Test: Environment- 6 - UPSC MCQ

• Bioaerosols are airborne particles that are biological in origin. Bioaerosols include fungi, bacteria, viruses, and pollen. Bioaerosols can be formed from nearly any process that involves biological materials and generates enough energy to separate small particles from the larger substance, such as wind, water, air, or mechanical movement.
• Plants, soil, water, and animals (including humans) all serve as sources of bioaerosols, and bioaerosols are subsequently present in most places where any of these sources live.
• Bacterial cells when they become airborne normally rapidly die, within a few seconds, due to evaporation of water associated with the particle. Thus with higher humidity, higher bioaerosol levels can prevail.

11 of the eighteen biosphere reserves are a part of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves, based on the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme list.

• Ecologists believe that communities with more species, generally, tend to be more stable than those with less species.
• A stable community should not show too much variation in productivity from year to year; it must be either resistant or resilient to occasional disturbances (natural or man-made), and it must also be resistant to invasions by alien species.
• David Tilman’s long-term ecosystem experiments using outdoor plots provide some tentative answers. Tilman found that plots with more species showed less year-to-year variation in total biomass. He also showed that in his experiments, increased diversity contributed to higher productivity.

Burning of coal by man is the main source of atmospheric carbon dioxide. It has nothing to do with adding nitrogen to the soil.
Nitrogenous waste products of living organisms such as urea and dead remains of organisms are converted back into inorganic ammonia by the bacteria.

• Bioplastics are plastics derived from renewable biomass sources, such as vegetable fats and oils, corn starch, straw, woodchips, food waste, etc. Bioplastic can be made from agricultural by-products and also from used plastic bottles and other containers using microorganisms.
• Not all bioplastics are biodegradable nor biodegrade more readily than commodity fossil-fuel derived plastics.
• Bioplastics and other bio-based materials increase stratospheric ozone depletion compared to conventional plastics; this is a result of nitrous oxide emissions during fertilizer application during industrial farming for biomass production.

• Commensalism is a type of symbiotic relationship between organisms in which one organism benefits without harming the other.
• Many birds form a commensal relationship with some species of ants like the army ants. A great number of army ants trail on the forest floor, and while moving, stir up many insects lying in their path. The birds follow these army ants and eat up the insects that try to escape from them. The birds benefit by catching their prey easily, while the army ants are totally unaffected.

• Agenda 21 is a comprehensive plan of action to be taken globally, nationally and locally by organizations of the United Nations System, Governments, and Major Groups in every area in which human impacts on the environment.
• Agenda 21 is a non-binding action plan of the United Nations with regard to sustainable development. It is a product of the Earth Summit (UN Conference on Environment and Development) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992

Flora and Fauna of Bhitarkanika National Park

• Flora: Mangrove species, casuarinas, and grasses like the indigo bush.
• Fauna: The Park is home to the saltwater crocodile, Indian python, black ibis, wild boar, rhesus monkey, chital, darter, cobra, monitor lizard. Olive ridley turtles nest on Gahirmatha and other nearby beaches. Bhitarkanika has one of the largest populations of saltwater crocodile in India

• Bioleaching is a simple and effective technology for metal extraction from low-grade ores and mineral concentrates. At present bioleaching is used essentially for the recovery of copper, uranium and gold.
• Biosparging is an in-situ remediation technology that uses indigenous microorganisms to bio-degrade organic constituents in the saturated zone. In biosparging, air (or oxygen) and nutrients (if needed) are injected into the saturated zone to increase the biological activity of the indigenous microorganisms. Biosparging can be used to reduce concentrations of petroleum constituents that are dissolved in groundwater, adsorbed to soil below the water table, and within the capillary fringe.
• Bioremediation strategies can involve natural attenuation, bioaugmentation, or biostimulation and can take place in situ or ex situ.

‘Operation Kachhapa’: Conservation of the Olive Ridley Sea Turtle was launched by the Wildlife Protection Society of India in collaboration with the Odisha State Forest Department and the Wildlife Society of Odisha and other local NGOs.

The TRAFFIC, the Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network, is a leading non-governmental organisation working on wildlife trade in the context of both biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. It is a joint program of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

• The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India has launched the “Asiatic Lion Conservation Project” with an aim to protect and conserve the world’s last ranging free population of Asiatic Lion and its associated ecosystem.
• “The Asiatic Lion Conservation Project” will strengthen the ongoing measures for conservation and recovery of Asiatic Lion with the help of state-of-the –art techniques/ instruments, regular scientific research studies, disease management, Modern surveillance/ patrolling techniques.
• The total budget of the project for 3 years that amounts to nearly Rs. 9784 lakh will be funded from the Centrally Sponsored Scheme- Development of Wildlife Habitat (CSS-DWH) with the contributing ratio being 60:40 of Central and State share.
• The project activities is envisaged in a manner to cause habitat improvement, scientific interventions, disease control and veterinary care supplemented with adequate eco development works for the fringe population in order to ensure a stable and viable Lion population in the Country.
• Asiatic Lions are listed as ‘Endangered’ under the IUCN Red List.

