UPSC STATIC QUIZ – Environment : 2 February 2024

Solution: d)

Bird migration is the regular seasonal movement, often north and south along a flyway, between breeding and wintering grounds.

It occurs mainly in the northern hemisphere, where birds are funnelled on to specific routes by natural barriers such as the Mediterranean Sea or the Caribbean Sea.

The Arctic tern holds the long-distance migration record for birds, travelling between Arctic breeding grounds and the Antarctic each year.

The timing of migration seems to be controlled primarily by changes in day length. Migrating birds navigate using celestial cues from the sun and stars, the earth’s magnetic field, and mental maps.

Solution: b)

Statement 3 is incorrect.

Jim Corbett National Park is Located in the Himalayan foothills near the tourist hill station of Nainital.

With its hills, grasslands, and streams, Corbett is ideal tiger territory. The place from where Project Tiger was launched in 1973, with its tiger population at 163, it boasts of a single largest tiger population in a tiger reserve and one of the highest tiger densities in the country.

Set up in 1936 as India’s — and Asia’s — first national park, it was named Hailey National Park. Shortly after Independence, it was renamed Ramganga National Park after the river that flows through it, and was rechristened yet again as Corbett National Park in 1956.

Rajaji National Park is an Indian national park and tiger reserve that encompasses the Shivaliks, near the foothills of the Himalayas.

Solution: b)

Statement 2 is incorrect.

Aerosols:

• Aerosols are defined as a combination of liquid or solid particles suspended in a gaseous or liquid
• In the atmosphere, these particles are mainly situated in the low layers of the atmosphere (< 1.5 km) since aerosol sources are located on the terrestrial surface.
• certain aerosols can still be found in the stratosphere, especially volcanic aerosols ejected into the high-altitude layers.
• The origin of atmospheric aerosols is either natural or the result of anthropogenic activities

Effects of aerosols:

• They affect the atmospheric chemical composition.
• They can reduce visibility.
• They have important impacts on air quality and human health (e.g., aerosols can cause damage to heart and lungs).
• They serve as nuclei for cloud droplets or ice crystals in ice clouds.

Solution: b)

Due to greenhouse gas emissions, global warming is already 1°C higher than the pre-industrial levels. There is vast evidence that this has serious consequences for ecosystems and human being. The IPCC’s special report on Oceans and Cryosphere (published in 2019) reveals that the ocean is 0.8 degrees warmer than the pre-industrial age. It is more acidic, and less productive because of the carbon emission that was sunk by the oceans.

The impact of ocean warming would be an increase in the frequency of tropical cyclone winds and rainfall, as well as an increase in extreme waves, all of which would be accompanied by a rise in relative sea level. 

Solution: c)

Gas hydrates are ice-like crystalline minerals that form when low molecular weight gas (such as methane, ethane, or carbon dioxide) combines with water and freezes into a solid under low temperature and moderate pressure conditions.

• Most gas hydrates are formed from methane (CH4), which has led to the terms “gas hydrate” and “methane hydrate” often being used interchangeably.
• On Earth, gas hydrates occur naturally in some marine sediments and within and beneath permafrost. They are also speculated to form on other planets.

• Gas hydrate deposits may contain roughly twice the carbon contained in all reserves of coal, oil, and conventional natural gas combined, making them a potentially valuable energy resource.
• Their decomposition can release large amounts of methane, which is a greenhouse gas that could impact Earth’s climate.
• Sudden release of pressurized methane gas may cause submarine landslides, which in turn can trigger tsunamis.