Environmental Studies · Biology

Biodiversity and Conservation

2,388 Questions

Biodiversity and conservation questions address threats to ecosystems, climate change impacts, and habitat loss. These topics are essential for environmental science sections in major competitive exams. Practicing these questions clarifies concepts regarding species extinction and ecological management.

Habitat loss consequencesClimate change impactsEcosystem degradation causesDesert biodiversity threatsForest diversity threatsResource extraction effects

Biodiversity and Conservation Questions

Multiple choice

Which of the following is mentioned as the immediate cause for the destruction of plant species?

Nature is like business. Business sense dictates that we guard our capital and live from the interest. Nature’s capital is the enormous diversity of the living things. Without it, we cannot free ourselves of illness or provide industry with the raw materials for wealth creation . Professor Edward Wilson, of Harvard university says, “The folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us is the ongoing loss of genetic & species diversity. This will take millions of years to correct” Only 150 plant species have ever been widely cultivated. Yet over 75,000 edible plants are known in the wild. In a hungry world, with a population growing by 90 million each year, so much wasted potential is tragic. Medicines from the wild are worth around 40 billions dollar a year. Over 5000 species are known to yield chemical with cancer fighting potential. Scientist currently estimate that total number of species in the world is between 10 – 3 0 million with only around 1.4 million identified .The web of life is torn when mankind exploits natural resources in short – sighted ways . The trade in tropical hardwoods can destroy whole forest to extract just a few commercially attractive specimens. Bad agricultural practice triggers 24 billion tones of top soil erosion a year losing the equivalent of 9 million tones of grain output. Cutting this kind of unsuitable exploitation & instituting “sustainable utilization “will help turn the environmental crisis around.

  1. Soil erosion

  2. Destruction of habitat

  3. Cultivation

  4. None of these
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

The answer is in the line...'The trade in tropical hardwoods can destroy whole forest to extract just a few commercially attractive specimens. '

Multiple choice

It is argued by some scientists/environmentalists that the near extinction of India's white tigers is caused by state funded and promoted real estate projects that allow tree cutting and thus, greatly reduce the species' natural habitat and privacy.

Which of the following statements most directly contradicts the conclusion drawn above?

  1. The population of white tigers in the East African Wildlife Park has remained constant for the past decade despite build-up of physical infrastructure.

  2. Tourist-friendly regulations allow access of several undesirable visitors and poachers to game reserves and natural parks.

  3. The white tiger population had not been showing positive growth even before the urgent need for housing accommodation compelled the state government to sanction tree cutting in several regions.

  4. The indiscriminate cutting of trees has also brought several bird species to near extinction.
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

The argument ascribes the near extinction to cutting of forests and disappearance of natural habitat of the white tiger. There is no option that directly contradicts this assertion. However, option (2) gives an alternative explanation that natural reserves earmarked for white tigers are being vandalised by providing easy access to poachers under the garb of tourists.

Multiple choice

The term extinct refers to organisms that are

  1. not living on earth now

  2. few and need to be saved

  3. abundant on the earth

  4. found at one place on the earth

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

Extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms (taxon), normally a species. An extinct species is one that no longer has any living individuals on Earth.

Multiple choice

The Olive Ridley Turtles population decreased at an unprecedented rate during the 1970s and 1980s and reached its all-time low in the early 1990s. Environmental Scientists determined that the decrease in population was due to the national policy that permitted fishing in coastal areas with drift nets.

Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the assertion made by the scientists?

  1. The fishing in coastal areas with drift nets policy did not extend to the Southern coast.

  2. In the time since the fishing in coastal areas with drift nets policy was revoked in 1993, the population of Olive Ridley Turtles has grown at a steady rate.

  3. Olive Ridley Turtles like other reptiles, breed where very little food is available.

  4. The various smaller fish - sea dwellers that constitute the Olive Ridley Turtle's diet - felt no adverse effects from the fishing in coastal areas with drift nets policy.
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

This tells us that when the fishing policy was revoked, the Olive Ridley Turtles population began to increase. This supports the scientists' assertion that the fishing policy was causing the decrease in population.

Multiple choice

Which of the following is not a hotspot?

  1. Indonesia

  2. Greenland

  3. Madagascar

  4. Brazil
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

Greenland is not a hotspot. Indonesia, Madagascar and Brazil are all the hotspots. A biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region with a significant reservoir of biodiversity that is under threat from humans. 

Multiple choice

What do you mean by Endemic species?

  1. Species which do not adjust to enviromental changes and so their population decreases.

  2. Species which disappear from earth.

  3. Species that are found only in a particular area.

  4. None of these
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Yes, this is correct , they are not distributed uniformally around the globe.

Multiple choice

Who launched the Chipko Movement?

  1. H.N. Bahuguna

  2. S. L. Bahuguna

  3. N.D. Tiwari

  4. None of these

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

Sunderlal Bahuguna was a prominent leader and activist who played a key role in the Chipko movement to protect forests.

Multiple choice

The corals suffering the stress of pollution, overfishing, and climatic change are more susceptible to get affected from

  1. black band disease

  2. skeletal eroding band disease

  3. white band disease

  4. yellow-band disease

  5. white pox disease
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

Yellow-band disease is a disease that attacks colonies of coral at a time when coral is already under stress from pollution, overfishing, and climate change. It is characterised by large blotches or patches of bleached, yellowed tissue on Caribbean scleractinian corals.

Multiple choice

What has led to the unchecked growth of the marsupial population?

Directions: Read the passage and answer the question that follows.

The dog fence in Australia has been erected to keep out hostile invaders, in this case hordes of yellow dogs called dingoes. The empire it preserves is that of wool growers. Yet the fence casts a much broader ecological shadow. For the early explorers, a kangaroo or a wallaby sighting marked a noteworthy event. Now try not to see one. Without a native predator there is no check on the marsupial population. The kangaroos are now cursed more than the dingoes. They have become rivals of sheep, competing for water and grass. The State Governments now cull more than three million kangaroos a year to keep Australia’s natural symbol from over running the pastoral lands.

  1. the building of fences

  2. the absence of native predators

  3. the culling of kangaroos

  4. the availability of water and grass
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

Mentioned in lines 4-5 of the passage.