[Mission 2023] Current Affairs Quiz , 1 March 2023

Solution: c)

Solution: a)

Kelps cover 25 per cent of the world’s coastlines and provide food and shelter for fish, invertebrates and marine mammal species. They also offer crucial services such as carbon sequestration and erosion control, according to scientists.

But kelps are increasingly threatened by climate change, eutrophication and shoreline development, among other human-induced stressors.

One such threat is from bryozoa, moss animals that grow as mats on kelps. They drive the seaweed to sink into the seafloor and disintegrate.

The outbreak can be linked to high temperatures. For example, in 2015, researchers observed an expansive outbreak of bryozoa. These observations coincided with ‘the blob’, a marine heat wave that emerged across the northeast Pacific Ocean, according to a report.

Dense kelp beds in warmer and less wave-exposed sites are more susceptible to bryozoan outbreaks.

Seaweeds are farmed as they have industrial applications. They can be harvested to extract biostimulants for plant growth. They also can help in long-term carbon sequestration and regeneration of ocean habitats.

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Solution: d)

The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous protests by members of the gay community in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969. The riots are widely considered the watershed event that transformed the gay liberation movement and the twentieth-century fight for LGBT rights in the United States.

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Solution: d)

India’s exports and imports declined by 6.59% and 3.63% respectively in January 2023, there are indications that the current account deficit (CAD) – the difference between exports and imports of goods and services – will moderate despite the global slowdown triggered by the rising inflation and interest rates.

The moderation in CAD, expected to be aided by the fall in commodity prices, rising workers remittances and services exports, and abatement of selling pressure by foreign investors, is set to boost sentiment on the investment front, as it will also bring the pressure off the currency.

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Solution: c)

The Sea of Galilee is Israel’s largest freshwater lake. At 209 meters below sea level, it is the lowest freshwater lake on Earth, and the second lowest lake in the world after the Dead Sea, a saltwater lake.