Environmental Studies · Biology

Ecology and Biodiversity

1,739 Questions

Ecology and biodiversity are vital topics in environmental studies, covering ecosystem structures, species diversity, and environmental impacts. These concepts are frequently tested in competitive examinations for civil services and state selections. The questions cover carrying capacity, ecological succession, and conservation fundamentals.

Species richness measurementTypes of ecological diversityBiome distribution factorsCarrying capacity conceptEcosystem servicesEnvironmental Impact Assessment

Ecology and Biodiversity Questions

Multiple choice

What makes an ecosystem?

  1. A living community and its environment

  2. All the plants and animals of an area

  3. Carnivores and herbivores of an area

  4. Producers , consumers and decomposers in a particular locality
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Multiple choice

Ecological succession is

  1. the changes in species over time

  2. the gradual process by which the species composition of a community changes

  3. the changes in a forest as the trees grow larger

  4. the process by which a species becomes abundant
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

Ecological succession is the gradual process by which the species composition of a community changes.

Multiple choice

'Ecological Niche' refers to the

  1. amount of autotrophs available for consumption of the grazing population.

  2. relationship of an animal with the surrounding animals.

  3. position of an animal with reference to its species composition.

  4. positional and functional relationship of an organism is an ecosystem.
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

An ecological niche is the role and position of a species in its environment; how it meets its needs for food and shelter, how it survives and how it reproduces. A species' niche includes all of its interactions with the biotic and abiotic factors of its environment.

Multiple choice

Directions: Choose the right meaning of the following word.

Ecosystem

  1. Conclusion; the concluding part; the last piece

  2. An ecological community, including animals, plants, bacteria, etc. together with its environment

  3. A person with superior tastes; a genius; somebody with superior intellect

  4. An official record; a list of events of counted items; an enumeration

  5. Former occupant; something or someone that came before
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

An ecosystem is a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment. Option B accurately defines it as "an ecological community, including animals, plants, bacteria, etc. together with its environment." The other options describe: conclusion (A), genius/intellectual (C), record/list (D), and predecessor (E).

Multiple choice

The most diverse ecosystem on Earth is

  1. Agroecosystem

  2. Aquatic ecosystem

  3. Coral reefs

  4. Human ecosystems
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Often called “rainforests of the sea”, coral reefs forms the most diverse ecosystems on Earth. Coral reefs are underwater structures made from calcium carbonate secreted by corals. Corals are colonies of tiny living animals found in marine waters that contain few nutrients.

Multiple choice

Which of the following niches describes the relative position of a species or population in its ecosystem?

  1. Ecological niche

  2. The Grinnellian niche

  3. The Eltonian niche

  4. The Hutchinsonian niche
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

In ecology, a niche is a term describing the relational position of a species or population in its ecosystem to each other; e.g., a dolphin could potentially be in another ecological niche from one that travels in a different pod if the members of these pods utilize significantly different food resources and foraging methods

Multiple choice

Which among the following is the disadvantage of the pyramid of productivity?

  1. Two species of comparable biomass may have very different life spans

  2. Organisms are assigned to a specific trophic level

  3. Different ecosystems can be compared

  4. This pyramid is always upright
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

There is still the difficulty of assigning the organisms to a specific trophic level. As well as the organism in the food chains, there is the problem of assigning the decomposers and detritivores to a particular trophic level.

Multiple choice

The biotic interactions within an ecosystem are represented by

  1. Ecological efficiency

  2. Ecological network

  3. Ecological pyramid

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

An ecological network is a representation of the biotic interactions in an ecosystem, in which species (nodes) are connected by pairwise interactions (links). These interactions can be trophic or symbiotic. Ecological networks are used to describe and compare the structures of real ecosystems, while network models are used to investigate the effects of network structure on properties such as ecosystem stability.

Multiple choice

The stable community, maintained by man or his domestic animals is termed as

  1. Climatic climax

  2. Edaphic climax

  3. Catastrophic climax

  4. Disclimax
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

When a stable community, which is not the climatic or edaphic climax for the given site, is maintained by man or his domestic animals, it is designated as Disclimax (disturbance climax) or anthropogenic subclimax (man-generated). For example, overgrazing by stock may produce a desert community of bushes and cacti where the local climate actually would allow grassland to maintain itself.

Multiple choice

Which of the following types of successions occurs in an environment having the substrate devoid of vegetation?

  1. Primary succession

  2. Secondary succession

  3. Allogenic succession

  4. Autogenic succession
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

Primary succession is one of two types of biological and ecological succession of plant life, occurring in an environment in which new substrate devoid of vegetation and usually lacking soil, such as a lava flow or area left from retreated glacier is deposited. In other words, it is the gradual growth of an ecosystem over a longer period of time.