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Ans.
Terrestrial. Ex- Grassland, Forest
Aquatic. Ex- Pond, Wetland
Q. 2. Describe the components of an ecosystem.
Ans. Ecosystem consists of abiotic and biotic components.
Abiotic components:
These components are the non-living components. Light, temperature, soil, water are the abiotic
factors that make the habitat for living beings.
They affect the living organisms behaviour and physiology. The survival of living organisms is
directly or indirectly effected by these factors and thus they are dependent on it.
Biotic components:
These are the living components. Plants and animals.
They live in a habitat and show inter dependance on each other and on the abiotic components.
The components of the ecosystem are seem to function as a unit when we consider the following
aspects: Productivity, decomposition, energy flow and nutrient cycling.
Q. 3. Define stratification with an example.
Ans. The vertical distribution of different species occupying different levels is called stratification.
It is clearly visible in case of forests.
For example, trees occupy the top vertical strata, shrubs occupy the second and bottom layers/
floor are occupied by herbs and grasses.
Q. 4. What is primary productivity? Give brief description of factors that affect primary
productivity.
Ans. The amount of biomass/organic matter produced per unit area over a time period by plants
during photosynthesis is called primary productivity (PP).
It depends on the plant species, environmental factors, availability of nutrients and photosynthetic
capacity of plants. Thus, the PP is variable in different types of ecosystems.
Q. 5. Give an account of energy flow in an ecosystem.
Ans. The energy flow in the ecosystem is unidirectional. It taken place towards higher trophic
levels and its dissipation and loss of heat to the environment takes place following both the laws
of thermodynamics.
The green plants revive solar energy from sun in the form of solar radiation of which 50% of it is
photosynthetically active radiation (PAR).
Plants absorb on 2-10% of it and use in converting it into their biomass. The consumers depend
on the chemical energy source on food.
The energy trapped by producer consumers of all levels. Energy amount decreases at successive
trophic levels.
When any organism dies it is converted to detritus or dead biomass. This serves the energy source
for decomposers.
Q. 6. What are the limitations of ecological pyramids?
Ans. The limitations of ecological pyramids are:
(a) It does not consider the same species belonging to two or more levels. (.b) It considers/
assumes a simple food chain that does not exist in nature.
(c) It does not accommodate a food web in its depiction.
(d) It does not give any significance to saprophytes.
Q. 7. (i) What is ecological succession?
(ii) Define the terms—sere.
Ans. (i) The gradual and fairly change in the species composition of an area is called ecological
succession.
(ii) The sequence of communities that successively change in a given area are called sere.
Q. 8. Arrange the following plant species in the sequential manner of their appearance
during a succession. Mention the end product/changes that take place in the habitat. Bigger
plants, stable climax forest, smaller plants, lichen, bryophytes, bare rocks.
Ans. Bare rocks -> lichen bryophytes -» smaller plants bigger plants -» stable climax forest. ‘
The xerophytic habitat is converted into a mesophytic habitat as the result of above succession.
Q. 9. What are the various kinds of nutrient cycles? Give it with examples.
Ans. Gaseous cycles
Examples- Nitrogen, Carbon
Sedimentary Cycles
Examples- Phosphrous, Sulphur
Q. 10. (1) Mention the various ecosystem services provided to us. (2) Should these services
be priced? If yes, why?
Ans. (1) Ecosystem services:
(i) Supply of pure air, water.
(ii) Mitigation of drought, floods
(iii) Nutrient cycling, fertility of soils,
(iv) Provision of wild life habitat, biodiversity, storage of a carbon,
(v) Pollution of crops—food resources.
(vi) Provision for aesthetic, cultural and spiritual values.
Yes, some of the ecosystem services should be priced to put a check on the greed and
exploitation of natural resources.
Q. 11. Write important features of a sedimentary cycle in an ecosystem.
Ans. Important features are:
(1) The mineral/nutrient is not released through respiration in the atmosphere.
(2) The atmospheric inputs of (phosphorus) nutrients through rainfall is smaller as in comparison to
carbon.
(3) There is no gaseous exchange of the nutrient between the organism and the environment.
Q. 12. Outline salient features of carbon cycling in an ecosystem.
Ans. Salient features:
(1) It is a gaseous cycle. It undergoes exchange between the organism, rocks, air and water.
(2) It forms 49% of dry weight of organisms.
(3) It is returned to atmosphere by respiration, combustion, decomposition and other human
activities.
Such as in Rauwolfia vomitoria in Himalaya region, 50,000 varieties of rice, 1,000 varieties of
mango in India.
(b) Species diversity:
The occurrence of diversity as the species level in a geographical region is called species diversity,
e.g. western ghats have more amphibian species diversity than in eastern ghats.
