Static Quiz 30 March 2024 (Environment) 

Rhino:
• There are five species of rhino – white and black rhinos in Africa, and the greater one-horned, Javan and Sumatran rhino species in Asia.
• Only the Great One-Horned Rhino is found in India.
• Also known as Indian rhino, it is the largest of the rhino species.
• It is identified by a single black horn and a grey-brown hide with skin folds.
• They primarily graze, with a diet consisting almost entirely of grasses as well as leaves, branches of shrubs and trees, fruit, and aquatic plants.
• Habitat:
• The species is restricted to small habitats in Indo-Nepal terai and northern West Bengal and Assam.
• Manas National Park was selected as the first site for translocation of rhinos.
• Ten rhinos have been released into Manas since 2008. Ten more rhinos will be moved from Kaziranga National Park before the end of the year.

The term benthic refers to anything associated with or occurring on the bottom of a body of water. The animals and plants that live on or in the bottom are known as the benthos.

Bioaccumulation
• The progressive buildup of contaminants, poisons (chronic poisoning), or other compounds in an organism is known as bioaccumulation.
• Chemicals can be absorbed by an organism through breathing, skin absorption, or ingesting.
• When the rate of removal of a substance from the body of an organism through catabolism (the breakdown of complex molecules in living organisms) or excretion is greater than the rate of accumulation of the substance, bioaccumulation occurs.
• Since persistent organic pollutants like DDT have a long life, the danger of bioaccumulation is significant, even if the pollutant’s environmental levels are low.

Biomagnification
• With the passage of time, biomagnification refers to the increasing bioaccumulation (increase in concentration) at each tropical level.
• The pollutant must have a lengthy biological half-life (long-lived) and be soluble in fats rather than water in order for biomagnification to occur. DDT, for example.
• The organism will excrete the contaminant if it is soluble in water.
• Pollutants that dissolve in lipids are held for a long time in the body. As a result, measuring the amount of contaminants in fatty tissues of species like fish is a common practise.
• As milk produced by female mammals has a lot of fat, it is examined for contaminants.

Boreal or North Coniferous Forests „
Distribution : Latitude: 50-60°North z It does not occur in the southern hemisphere as there is no land at this latitude. These are also known as ‘Taiga’ and extend as a continuous belt across North America and North Eurasia below the Arctic tundra. „
Temperature: The climate is cold with long, harsh winter, with a mean annual temperature below 0°C. „
Precipitation: Primarily in the form of snow, 40-100 cm annually. „
Vegetation: Coniferous forests are characterized by evergreen, drought resistant and woody conifers, e.g., spruce, fir and pine trees. z The trees here have distinctive features such as spire shape to promote shedding of snow, narrow shaped leaves to protect moisture loss and waxy coating to protect from dry winds.
Fire is crucial to a healthy boreal forest. Fires open the forest canopy to sunlight, which stimulates new growth.

Types and features of biofertilizers Based on type of microorganism, the bio-fertilizer can also be classified as follows:
Bacterial Biofertilizers: e.g. Rhizobium, Azospirilium, Azotobacter, Phosphobacteria.
Fungal Biofertilizers: e.g. Mycorhiza
Algal Biofertilizers: e.g. Blue Green Algae (BGA) and Azolla. Actinimycetes Biofertilizer: e.g. Frankia