[Mission 2024] STATIC QUIZ, 31 October 2023 – Environment – INSIGHTSIAS

Correct

Solution: b)

 

Statement 3 is incorrect.

 

Temperate deciduous or temperate broad-leaf forests are a variety of temperate forest ‘dominated’ by trees that lose their leaves each year. They are found in areas with warm moist summers and cool winters. Soils of temperate forests are podozolic and fairly deep.

 

The trees shed their leaves in the cold season. This is an adaptation for protecting themselves against the winter snow and frost.

Correct

Solution: d)

 

The tropical rainforest biome has four main characteristics: very high annual rainfall, high average temperatures, nutrient-poor soil, and high levels of biodiversity (species richness).

The soil is nutrient poor because of the heavy rain that leaches the top layer of the soil frequently. Temperature is high because they are largely found in equatorial regions and species richness is high due to abundance of the range of biotic and abiotic factors expressed in the ecosystem.

Correct

Solution: b)

 

Saltmarshes are one of the key coastal ‘blue carbon’ habitats, recognised for their ability to store carbon within above- and below-ground biomass and sediments.

 

Saltmarshes sequester carbon at a rate two to four times greater than that recorded for mature tropical forests.

Correct

Solution: c)

 

Taiga, generally referred to in North America as boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of fir, pines, spruces, and larches. The taiga or boreal forest is the world’s largest land biome.

Correct

Solution: d)

 

Intensive irrigation of farms depletes groundwater; causes hardening of soil due to higher salinity and water logging leading to soil degradation.

 

Practice of monoculture does not allow the soil to rotate and conserve crucial minerals as the same minerals and nutrients are depleted in each crop cycle.

 

Forest fires lead to loss of vegetation, top soil cover, crucial biodiversity like microorganisms and animals thereby degrading the natural balance of the ecosystem, and leads to soil degradation.