(c) Ecological diversity:
A geographical region having different ecosystems will have more ecologically diverse organisms
one having one or two types only. For example, India has more ecological diversity than Norway.
Q. 2. Explain with examples—latitudinal gradients.
Ans. The decrease in the species diversity from equator towards the poles is latitudinal gradient in
diversity. This can be justified by following examples:
(i) Colombia located near equator has nearly 1,400 species of birds, New York at 41 °N has 105
species and Greenland at 71 °N has 56 species only. India has 1,200 species.
(ii) Equador’s forest has upto 10 times more species than mid west of USA for vascular plants.
Q. 3. Give three hypotheses for explaining why tropics show greatest levels of species
richness.
Ans. The following three hypothesis for greatest levels of species richness are—
(a) Speciation:
It is the function of time. The tropical latitudes have remained undisturbed for millions of years
and had a long time for evolution among species diversification as compared to temperate
regions that frequented for glaciations in past.
(b) Tropical environment:
It is more constant, less seasonal and predictable, than the temperate ones. This provides rich
specialization and leads to greater species diversity.
(c) Solar energy:
There is presence of more solar energy and it contributes more productivity and in turn more
diversity.
Q. 4. Study the following plot.
Answer the following:
(i) Which line/plot describes the species-area relationship on a logarithmic scale? Give the
equation also.
(ii) What is the shape of curve for species richness and area for a wide variety of taxa?
(iii) What is the value of Z in a region and continent?
(iv) What does steeper slope of Z mean?
Ans. (i) The straight line represents the relationship. The equation is—Log S = Log C + Z Log A
(ii) Rectangular hyperbola.
(iii) Z value in a continent lies between – 0.6 to 1.2. Z value in a continent lies between 0.6 to 1.2.
(iv) It means more species richness relationship.
Q. 5. How is biodiversity important for ecosystem functioning?
Ans. Biodiversity is very important for the ecosystem functioning and its stability. It also is
responsible for the health of the ecosystem but the very survival of human in the ecosystem on
this planet.
Q. 6. How is a stable community identified?
Ans. The following points if observed suggest that the community is stable—
(a) It must not show too much variation in the productivity from year-year.
(b) It must be resistant or resisetent to occasional disturbances caused by nature and man-made.
(c) It must be resistant to invasions by alien species.
Q. 7. How many mass extinction of species are there on records since the origin and
diversification of life on earth? How is the present episode different? What is the result of
loss of biodiversity in a region?
Ans. There were 5 episodes of mass extinction of species. The present sixth episode is in
progress.
The current rates of extinction is estimated to be faster than the pre-human times because of our
activities. It is estimated to be faster 100-1000 times. General loss is:
(a) Decline to plant production.
(b) Lowered resistance to environmental disturbances such as droughts.
(c) Increased variability in certain ecosystem processes.
Q. 8. Briefly give the views regarding the reasons for conserving biodiversity.
Ans. There are the following views:
(a) Narrowly utilitarian:
We humans derive countless direct economic benefits from nature. Such as food, medicines and
many more utility things.
Nations with rich biodiversity can expect to reap enormous benefits from the increasing resources
put into bioprospecting.
(b) Broadly utilitarian:
It says that biodiversity plays a major role in many ecosystem services that nature provides. There
are many intangible benefits that we derive from nature, including aesthetic pleasures.
(c) Ethical values:
All living beings that share this planet have equal right to live as do humans. We must realize that
every species has an intrinsic value, even if we do not have any current economic value. We have
to maintain the biological legacy in good order for future generations.
Q. 9. What are sacred groves? What is their role in conservation?
Ans. India has a history of religious and cultural traditions that emphasized protection of nature.
In many cultures, tracts of forests are set aside and trees, animals are given total protection. Such
forests are called sacred groves.
Such forests are called sacred groves which help us to preserve, protect the forests, wildlife and
other rare, threatened and vulnerable species.
Q. 10. Among the ecosystem services are control of floods and soil erosion. How is this
achieved by the biotic components of the ecosystem?
Ans. Control of floods and soil erosion are done by preserving the forests. There must be a
balance between the plants and animals to maintain the biodiversity.
Q. 11. The species diversity of plants (22 per cent) is much less than that of animals (72 per
cent). What could be the explanations to how animals achieved greater diversification?
Ans. The animals have higher per cent than the species diversity of plants because they are
mobile and move from one place to another.
They moved to different habitats/ecosystem and developed species diversity.
Q. 12. Can you think of a situation where we deliberately want to make a species extinct?
How would you justify it?
Ans. Human health, followed by health of plants and animals of economic use. The health of
human, plants and animal species is always in danger due to pathogens, and vectors, secondary
or primary hosts.
For the welfare of human, we want to deliberately make such pathogenic species extinct. This will
ensure, the pathogenic diseases free human life and animal life.