31. Identify the most infertile amongst the following soils.
Correct Answer:-C ( Laterite soil )
Description:- Lateritic soils are the most weathered and infertile of all soil types. Due to intensive leaching and low base-exchange capacity, typical lateritic soils are generally infertile and of little value for crop production (Geography of India by Smita Sengupta, p 63).
32. Which one of the following pairs is not correctly matched ?
Correct Answer:-A ( Khadar – Zonal soil )
Description:- Alluvial soils (khadar and bhangar) are azonal soils. They form in transported and recently deposited materials. Azonal soils have a profile determined predominantly by factors other than local climate and vegetation.
33. In a desert region, soil erosion can be checked by
Correct Answer:-C ( Tree plantation/Afforestaion )
Description:- Afforestation holds the key for preventing soil erosion in desert regions and further desertification. Trees or even small plants bind soil to their roots, thereby checking their loosening. Some other measures include: introduction of improved dry farming practices and animal husbandry and plantations for fuel and fodder.
34. ‘Terra rossa’ is a Latin word which means
Correct Answer:-B ( red terrain )
Description:- ‘Terra Rossa’ in Latin or Italian language is another name for “Red Soil” or “Red Terrain“. It is a type of red clay soil produced by the weathering of limestone. Terra Rossa is typically found in regions with a Mediterranean climate.
35. The soils which are rich in Calcium are known as
Correct Answer:-A ( Pedocals )
Description:- Pedocal soil is characterized by an abundance of calcium carbonate and calcium oxide. Pedocals are common in arid or semiarid regions where the rate of evaporation is greater than the rate of leaching. It has low soil organic matter.
36. Soil erosion can be prevented by
Correct Answer:-B ( Afforestation )
Description:- Soil erosion takes place when the soil is blown away by the wind or washed away by the rain. Afforestation or planting trees can check soil erosion as roots of trees/plants hold the soil. Thus, when more trees are planted their roots don’t allow the soil to be blown or washed away and prevent soil erosion.
37. Who of the following has given the term rhizoshere :
Correct Answer:-C ( Hiltner )
Description:- Lorenz Hiltner is recognized as the first scientist to coin the term “rhizosphere” in 1904. The word is derived from the Greek word ‘rhiza’, meaning root, and ‘sphere’, meaning field of influence. Hiltner defined the rhizosphere as the zone of soil immediately adjacent to legume roots that supports high levels of bacterial activity.
38. The asha–grey soils of high–latitude coniferous forests a known as :
Correct Answer:-B ( Podsols )
Description:- Podsols are ash-grey coloured soils that are found in high-latitude coniferous forest belt having very long cold winters, short cool summers and a moderate precipitation throughout the year. These soils are acidic, infertile and of limited value for agriculture. These are useful for dairying and mixed farming.
39. In which region is Terrace farming done?
Correct Answer:-B ( Slope of hills )
Description:- Terrace farming is the practice of cutting flat areas out of a hilly or mountainous landscape in order to grow crops. It involves growing crops on sides of hills or mountains by planting on graduated terraces built into the slope. On each level, various crops are planted.
40. Alluvial soils are rich soil for crop cultivation but are poor in
Correct Answer:-B ( nitrogen and humus )
Description:- Alluvial soils are fertile soils composed of sediments deposited by rivers and the waves. However, they are usually deficient in nitrogen and humus. Nitrogen deficiency is the main limiting factor in crop production in all the alluvial soils except the calcareous and saline alkali alluvial soils. With suitable irrigation, fertilizers and proper agricultural practices, alluvial soils are generally very fertile.
41. Bamboo is classified as
Correct Answer:-B ( Grass )
Description:- Bambooare a subfamily (Bambusoideae) of flowering perennial evergreen plants in the grass family Poaceae.Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family.The woody bamboos share characteristics with herbaceous (non-woody) grasses, notably leaf blades that have a distinctive internal organization of the tissues and which are basally narrowed to form a stalk-like connection with the leaf sheath.
42. The transfer of minerals from top soil to subsoil through soil-water is called?
Correct Answer:-C ( Leaching )
Description:- Leaching refers to the loss of water-soluble plant nutrients from the soil, due to rain and irrigation. As water from rain, flooding, or other sources seeps into the ground, it can dissolve chemicals and carry them into the underground water supply. Mineral nutrients lost from the soil system become unavailable for plant uptake.
43. Black soil is also known by which of the following name ?
Correct Answer:-D ( Regur soil )
Description:- Black soils are often referred to as regur but are popularly known as “black cotton soils,” since cotton has been the most common traditional crop in areas where they are found. Black soils are derivatives of trap lava and are spread mostly across interior Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Madhya Pradesh on the Deccan lava plateau and the Malwa Plateau.
44. Salination of soil is caused by
Correct Answer:-C ( excess irrigation )
Description:- Soil salinity is the salt content in the soil; the process of increasing the salt content is known as salinization. Excess irrigation leads to increase in soli salinity since water is absorbed by plants and salts are left behind in the soil and eventually begin to accumulate. Salination from irrigation water is also greatly increased by poor drainage and use of saline water for irrigating agricultural crops.
45. Which one of the following is the indirect use of forests ?
Correct Answer:-B ( Checking soil erosion )
Description:- Some of the indirect uses of forests include: prevention and control of soil erosion, flood control, checks on spread of deserts, increase of soil fertility, and effect on climate. Forests play a significant role in the prevention and control of soil erosion by water and wind. The destruction of forest cover leads to increased runoff of rain water and its diminished seepage in soil.
46. In order to prevent the expansion of deserts, trees are planted in strips or blocks with the shortest trees on the desert side and tallest on the other side. Such plantation is called?
