Govt. Exams
Entrance Exams
The carrying capacity of the ecosystem is being exceeded due to removal of natural predators. Herbivore populations exceed the ecosystem's ability to sustain them without degradation, violating the carrying capacity principle. This leads to overgrazing and ecosystem destabilization.
Drought is a density-independent (abiotic) factor because its effect on population is not influenced by population density. It equally affects all populations regardless of density.
Eutrophication is the over-enrichment of water with nutrients (phosphates and nitrates), leading to excessive algal growth, dead zones, and oxygen depletion.
Nitrogen fixation is the conversion of atmospheric N₂ to ammonia (NH₃) or nitrates by nitrogen-fixing bacteria like Rhizobium and Azospirillum.
Biomagnification is the process where toxic pollutants (like DDT, mercury) accumulate in higher concentrations in organisms at higher trophic levels due to bioaccumulation.
India has 4 recognized biodiversity hotspots: Western Ghats, Indo-Burma, Himalayas, and Sundaland. Eastern plains are not recognized as a separate hotspot.
Carrying capacity (K) is the maximum population size that an environment can sustain indefinitely given available resources and environmental resistance.
r-selected species (like rabbits and insects) have high reproductive rates, short generation times, and invest little in individual offspring care, prioritizing quantity over quality.
An ecological niche encompasses the organism's habitat, food, behavior, and role in the ecosystem - essentially its complete functional position in the environment.
The remaining 90% energy is lost through cellular respiration, heat dissipation, and decomposition processes at each trophic level, which is why ecosystems have fewer organisms at higher trophic levels.
