Natural Resources Questions and Answers

Answer: A

In ecology resource use is circular.

The question contrasts the linear economic model (printed 'resonance use' for resource use): resources are extracted, made into products, used and thrown away, a one-way flow from raw material to waste. In an ecosystem the same matter moves in cycles. Carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and water pass from producers to consumers to decomposers and back to the soil, water and air, so the waste of one organism is the resource of another.

Carrying capacity is the population an environment can support, capital is a stock of assets, and expansion describes growth. None of them is the opposite of a linear flow.

Answer: A

The ratio is called the efficiency.

By the second law of thermodynamics every real energy conversion loses part of the input, usually as low-grade heat, so the useful output is always less than the input. Efficiency expresses how much is kept:

\[ \eta = \frac{\text{output}}{\text{input}} \times 100\% \]

A coal power station converts only about a third of the fuel's energy into electricity. Consistency and constancy describe steadiness, not a ratio of output to input, and 'deficiency' (printed 'Defficiency') means a shortfall, not this ratio.

Answer: A

The Almatti Dam is in Karnataka (printed 'Karnatka').

The dam stands on the Krishna near Almatti in the Vijayapura (Bijapur) and Bagalkot area of north Karnataka. It is the main storage of the Upper Krishna Project, and its height has long been disputed by Andhra Pradesh, which lies downstream.

Maharashtra is upstream: the Krishna rises at Mahabaleshwar and its Maharashtra dams include Dhom. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are downstream, where the river is impounded at Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar. None of them is the site of the Almatti Dam.

Answer: B

The formation of soil is called pedogenesis.

Pedogenesis (from the Greek pedon, soil) is the whole process by which weathered rock, the parent material, is turned into soil through the action of climate, organisms, relief and time. Physical and chemical weathering break the rock down, and organic matter, leaching and the formation of horizons turn it into a soil profile.

Biogenesis refers to life arising from pre-existing life. Biodegradation is the breakdown of organic matter by organisms. Biomagnification is the build-up of toxicants along a food chain. None of them names the formation of soil.

Answer: C

Soil formed from silt deposited by rivers is alluvial soil.

Alluvium is the sediment of clay, silt and sand carried and laid down by rivers. Alluvial soils cover the Indo-Gangetic plains and the deltas of the east coast; they are among India's most extensive and fertile soils and are renewed by floods.

Red soil develops in place from weathered crystalline rocks, red because of iron oxides. Black soil (regur) forms from weathering of the Deccan basalt. Podzol ('pod soil') is a leached, acidic soil of cool, humid coniferous forests. None is formed from river silt.

Answer: D

Soil without living organisms is a mineral substrate.

Soil in the ecological sense is a living system: it contains bacteria, fungi, earthworms and other organisms, and the organic matter they produce. Remove all life and what remains is only weathered mineral matter, the inert substrate on which soil develops, without biological activity or the nutrient cycling it drives.

Fertile and subfertile soils are graded by their capacity to support plants, which depends on living organisms. Humus is the dark, decomposed organic fraction of soil, produced by organisms, so it is the opposite of a lifeless material.

Answer: B

Mining is not a natural factor.

Watershed health can be harmed both by natural disturbances and by human activities. Fires, floods and earthquakes are natural events: they strip vegetation, cause erosion and landslides and change channels and sediment loads.

Mining also damages watersheds, through deforestation, soil erosion, sediment and acid mine drainage, but it is a human (anthropogenic) activity, not a natural factor. So it is the one option that does not fit the category the question asks about.

Answer: A

The Appiko movement was led by Pandurang Hegde.

Appiko (Kannada for 'to hug') began in September 1983 in the Salkani forest of Sirsi taluk in Uttara Kannada district, when villagers hugged trees to stop felling. Inspired by the Chipko movement, it was organised by the environmentalist Pandurang Hegde and spread through the Western Ghats of Karnataka.

Sunderlal Bahuguna was the leading figure of Chipko in the Himalaya, which inspired Appiko, but he did not found it. The other two names are not associated with founding the movement.

Answer: C

The strategy that is not ex-situ is a Biosphere reserve.

Ex-situ conservation keeps germplasm outside its natural habitat: seed gene banks, DNA gene banks, field gene banks, botanical gardens and zoos.

A biosphere reserve protects species where they naturally occur, together with their ecosystem, which is in-situ conservation, like national parks and sanctuaries. That is why it is the odd one out.

Answer: A

The option that is not a benefit is Increases soil compaction.

Vegetation does the reverse: roots open channels in the soil and leaf litter adds organic matter, which keeps the soil loose and porous, so more rain soaks in. Compaction is a harm, caused by grazing, machinery and bare ground, and it increases runoff.

The other three are genuine benefits. Plant cover and litter slow overland flow, the canopy intercepts falling drops so they do not dislodge soil (raindrop splash), and roots and stems trap and hold sediment, which is why vegetation is central to watershed management.