Daily Current Affairs (MCQ's) | 22-09-2022

Q1. Which of the following are regarded as 'Ecosystem services'?

1. Soil formation
2. Herbal Medicinal plants
3. Habitat for wildlife
4. Climate regulation

Select the correct answer using the code given below

1. 1 and 2 only
2. 3 and 4 only
3. 1, 2 and 3 only
4. 1, 2, 3 and 4

Answer (d)

Explanation:

Types of Ecosystem Services

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), a major UN-sponsored effort to analyze the impact of human actions on ecosystems and human well-being, identified four major categories of ecosystem services: provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting services.

Provisioning Services: When people are asked to identify a service provided by nature, most think of food. Fruits, vegetables, trees, fish, and livestock are available to us as direct products of ecosystems. A provisioning service is any type of benefit to people that can be extracted from nature. Along with food, other types of provisioning services include drinking water, timber, wood fuel, natural gas, oils, plants that can be made into clothes and other materials, and medicinal plants.

Regulating Services: Ecosystems provide many of the basic services that make life possible for people. Plants clean air and filter water, bacteria decompose wastes, bees pollinate flowers, and tree roots hold soil in place to prevent erosion. All these processes work together to make ecosystems clean, sustainable, functional, and resilient to change. A regulating service is the benefit provided by ecosystem processes that moderate natural phenomena. Regulating services include pollination, decomposition, water purification, erosion and flood control, and carbon storage and climate regulation.

Cultural Services: As we interact and alter nature, the natural world has in turn altered us. It has guided our cultural, intellectual, and social development by being a constant force present in our lives. The importance of ecosystems to the human mind can be traced back to the beginning of mankind with ancient civilizations drawing pictures of animals, plants, and weather patterns on cave walls. A cultural service is a non-material benefit that contributes to the development and cultural advancement of people, including how ecosystems play a role in local, national, and global cultures; the building of knowledge and the spreading of ideas; creativity born from interactions with nature (music, art, architecture); and recreation.

Supporting Services: The natural world provides so many services, sometimes we overlook the most fundamental. Ecosystems themselves couldn't be sustained without the consistency of underlying natural processes, such as photosynthesis, nutrient cycling, the creation of soils, and the water cycle. These processes allow the Earth to sustain basic life forms (ecosystems provide Habitat), let alone whole ecosystems and people. Without supporting services, provisional, regulating, and cultural services wouldn't exist.

Q2. Consider the following statements about Ecotone

1. The number of species and the population density can be greater within the ecotone
2. The boundary between Forest and Marshland can be an example of Ecotone

Which of the above is/are correct?

1. 1 only
2. 2 only
3. Both 1 and 2
4. Neither 1 nor 2

Answer (c)

Explanation:

Ecosystems are almost always a patchwork of communities that exist at different successional stages. The sizes, frequencies, and intensities of disturbances differ among ecosystems, creating differences in what is called the patch dynamics of communities. Along the edges of each of the patches are areas called ecotones. These junction zones often contain species of each of the overlapping communities as well as some species that have become adapted specifically for living in these zones. In many cases, the number of species and the population density are greater within the ecotone than in the surrounding communities, a phenomenon known as the edge effect.

Q3. Consider the following statements about desert

1. The wind is a dominant geomorphic agent in hot deserts
2. Mechanical and chemical weathering processes dominate due to drastic diurnal temperature changes

Which of the above statements is/are correct?

1. 1 only
2. 2 only
3. Both 1 and 2
4. Neither 1 nor 2

Answer (c)

Explanation:

WINDS

Wind is one of the two dominant agents in hot deserts. The desert floors get heated up too much and too quickly because of being dry and barren. The heated floors heat up the air directly above them and result in upward movements in the hot lighter air with turbulence, and any obstructions in its path sets up eddies, whirlwinds, updrafts and downdrafts.

Winds also move along the desert floors with great speed and the obstructions in their path create turbulence. Of course, there are storm winds which are very destructive. Winds cause deflation, abrasion and impact. Deflation includes lifting and removal of dust and smaller particles from the surface of rocks. In the transportation process sand and silt act as effective tools to abrade the land surface. The impact is simply the sheer force of momentum which occurs when sand is blown into or against a rock surface. It is similar to sandblasting. The wind action creates a number of interesting erosional and depositional features in the deserts.

In fact, many features of deserts owe their formation to mass wasting and running water as sheet floods. Though rain is scarce in deserts, it comes down torrentially in a short period of time. The desert rocks devoid of vegetation, exposed to mechanical and chemical weathering processes due to drastic diurnal temperature changes, decay faster and the torrential rains help in removing the weathered materials easily. That means the weathered debris in deserts is moved by not only wind but also by rain/sheet wash. The wind moves fine materials and general mass erosion is accomplished mainly through sheet floods or sheet wash. Stream channels in desert areas are broad, smooth and indefinite and flow for a brief time after rains.

Q4. Consider the following stateme

1. Factor cost is the price of the commodity from the producers' side
2. Market price includes the net of taxes and subsidies

Which of the above is/are correct?

1. 1. 1 only
   2. 2 only
   3. Both 1 and 2
   4. Neither 1 nor 2

Answer (c)

Explanation:

Factor Price is the total cost of all factors of production (such as labour, capital, land etc) used in producing goods or services. It is the price of the commodity from the producers' side. When a commodity is produced, it is sold in the market

Market Price – It is the price at which a product is sold in the market. It includes the cost of production in the form of wages, rent, interest, input prices, profit etc. It also includes the taxes imposed by the government. It excludes Government subsidies. Thus the relationship between Factor price and the Market price is

Market Price = Factor Price + Indirect Taxes – Subsidies

Q5. Consider the following statements about the Second Five Year Plan

1. It was based on the C. Mahalanobis Model
2. Its main focus was on the industrial development of the country

Which of the above is/are correct?

1. 1 only
2. 2 only
3. Both 1 and 2
4. Neither 1 nor 2

Answer (c)

Explanation:

Second Five Year Plan:

• It was made for the duration of 1956 to 1961, under the leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru.
• It was based on the C. Mahalanobis Model made in the year 1953.
• Its main focus was on the industrial development of the country.
• This plan lags behind its target growth rate of 5% and achieved a growth rate of 4.27%.
• However, this plan was criticized by many experts and as a result, India faced a payment crisis in the year 1957.

Q6. Which of the following key metrics are used for the calculation of the Human Development Index (HDI)?

1. life expectancy at birth
2. expected years of schooling
3. average years of schooling
4. gross national income (GNI) per capita

Select the correct answer from the codes given below

1. 1 and 2 only
2. 1, 2 and 3 only
3. 2, 3 and 4 only
4. 1, 2, 3 and 4

Answer (d)

Explanation:

The Human Development Index (HDI) provides a single index measure to capture three key dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living.

The HDI utilizes four key metrics:

life expectancy at birth – to assess a long and healthy life

expected years of schooling – to assess access to knowledge of the young generation

average years of schooling – to assess access to knowledge of the older generation

gross national income (GNI) per capita – to assess the standard of living