Correct Answer:-C ( wind breaks )
Description:- A windbreak or shelterbelt is a plantation usually made up of one or more rows of trees or shrubs planted in such a manner as to provide shelter from the wind and to protect soil from erosion. They are commonly planted around the edges of fields on farms. If designed properly, windbreaks around a home can reduce the cost of heating and cooling and save energy. Windbreaks are also planted to help keep snow from drifting onto roadways and even yards. Other benefits include providing habitat for wildlife and in some regions the trees are harvested for wood products.
47. The food chain refers to the transfer of energy from :
Correct Answer:-C ( one organism to another )
Description:- A food chain is a linear sequence of links in a food web starting from a trophic species that eats no other species in the web and ends at a trophic species that is eaten by no other species in the web. A food chain differs from a food web, because the complex polyphagous network of feeding relations are aggregated into trophic species and the chain only follows linear monophagous pathways. A common metric used to quantify food web trophic structure is food chain length. In its simplest form, the length of a chain is the number of links between a trophic consumer and the base of the web and the mean chain length of an entire web is the arithmetic average of the lengths of all chains in a food web. Food chains were first introduced by the African-Arab scientist and philosopher Al-Jahiz in the 9th century and later popularized in a book published in 1927 by Charles Elton, which also introduced the food web concept..
48. The presence of a lion in the forest is essential in order to
Correct Answer:-C ( save the pastures from being overgrazed )
Description:- Lions provide important ecological and cultural functions. As an apex and keystone predator, lions help to regulate prey populations; they also will scavenge if the opportunity arises. Culturally, the lion (and particularly the male with its highly distinctive mane) is one of the most widely recognized animal symbols in human culture and lion play a key role in save the pastures from being overgrazed.
49. Which one is not a non-conventional energy source?
Correct Answer:-A ( Nuclear energy )
Description:- Energy generated by using wind, tides, solar, geothermal heat, and biomass including farm and animal waste as well as human excreta is known as non-conventional energy. All these sources are renewable or inexhaustible and do not cause environmental pollution. More over they do not require heavy expenditure. Nuclear energy usually means the part of the energy of an atomic nucleus, which can be released by fusion or fission or radioactive decay.
50. The Montreal Protocol 1987 refers to
Correct Answer:-D ( saving the ozone layer from destruction by reducting the use of CFCs )
Description:- The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (a protocol to the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer) is an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of numerous substances believed to be responsible for ozone depletion. The treaty was opened for signature on September 16, 1987, and entered into force on January 1, 1989, followed by a first meeting in Helsinki, May 1989.
51. Trees are leafless for a shorter or longer season of the year in :
Correct Answer:-D ( Deciduous forest )
Description:- Deciduous means “falling off at maturity” or “tending to fall off”, and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally, and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe. In a more general sense, deciduous means the dropping of a part that is no longer needed, or falling away after its purpose is finished.
52. Snakes and vultures are eating rats in a field. If wild dogs are let into the field, what will be the immediate result ?
Correct Answer:-C ( Decrease in the number of rats )
Description:- There will be a decrease in the number of rats simply because rat is a prey to all the three of them and this leads to just a single conclusion that there is decrease in the number of rats.
53. Coastal Andhra Pradesh and Orissa often face natural disasters due to
Correct Answer:-A ( Cyclones )
Description:- During summer, the Bay of Bengal is subject to intense heating, giving rise to humid and unstable air masses that produce cyclones. Widespread death and property destruction are reported every year in exposed coastal states such as Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. Although cyclones affect the entire coast of India, the East Coast is more prone compared to the West Coast. Out of the cyclones that develop in the Bay of Bengal, over 58 percent approach and cross the east coast in October and November. Only 25 percent of the cyclones that develop over the Arabian Sea approach the west coast. In the pre-monsoon season, corresponding figures are 25 percent over the Arabian Sea and 30 percent over the Bay of Bengal.
54. The main cause of global climatic change is
Correct Answer:-A ( increase in the content of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere )
Description:- Our ever increasing addiction to electricity from coal burning power plants releases enormous amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. 40%’ of U.S. CO2 emissions come from electricity production, and burning coal accounts for 93%’ of emissions from the electric utility industry. Every day, more electric gadgets flood the market, and without widespread alternative energy sources, we are highly dependent on burning coal for our personal and commercial electrical supply.
55. The sphere of living matter together with water, air and soil on the surface of the earth is known as
Correct Answer:-B ( Biosphere )
Description:- Part of the Earth’s surface and atmosphere that contains the entire terrestrial ecosystem, and extends from ocean depths to about six kilometers above sea level. Not precisely demarkable, it contains all living organisms and what supports them soil, subsurface water, bodies of water, air and includes hydrosphere and lithosphere.
56. ‘Green Accounting’ means measuring the National Income of the country taking into account estimation of
Correct Answer:-C ( pollution and environmental damage )
Description:- Green accounting is a type of accounting that attempts to factor environmental costs into the financial results of operations. It has been argued that gross domestic product ignores the environment and therefore decision-makers need a revised model that incorporates green accounting.
57. Which one of the following is an abiotic and renewable resource?
Correct Answer:-C ( water )
Description:- In ecology and biology, abiotic components (also known as abiotic factors) are non-living chemical and physical factors in the environment, which affect ecosystems. Abiotic phenomena underlie all of biology. From the viewpoint of biology, abiotic factors can be classified as light or more generally radiation, temperature, water, the chemical surrounding composed of the terrestrial atmospheric gases, as well as soil. The macroscopic climate often influences each of the above. A renewable resource is a natural resource with the ability to reproduce through biological or natural processes and replenished with the passage of time. Renewable resources are part of our natural environment and form our eco-system.
