Biodiversity and Conservation: Class 12 Important Questions with Answers

Practice set: test yourself

Try every question before looking at the answers below. 64 or more out of 80 means you are ready for the board.

C. Very short answer (1 mark each)

1. Give one example of genetic diversity.
2. Name India's three hotspots.
3. Give the bird species count of Colombia.
4. Name two recent extinctions.
5. Name an invasive weed.
6. Give an example of co-extinction.
7. What is bioprospecting?
8. What % of oxygen does the Amazon produce?
9. Name a sacred grove of Meghalaya.
10. Name one ex situ method.

D. Short answer I (2 marks each)

1. Why are prokaryotes not counted in species estimates?
2. What does Z = 1.15 for frugivores mean?
3. What did Tilman's experiments show?
4. Explain the rivet popper hypothesis.
5. How does the sixth extinction differ from earlier ones?
6. How does fragmentation harm animals?
7. Give two narrowly utilitarian reasons to conserve.
8. What are biodiversity hotspots?

Rough work

E. Short answer II (3 marks each)

1. Explain the three levels of biodiversity with examples.
2. Give three reasons for high tropical diversity.
3. Describe the species–area relationship with a graph.
4. Explain alien species invasion with three examples.
5. Give the three arguments for conserving biodiversity.
6. Compare in situ and ex situ conservation.

F. Long answer (5 marks each)

1. Describe the evil quartet with examples. What are the effects of biodiversity loss on a region?
2. Describe the methods of biodiversity conservation, with Indian and international examples.

G. HOTS (higher-order thinking)

1. Why is it said that "nature's library is burning"?
2. Why are hotspots given priority for protection?
3. Why do migratory birds suffer from fragmentation?
4. Why is the loss of a key species more serious?

20 MCQs

1. Western Ghats have high diversity of
   (a) mammals (b) birds (c) amphibians (d) fishes
2. India's share of global species diversity:
   (a) 8.1% (b) 2.4% (c) 12% (d) 22%
3. Robert May's estimate of global species:
   (a) 1.5 million (b) 50 million (c) 20 million (d) 7 million
4. The most species-rich animal group:
   (a) fishes (b) insects (c) mammals (d) birds
5. Greenland has about how many bird species?
   (a) 1,400 (b) 56 (c) 105 (d) 1,200
6. Greatest biodiversity on earth:
   (a) Western Ghats (b) Sahara (c) Himalaya (d) Amazon rain forest
7. Z for most taxa and regions:
   (a) 0.1–0.2 (b) 0.6–1.2 (c) 1–2 (d) 0.01
8. On log scale, species–area relation is
   (a) hyperbola (b) parabola (c) straight line (d) circle
9. Extinctions in the last 500 years (IUCN 2004):
   (a) 338 (b) 15,500 (c) 2,000 (d) 784
10. The dodo was from
    (a) Africa (b) Mauritius (c) Australia (d) Russia
11. Current extinction rate vs pre-human:
    (a) 10 times (b) same (c) 100–1,000 times (d) 2 times
12. Passenger pigeon became extinct by
    (a) over-exploitation (b) habitat loss (c) alien species (d) co-extinction
13. Cichlid extinction in Lake Victoria was due to
    (a) Clarias (b) Nile perch (c) Lantana (d) pollution
14. Water hyacinth is
    (a) Lantana (b) Parthenium (c) Eichhornia (d) Clarias
15. More than 25% of drugs are from plants: a(n)
    (a) ethical (b) aesthetic reason (c) broadly utilitarian (d) narrowly utilitarian
16. Number of hotspots in India:
    (a) 3 (b) 2 (c) 4 (d) 34
17. Sacred groves of Rajasthan are in the
    (a) Aravalli Hills (b) Khasi Hills (c) Bastar (d) Western Ghats
18. Cryopreservation is
    (a) in situ (b) hotspot (c) sacred grove (d) ex situ
19. The Earth Summit was held in
    (a) Johannesburg (b) Rio de Janeiro (c) Kyoto (d) Paris
20. India's biosphere reserves number
    (a) 90 (b) 448 (c) 14 (d) 34

1 (c) · 2 (a) · 3 (d) · 4 (b) · 5 (b) · 6 (d) · 7 (a) · 8 (c) · 9 (d) · 10 (b) · 11 (c) · 12 (a) · 13 (b) · 14 (c) · 15 (d) · 16 (a) · 17 (a) · 18 (d) · 19 (b) · 20 (c)

Assertion–Reason (6)

(a) Both true, R explains A. (b) Both true, R does not explain A. (c) A true, R false. (d) A false, R true.

1. A: Tropics have high diversity. R: They were not glaciated frequently and had long evolutionary time.
2. A: Diverse communities are more stable. R: Tilman found less year-to-year biomass variation in species-rich plots.
3. A: Zoos are a form of in situ conservation. R: Many animals extinct in the wild survive in zoos.
4. A: Fragmentation harms migratory animals. R: They need large territories and connected habitats.
5. A: Protecting hotspots can reduce extinctions by 30%. R: Hotspots have high richness and endemism.
6. A: Prokaryotes are well counted. R: Many cannot be cultured in the laboratory.

Key: 1 (a) · 2 (a) · 3 (d) · 4 (a) · 5 (a) · 6 (d)

Answers to the practice set