Daily Quiz: UPSC Prelims Marathon (Geography & Environment)|November 1,2020

About 71 per cent of the planetary water is found in the oceans. The remaining is held as freshwater in glaciers and icecaps, groundwater sources, lakes, soil moisture, atmosphere, streams and within life. Nearly 59 per cent of the water that falls on land returns to the atmosphere through evaporation from over the oceans as well as from other places. The remainder runs-off on the surface, infiltrates into the ground or a part of it becomes glacier.

Source: NCERT

Scientists estimate that 50-80% of the oxygen production on Earth comes from the ocean.

• The majority of this production is from oceanic plankton — drifting plants, algae, and some bacteria that can photosynthesize.
• One particular species, Prochlorococcus, is the smallest photosynthetic organism on Earth.
• But this little bacterium produces up to 20% of the oxygen in our entire biosphere.
• That’s a higher percentage than all of the tropical rainforests on land combined.
• It’s important to remember that although the ocean produces at least 50% of the oxygen on Earth, roughly the same amount is consumed by marine life.
• Like animals on land, marine animals use oxygen to breathe, and both plants and animals use oxygen for cellular respiration.
• Oxygen is also consumed when dead plants and animals decay in the ocean.

Source: Ncert

A massive “dead zone” in the Arabian Sea is the largest in the world, a new study reveals.

• Dead zones are oxygen-starved ocean regions where few organisms can survive.
• They emerge in ocean depths ranging from 650 to 2,600 feet (200 to 800 meters), when influxes of chemical nutrients — typically from human pollution — spur algae growth, which sucks up oxygen.
• A significant oxygen-deprived region has bloomed in the Gulf of Oman for decades, but it was last surveyed in the 1990s.
• The Gulf of Oman, which spans 70,000 square miles (181,000 square kilometers), connects the Arabian Sea to the Persian Gulf.
• It has long been off-limits to researchers because of the region’s political instability and the threat of ocean piracy.
• For eight months, these AUVs gathered data on oxygen levels, and then transmitted their readings to the scientists via satellite.
• Researchers then used computer models to visualize the ocean currents that circulated oxygen around the gulf from the Arabian Sea.
• They found that the oxygen-poor region had grown dramatically, and the scant oxygen formerly held in the depleted zone — based on data from the 1990s — had drained significantly, leaving bigger areas with no oxygen at all.

Source: The Hindu

The highest tides in the world occur in the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia, Canada.

• The tidal bulge is 15 – 16 m. Because there are two high tides and two low tides every day (roughly a 24 hour period); then a tide must come in within about a six hour period.
• As a rough estimate, the tide rises about 240 cm an hour (1,440 cm divided by 6 hours).

Source: Ncert

Source: Maps of India

Explanation:

Tamil Nadu has been a pioneer State in Protected Area management and development of forest resources and wildlife.

• The total area under the protected area management is 7,072.95 sq. km. which comes to 30.92% of the State’s Forest area.
• The Protected Areas in the State includes 5 National parks, 15 Wildlife sanctuaries, 15 bird sanctuaries and 2 conservation reserves besides 4 Tiger Reserves viz. Anamalai,  Kalakkad – Mundanthurai, Mudumalai and Sathyamangalam.
• These Protected Areas have been established under Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.

Further Tamil Nadu also has the distinction of having 3 Biosphere Reserves viz. Nilgiris, Gulf of Mannar and Agasthyamalai, which are internationally acclaimed for their rich and unique biodiversity.

Source: Envis

The inspiration came from Chi-Chi: a giant panda that had arrived at the London Zoo in the year 1961, when WWF was being created.

Aware of the need for a strong, recognizable symbol that would overcome all language barriers, WWF’s founders agreed that the big, furry animal with her appealing, black-patched eyes would make an excellent logo.

Source: Ncert

For over 30 years, the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge has welcomed the greatest minds from around the world to Australia to push the limits of technological innovation and travel the outback in a vehicle powered only by the energy of the sun.

• Traversing 3,000km from Darwin to Adelaide, teams comprise of tertiary and secondary students from over 30 countries.
• These students and their support team have achieved greatness by engineering and building a vehicle with their own hands and powering it across some of the world’s most challenging landscape.
• In 2017, the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge celebrated its 30th Anniversary. The 2021 competition marks the 16th journey from the Top End to Adelaide.
• Based on the original notion that a 1000W car would complete the journey in 50 hours, solar cars are allowed a nominal 5kW hours of stored energy, which is 10% of that theoretical figure.
• All other energy must come from the sun or be recovered from the kinetic energy of the vehicle. These are arguably the most efficient electric vehicles.

Source: The Hindu

Ahead of the upcoming 2019 Climate Action Summit, the United Nations, the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) and Climate and Clean Air Coalition announced today the “Clean Air Initiative”, calling on governments at all levels to join the Initiative.

• The “Clean Air Initiative” calls on national and sub national governments to commit to achieving air quality that is safe for citizens, and to align climate change and air pollution policies by 2030.
• According to WHO, each year, air pollution causes 7 million premature deaths, of which 600,000 are children.
• According to the World Bank, air pollution costs the global economy an estimated US$5.11 trillion in welfare losses and in the 15 countries with the highest greenhouse gas emissions, health impacts of air pollution are estimated to cost more than 4 per cent of GDP.
• Meeting the Paris Agreement on climate change, however, could save over 1 million lives a year by 2050 and yield health benefits worth an estimated US$54.1 trillion – about twice the costs of mitigation – through reduced air pollution alone.

Source: The Hindu