Environment and Biodiversity - 1

Hydrogen fuel is completely pollution free; the only by-product in its combustion is water.
The conversion of hydrogen into liquid is a costly process. Because hydrogen is a gas, it cannot be compressed into a liquid form without intensive cost and energy input.
Hydrogen is difficult to store and distribute.

IREDA is a Public Limited Government Company established in 1987, under the administrative control of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) to promote, develop and extend financial assistance for renewable energy and energy efficiency/conservation projects with the motto 'ENERGY FOR EVER'.

A river said to be ‘dead’ when the river becomes highly polluted to sustain aquatic life. 

Primary reason for targeting 'biodiversity hotspots' for conservation is the number of species threatened far exceeds our capacity to protect them and we can, therefore, only concentrate on areas of highest species diversity. The biodiversity hotspots hold especially high numbers of endemic species, yet their combined area of remaining habitat covers only 2.3 percent of the Earth's land surface. Each hotspot faces extreme threats and has already lost at least 70 percent of its original natural vegetation. Over 50 percent of the world's plant species and 42 percent of all terrestrial vertebrate species are endemic to the 34 biodiversity hotspots. 

Ultraviolet rays are used to clean water in modern filters.

Polar ice caps are expected to be very severely affected by global warming. The immediate effect of it could be coastal and island flooding. The main consequence of global warming is the loss of coastal wetlands and barrier islands, and a greater risk of flooding in coastal communities. Low-lying areas, such as the coastal region along the Gulf of Mexico and estuaries like the Chesapeake Bay, are especially vulnerable. 

Common cold is not caused by air pollution. Some of the causes of common cold are transmission of common cold viruses via airborne droplets, i.e. aerosols, direct contact with infected nasal secretions or contaminated objects. 

Terrestrial biodiversity tends to be the highest at low latitudes near the equator, which seems to be the result of the warm climate and high primary productivity. Marine biodiversity tends to be the highest along coasts in the Western Pacific, where sea surface temperature is the highest and in mid-latitudinal band in all oceans.

A keystone species is a species that is connected to a disproportionately large number of other species in the food web. Keystone species have lower levels of biomass in the trophic pyramid relative to the importance of their role. 

Biomes are climatically and geographically defined as similar climatic conditions on the Earth such as communities of plants, animals and soil organisms. Biomes are defined by factors, such as plant structures (such as trees, shrubs and grasses), leaf types (such as broadleaf and needleleaf), plant spacing (forest, woodland and savanna) and climate. Unlike ecozones, biomes are not defined by genetic, taxonomic or historical similarities.

Statement 1 is wrong: It is not solar energy, but hydroelectricity that is the most widely used form of renewable energy. Hydroelectricity accounts for 16 percent of global electricity generation and is expected to increase by about 3.1% each year for the next 25 years.
Statement 2 is correct: The National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) was formally launched on 30^th June, 2008. Great importance has been given to the National Solar Mission in the NAPCC. The objective of the mission is to increase the share of solar energy in the total energy mix of the country, while also expanding the scope of other renewable sources.

All have the potential to generate a tsunami.

Megathrust earthquakes occur at subduction zones at destructive plate boundaries (convergent boundaries), where one tectonic plate is subducted (forced underneath) under another. Due to the shallow dip of the plate boundary, which causes large sections to get stuck, this type of earthquakes are the planet's most powerful. Since 1900, all six earthquakes of magnitude 9.0 or greater have been megathrust earthquakes. The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea megathrust earthquake.

The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is an international treaty that sets binding obligations on industrialised countries to reduce emission of greenhouse gases. The Protocol was adopted by parties to the UNFCCC in 1997, and came into force in 2005.

The Cartagena Protocol on biosafety is an international agreement on biosafety, as a supplement to the Convention on Biological Diversity. The Biosafety Protocol seeks to protect biological diversity from the potential risks posed by genetically modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology.

Article 48a of the Indian Constitution, inserted in the year 1949, deals with protection and improvement of the environment and safeguarding of forests and wildlife. 

Sundarbans, located in West Bengal, is famous for tigers.
Kaziranga, located in Assam, boasts of rhinoceros.
Rajaji National Park, located in Uttarakhand, is a conservation site for tigers.
Keoladeo Ghana, situated in Rajasthan, has a rich population of the Great Indian Bustard. 

1. Deep in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica, scientists have discovered 23 new animal species living in the hot, dark environment around hydrothermal vents, which is the most recently found ecosystem. A hydrothermal vent is a fissure in a planet's surface from which geothermally heated water is issued. Hydrothermal vents are commonly found near volcanically active places, areas where tectonic plates are moving apart, ocean basins and hotspots.
2. Any water in a sea or lake that is neither close to the bottom nor near the shore can be said to be in the pelagic zone. Animals living at the bottom of the sea are known as benthic.
3. Gradual and predictable change in the species composition of a given area is referred to as ecological succession.

The Great Indian Bustard is the state bird of Rajasthan. The Shonkaliya region of Ajmer has been dedicated for the conservation of this bird. The villagers of Ajmer district have agreed to conserve 30 hectares of land for the breeding activity of these endangered birds.

1. The area of two overlapping ecosystems is called ecotone. 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 or regional. An ecotype, sometimes called ecospecies, describes a genetically distinct geographic variety, population or race within species (or among closely related), which is adapted to specific environmental conditions.
2. The final stable community in ecological succession is called climax.
Ecological succession is defined as an orderly process of changes in the community structure and function with time, mediated through modifications in the physical environment, and ultimately culminating in a stabilised ecosystem known as climax. The complete sequence of communities which are transitory is known as seral stages or seres.

1. President Mohamed Nasheed (Maldives) and his cabinet met under the sea to drag attention of the world towards global warming and its threats.
2. Airplane contrails are also the reason for global warming. Contrail clouds also trap heat and the net impact of contrails is to warm the climate. 

Ocean acidification is the name given to the ongoing decrease in the pH of the Earth's oceans, caused by the uptake of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO₂₎ from the atmosphere. About 30–40% of the carbon dioxide released by humans into the atmosphere dissolves into the oceans, rivers and lakes.

1. The amount of atmospheric ozone is measured by ‘Dobson Spectrometer’ and is expressed in Dobson unit.
2. Chlorofluorocarbons are most likely to be present in photochemical smog. Photochemical smog is a form of pollution that is caused by the reaction of sunlight with other pollutants such as hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides. Photochemical smog can be seen sitting over the skylines of large cities and near factories.