Static Quiz 08 February 2024 (Environment)   

Nearly all wild lions live in sub- Saharan Africa, but one small population of Asiatic lions exists in India’s Gir Forest. Asiatic lions once prowled from the Middle East to India. Now, only a fraction of these magnificent animals survive in the wild. They are found in Gir forest, not the eastern coast mangroves. Hence statement 1 is correct.

They are listed in Schedule I of Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972, in Appendix I of CITES and as Endangered on IUCN Red List. Hence statement 2 is incorrect.

The major threat to the Asiatic Lion population is its vulnerability to unpredictable events such as a plague or a natural disaster. There have also been few incidents of poaching reported as well. Additional threats are from the villages around the Gir National Park when the locals kill the lions in retaliation for attacks on livestock. Hence statement 3 is correct.

Measurement of biodiversity was done by Whittaker. Biodiversity can be measured by two major components: Species Richness and Species Evenness

Species Richness: It refers to the measure of a number of species found in per unit area of a region or community. It has three components:

Alpha diversity: It refers to the diversity of species found in a particular area or ecosystem, and is usually expressed by the number of species in that ecosystem. Hence statement 1 is correct.

Beta diversity: It refers to the comparison of the diversity of species between two or more ecosystems, usually measured as the change in the number of species between the ecosystems.

Gamma diversity: It is the measure of the overall diversity for the different ecosystems in a region. It is highly subjective because of different perceptions about the boundaries of the region. Hence statement 2 is incorrect.

Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change report on the “Issue Of Poaching in The Andaman and Nicobar Islands” states that the volume of the poaching has “considerably increased” over the years, in spite of the “best efforts by administration” to contain the menace. The islands marine habitats host the majority of fauna (with 5,859 species). The rest of the species (around 35.82%) thrive on land. Interestingly, a high percentage of endemism is noted in the terrestrial fauna24.95%. high percentage of endemism in terrestrial fauna to the isolation of land masses and their faunal elements from each other while the low endemicity in the marine faunal elements is due to continuity of the water medium.

Ecological amplitude was recognized by Shelford (1937) as the Law of Tolerance. It is the degree of adaptation of a living organism to the change in its environment. A species that is able to tolerate a wide range of environmental conditions is said to have a high ecological tolerance

Carbon footprint is the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere as a result of the activities of a particular individual, organization, or community.
• Carbon sequestration means capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere or capturing anthropogenic (human) CO2 from large-scale stationary sources like power plants before it is released to the atmosphere. Once captured, the CO2 gas (or the carbon portion of the CO2) is put into long-term storage.
• Carbon neutrality, or having a net zero carbon footprint, refers to achieving net zero carbon emissions by balancing a measured amount of carbon released with an equivalent amount
sequestered or offset, or buying enough carbon credits to make up the difference. A carbon offset is a reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide or greenhouse gases made in order to compensate for or to offset an emission made elsewhere.
• Carbon offsetting is an internationally recognised way to take responsibility for unavoidable carbon emissions.