though the pyramid of numbers there can be inverted. Exam tip: numbers can be inverted in a tree ecosystem, biomass in the sea, but energy never.

The correct answer is B, 1973. Project Tiger was launched on 1 April 1973 by the Government of India under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, from Jim Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand, to save the Bengal tiger and its habitat. It began with nine tiger reserves, including Corbett, Kanha, Bandipur, Ranthambore, Sundarbans and Manas, and the network has since grown to more than fifty. Each reserve has a core area free of human activity and a buffer zone around it. Since 2005 the project is run by the National Tiger Conservation Authority, a statutory body under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, and the tiger census is done every four years. A, 1985, is not linked to the tiger programme. C, 1972, is the year of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, the law that came a year before the project and is often confused with it. D, 1970, is when India banned tiger hunting. Exam tip: 1970 hunting ban, 1972 Wildlife Act, 1973 Project Tiger, 1992 Project Elephant.

The correct answer is C, the Eastern Ghats. They are a broken and comparatively dry hill chain and do not meet the twin tests of exceptional endemism and severe threat that define a hotspot.

Option A, the Himalaya, option B, Indo-Burma, which covers the north-east beyond the Himalayan range, and option D, the Western Ghats together with Sri Lanka, are three of the four hotspots that extend into India. The fourth is Sundaland, which covers the Nicobar group of islands. Papers set this question as an odd one out and the usual wrong options are the Eastern Ghats and the Aravallis, both of which sound plausible to a candidate who has learned only that hotspots are hilly. The Western Ghats are the one to remember for endemism, since the lion-tailed macaque and many amphibians live there and nowhere else.

The correct answer is A, 1 only. Statement 1 is true and statement 2 is false. Race to Zero is a global campaign backed by the United Nations and launched in 2020, ahead of the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow. It rallies businesses, cities, regions, investors and universities to take rigorous action to halve global emissions by 2030 and reach net-zero emissions by 2050 at the latest, in line with the Paris Agreement aim of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Building momentum for a shift to a decarbonised economy is exactly its aim, so statement 1 is correct. Statement 2 is wrong: the zero in the name means net-zero carbon emissions, not a zero-sum game, where one side's gain equals the other side's loss; climate action is meant to benefit everyone. B is wrong, because statement 2 is the false one. C is wrong, because it accepts the false zero-sum statement. D is wrong, because statement 1 correctly describes the campaign. Exam tip: Race to Zero, UN-backed, 2020, halve emissions by 2030, net zero by 2050.

The correct answer is B, the Asiatic lion. Gir, in the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, is the only place where the Asiatic lion survives in the wild, and its dry deciduous forest and scrub make the habitat that keeps the population alive.

Option A, the one-horned rhinoceros, belongs to the tall grassland of Kaziranga in Assam and the neighbouring parks of the Brahmaputra valley. Option C, the snow leopard, lives in the cold high mountains and is associated with Hemis in Ladakh and with Project Snow Leopard. Option D, the hangul or Kashmir stag, is found in Dachigam National Park near Srinagar and is the state animal of the erstwhile state. These four species with their four parks make the most commonly asked matching set in this chapter.

The correct answer is B, greenhouse gases emission. The Kyoto Protocol, adopted at Kyoto, Japan on 11 December 1997 under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, was the first treaty to set binding targets for cutting emissions. It came into force on 16 February 2005 and asked industrialised countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by an average of about 5 per cent below 1990 levels during 2008 to 2012. It covered six gases, including carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, and created market tools such as the Clean Development Mechanism, which let projects in countries like India earn carbon credits. India ratified it in 2002 but, as a developing country, had no binding target. A is wrong, because cutting poverty is the aim of goals such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals, not Kyoto. C is wrong, because nuclear arms are dealt with by treaties like the Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968. D is wrong, because farm subsidies fall under the WTO's Agreement on Agriculture. Exam tip: Kyoto 1997, in force 2005, binding cuts for rich nations; Paris 2015, pledges from all nations.

The correct answer is B, the Earth Summit held at Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The Convention has three objectives: the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components, and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources.

Option A, the Stockholm Conference of 1972, was the first great United Nations conference on the human environment and led to the creation of the United Nations Environment Programme. Option C, the Kyoto Conference of 1997, produced the protocol on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and belongs to the climate change chapter, not this one. Option D, the Ramsar Conference of 1971, produced the convention on wetlands. Two protocols follow the Rio convention itself: the Cartagena Protocol of 2000 on biosafety and the Nagoya Protocol of 2010 on access and benefit sharing.

The correct answer is B, the one-horned rhinoceros. Kaziranga lies on the floodplain of the Brahmaputra in Assam, where tall elephant grass and seasonal flooding suit the rhinoceros, and the park is inscribed as a natural World Heritage Site.

Option A, the Asiatic lion, survives only in Gir in Gujarat, at the other end of the country. Option C, the Nilgiri tahr, a mountain goat of the Western Ghats, is associated with Eravikulam National Park in Kerala. Option D, the great Indian bustard, is a bird of open grassland and is linked with the Desert National Park in Rajasthan. Kaziranga is also home to the wild water buffalo, the swamp deer and a strong tiger population, which is why it was declared a tiger reserve as well.

The correct answer is B, the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, notified in 1986. It spreads across the meeting point of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka in the Western Ghats and takes in several well known national parks and sanctuaries within its area.

Option A, Nanda Devi in Uttarakhand, option C, the Sundarbans in West Bengal, and option D, the Gulf of Mannar off the Tamil Nadu coast, are all biosphere reserves of India but all were declared later than the Nilgiri. The question is almost always set on which came first, so the pair to fix is Nilgiri and 1986. Remember also the framework these reserves belong to, the Man and the Biosphere Programme launched by UNESCO in 1971, and the three zones of every such reserve, namely the core, the buffer and the transition zone.

The correct answer is B, 1973. Project Tiger was launched a year after the Wild Life Protection Act came into force, and it created tiger reserves in which the core area is kept free of human activity while a buffer area allows regulated use; the National Tiger Conservation Authority now oversees the programme.

Option A, 1972, is the year of the Wild Life Protection Act itself, which is the single commonest confusion in this chapter, since the two years stand next to each other. Option C, 1975, is the year the Crocodile Conservation Project began for the gharial, the mugger and the saltwater crocodile. Option D, 1992, is the year of Project Elephant, which created elephant reserves and corridors. Keep the four years as one line and any date question here becomes easy.