CBSE Term II Biology XII
6 Biodiversity and its Conservation
Multiple Choice Questions
1. (a) The Western ghats have a greater amphibian diversity
than the Eastern ghats. Thus, it is an example of species
diversity which is defined as diversity at species level and is
indicated by variety and richness of species of a region.
2. (b) International Union of Conservation of Nature and
Natural Resources (IUCN) maintains a Red data book or
Red list which is a catalogue of taxa facing risk of extinction.
3. (c) Statements II, III and IV describe natural extinction, but
statement I is not appropriate description of natural
extinction.
4. (b) Excessive exploitation of a species, whether a plant or
animal reduces size of its population such that it becomes
vulnerable to extinction. Dodo, passenger pigeon and
Steller’s sea cow have become extinct in the last 500 years
due to overexploitation by human.
5. (d) Sacred groves are the forest patches around the places of
worship, which are held in high esteem by tribal
communities. They are found in several parts of India.
Assertion-Reasoning MCQs
1. (a) Both A and R are true and R is the correct explanation
of A.
Tropical latitudes have greater biological diversity. It is quite
true. Ecologists and evolutionary biologists have proposed
various hypothesis in support of this. Some of them are
following speciation is generally a function of time and
unlike temperate regions subjected to frequent glaciations in
the past tropical latitudes remained undisturbed for millions
of years, where species continued flourish. Other than this
tropical environments are more constant and there is more
solar energy available in tropics which contributes to high
productivity.
2. (a) Both A and R are true and R is the correct explanation
of A.
Species with low genetic variability are generally at
significantly greater risk of extinction than the species with
more genetic variability, mainly because they have a more
limited arienal with which to respond to the varieties of
environmental change. Species with extremely low genetic
variability are particularly vulnerable towards a new disease
predator or other environmental changes.
3. (c) A is true, but R is false because
The Great Indian bustard is a rare species of birds found in
parts of Gujarat and Rajasthan. Due to destruction of natural
habitat and poaching, it has become a rare species.
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Short Answer Type Questions
1. Ecological diversity refers to the diversity at ecosystem
level. Due to the presence of more variety of ecosystems and
habitats, i.e. rainforest, desert, wetlands, mangroves, coral
reefs and alpine meadows, India has a greater ecological
diversity than Scandinavian countries (e.g. Norway).
2. Modern agriculture destroys natural vegetation of a site,
leading to loss of natural habitat. A cultivated area has less
biodiversity and the use of pesticides in modern agriculture,
can destroy beneficial organisms along with agricultural
pests.
3. Mass extinction refers to a rapid decline in the biodiversity
of earth. It means a majority of all the species are vanished
or not seen in a particular geographical area, e.g. extinction
of dinosaurs that took place due to changing climatic
conditions. The dinosaurs were unable to survive the
changing climate and got extinct.
4. Species diversity decreases on moving away from the
equator towards the poles. It means that biodiversity is more
at lower latitudes (equator) than at higher latitude (poles),
e.g. Colombia located near the equator has around 1400
species of birds and New York located at 41°N has
105 species of birds whereas Greenland at 71°N has only
56 species of birds.
5. When a large expanse of habitat is transformed into a
number of smaller patches of smaller area isolated from each
other, it is called habitat fragmentation. Each piece is then
called a fragmented habitat. It is one of the major causes for
the loss of biodiversity, e.g. 14% of the earth’s land surface
covered by tropical rainforest is now limited upto only 6%
due to the habitat loss and fragmentation.
6. (i) Biodiversity can be conserved by protecting its whole
ecosystem. There are two basic approaches for
conservation of biodiversity.
(a) In situ conservation It is conservation and
protection of the whole ecosystem and its
biodiversity at all levels in order to protect the
threatened species.
This strategy includes setting up biodiversity
hotspots, protected areas like national parks,
wildlife sanctuaries, etc.
(b) Ex situ conservation It involves placing the
threatened species (both plants and animals) in
special care units for their protection. It includes
botanical gardens, zoological parks, seed or gene
banks, etc.
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(ii) Out of the two basic approaches, in situ or on-site
conservation is preferred as it consists of methods to
maintain the species of wildlife in their natural habitat.
Methods include establishing biodiversity hotspots,
national parks, sacred groves, wildlife sanctuaries, etc.
All of these methods aim at providing protection to the
wildlife related to that area.
Long Answer Type Question
1. (i) Seeds of different genetic strains are kept for long
periods in seed banks. They involve ex situ conservation
of biodiversity.
The strategy approaches toward conserving samples of
crop seeds of commercially important crops under
frozen storage conditions, where they remain viable for
longer periods of time.
Sometimes, cryopreservation method also takes in use.
Sealed samples of individual accessions are placed in
frozen conditions and are regenerated from time to
time in order to get better results.
(ii) Yes, extinction of an insect pollinator will affect the
whole ecosystem directly or indirectly. Insect
pollinators participate in the sexual reproduction of
many plants, thus ensuring cross-pollination which is
required to ensure genetic diversity for other species.
Since, plants are the primary food source for animals,
possible disappearance of pollinators will affect animals
(including humans) and thus, affect ecosystem.
2. (i) Biodiversity hotspots are the regions of accelerated
habitat loss. These can reduce the ongoing mass
extinctions by almost 30%.
Sacred groves are important in biodiversity
conservation, as these are naturally protected by the
native population without much effort. In Meghalaya,
the sacred groves are the last refuges for large number
of rare and threatened plants.
(ii) Commensalism because Ophrys employs sexual deceit
to get pollinated by species of bumble bee as petal of its
flower bears resemblance to female of the bee in size,
colour and marking and so, male bee is attracted to
what it perceives as female, pseudocopulates with the
flower and thus, pollinates it. If the female bee’s colour
patterns change even slightly due to any reason during
evolution, pollination success will be reduced unless
the orchid flowers coevolves to maintain the
resemblance of its petal to the female bee.