Agenda 21 is a non-binding action plan of the United Nations with regard to sustainable development. It is a product of the Earth Summit (UN Conference on Environment and Development) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992. The “21” in Agenda 21 refers to the 21st century. Its aim is achieving global sustainable development. One major objective of the agenda 21 is that every local government should draw its own local Agenda 21. Since 2015, Sustainable Development Goals are included in the Agenda 2030.

Ozone layer depletion increases the amount of UVB that reaches the Earth’s surface. Laboratory and epidemiological studies demonstrate that UVB causes non-melanoma skin cancer and plays a major role in malignant melanoma development.
UVB radiation affects the physiological and developmental processes of plants.

• Algae can be used to make Biodiesel and Bioethanol.
• It is a complete protein with essential amino acids (unlike most plant foods) that are involved in major metabolic processes such as energy and enzyme production.
• They are used as fertilizers, soil conditioners and are a source of livestock feed.
• Algae are used in Wastewater Treatmentfacilities, reducing the need for greater amounts of toxic chemicals than are already used.
• Algae can be used to capture fertilizers in runoff from farms.

An ecotone is a transition area between two biomes. It is where two communities meet and integrate. It may be narrow or wide, and it may be local (the zone between a field and forest) or regional (the transition between forest and grassland ecosystems).

• For e.g. the mangrove forests represent an ecotone between marine and terrestrial ecosystem, grassland (between forest and desert), estuary (between fresh water and salt water) and river bank or marsh land (between dry and wet).

• A primary pollutant is an air pollutant emitted directly from a source. They are “directly” emitted from the processes such as fossil fuel consumption, volcanic eruption and factories. The major primary pollutants are Oxides of Sulphur, Oxides of Carbon, Oxides of Nitrogen, Methane, Particulate Matter, Ammonia, Chlorofluorocarbons, Toxic metals etc.
• A secondary pollutant is not directly emitted as such, but forms when other pollutants (primary pollutants) react in the atmosphere. Important secondary Air Pollutants are Ground Level Ozone, Smog and POPs (Persistent Organic Pollutants).

• Manas National Park – Manas National Park or Manas Wildlife Sanctuary is a national park, UNESCO Natural World Heritage site, a Project Tiger reserve, an elephant reserve and a biosphere reserve in Assam
• Dachigam National Park – Dachigam National Park is located 22 kilometers from Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir.

• Pioneer species are hardy species which are the first to colonize previously disrupted or damaged ecosystems, beginning a chain of ecological succession that ultimately leads to a more biodiverse steady-state ecosystem.
• Since some uncolonized land may have thin, poor quality soils with few nutrients, pioneer species are often hardy plants with adaptations such as long roots, root nodes containing nitrogen-fixing bacteria, and leaves that employ transpiration. Note that they are often photosynthetic plants, as no other source of energy (such as other species) except light energy is often available in the early stages of succession, thus making it less likely for a pioneer species to be non-photosynthetic.
• Algae, Mosses and Lichens are the examples of pioneer species.

Mangroves can restrict the opening of their stomata. Allows the mangrove to preserve fresh water, vital to survive in a saline environment.

• Able to turn their leaves to reduce exposure to the sunlight (reduces water loss as a result of evaporation)
• The pneumatophores allow the plant to breath, however also change in size to stop the intake of salt from the water.
• Accumulation/ storage—in some mangroves, salt accumulates in selected parts of the plant, for example in some leaves, until it reaches a certain concentration. That part of the plant is then shed.
• Excretion— salt glands on the surface of their leaves, which release salt.
• Exclusion—the membranes in the root system of some mangroves filter the sea water, allowing water to pass into the plant, but excluding most of the salt. (Root Systems Have Structures To Exclude The Salt)

Main Causes of Land Degradation are:

• Deforestation
• Excessive Use of Fertilizers and Pesticides
• Overgrazing
• Salination
• Desertification
• Soil erosion
• Wasteland
• Landslides

• Itai-itai disease was the name given to the mass cadmium poisoning of Toyama Prefecture, Japan, starting around 1912.  Cadmium poisoning can also cause softening of the bones and kidney failure.
• Minamata disease is a neurological syndrome caused by severe mercury poisoning. Minamata disease was first discovered in Minamata city in Kumamoto prefecture, Japan, in 1956.

• A “pyramid of numbers” shows graphically the population of each level in a food chain. Often, there are more producers than consumers, however, it can also be seen in many ecosystems that there are more primary consumers than producers.
• A “pyramid of biomass” shows the relationship between biomass and trophic level by quantifying the biomass present at each trophic level of an energy community at a particular time. It is a graphical representation of biomass present in unit area in different tropic levels. The pyramid of biomass may be “inverted”. For example, in a pond ecosystem, the standing crop of phytoplankton, the major producers, at any given point will be lower than the mass of the heterotrophs, such as fish and insects.