CHAPTER 15

OUR ENVIRONMENT
1. Why are some substances biodegradable and some non-biodegradable? (text
book questions page 257)
 Substances which can be broken down by the help of enzymes secreted by the
bacteria and other saprophytes over a period of time are biodegradable. These
substances have short molecular organization and can be assimilated by the
saprophytes.
 Non-biodegradable substances cannot be acted upon by the enzymes in nature
as they consist of polymers which are strongly bonded with each other.

2. Give two ways in which biodegradable substances would affect the

environment. (text book questions page 257)
(i) Biodegradable substances in large quantities would contribute to the
pollution of the environment.
(ii) If they are not degraded at the right time due to any reason they will
harm the environment.

3. Give any two ways in which non-biodegradable substances would affect the
environment. (text book questions page 257)
i) Non-biodegradable substances cannot degrade and return the minerals to
the environment. They pile up and cause harm to the various members of the
ecosystem.
ii) They may cause bio-magnification in the food chain and end up in
humans.

4. An aquarium is known as an artificial ecosystem. Why?

 An aquarium comprises of green plants, fish and other aquatic animals. These
biotic factors form the community.
 Water, sand, gravel, temperature, light etc are the abiotic factors.
 There is constant exchange of materials between living and non-living
components.
 Aquatic green plants are the producers of the aquarium. Animals are the
consumers.
 The green plants give out oxygen which is taken by the animals. Animals give
out carbon dioxide which plants utilise in photosynthesis.
 Animals excreta is decomposed by the decomposers and the simple
compounds produced are taken by the plants.
 An aquarium is self-perpetuating functional unit and is a man made
ecosystem. So it is known as an artificial ecosystem.

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5. State two differences between a consumer and a producer.

Producer Consumer
(i) Always green plants and few (i) An animal or a non-green plant.
autotrophic bacteria.
(ii) Synthesises its own food by trapping (ii) It directly or indirectly obtains its
light energy. food from the producers(green
plants)
eg. Green plant eg. All animals

6. What happens when an organism dies?

The decomposers in the soil or water, act upon the dead organisms and breakdown
the complex organic substances into simple inorganic compounds which go into the soil
and are used up once more by the plants.

7. What will happen if there were no decomposers?

i) The organic dead remains and waste would pile up and the nutrients would not be
recycled into the soil for the plants to take up.
ii) Natural replacement of the soil would not take place.
iii) All the nutrient cycles have decomposers as their components. In their absence,
these nutrient cycles would not be complete.
iv)There will be no recycling of matter between biotic and abiotic components in an
ecosystem, because all the matter will remain locked up in the dead bodies.
Thus existence of life on this earth will become impossible.

8. Why natural ecosystems are more or less balance system?

A natural ecosystem is a balance system because it consists of producers (green
plants ), herbivores (consumer 1 ),carnivores (consumer 2 ) and decomposers.
In natural ecosystem there is provision of constant flow of energy through food
chains and recycling of the nutrients through decomposers. Thus a natural ecosystem is
self-sufficient system.

9. What are the three main functions of the food chains?

The food chains perform following three functions:
i) The food chains give a definite structure to an ecosystem or biosphere.
ii) Transfer of energy
iii) Transfer of materials

10. In what form plants generally store the trapped solar energy.
Plants store it in the form of chemical energy (carbohydrates).

11. How much energy is lost in transfer from one trophic level to the other in a
food chain?
90% of the energy is lost

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 12. In what ways 90% energy is lost in transfer from one trophic level to the
other?
Organisms at each level use energy for respiration, other metabolic activities and
growth. A large portion of the energy is lost as heat.

13. Can plants be called as producers of energy?

No, plants are not producers of energy. They convert the solar energy into chemical
energy and store it.

14. Is it possible that the food chains have more than six steps? Support your
answer with reason.
It is not possible that the food chains have more than six trophic levels. This is
because of loss of 90% energy at each trophic level and only 10% energy is available at
each successive level. In a food chain having more than six steps, energy available to
the top carnivore will not be sufficient for his survival.

15. Show with the help of a flow chart the flow of energy through different trophic
levels.
Food chain: Grass → Herbivore → Carnivore
Energy flow: 100 J → 10J → 1J

16. Why is energy flow in the biosphere unidirectional?

The sun is the only source of energy which plants trap during photosynthesis
and store as food. The transfer of energy from one trophic level to the other obeys 10%
law, i.e 90% of energy is lost as heat. The flow of this energy is unidirectional, i.e it flows
in one direction from the producers to the consumers at successively higher trophic
levels. This energy cannot flow back because a higher level consumer such as a snake
cannot be food for a lower level consumer such as a rabbit.

17. Define biological magnification.

The progressive increase in the accumulation of harmful non biodegradable
substance in organisms at successively higher trophic levels is called biological
magnification.

18. Organisms at the top level in the food chain get the highest concentration of
harmful chemicals in their bodies. Explain.
Biological magnification is a phenomenon which explains the increasing concentration
of harmful non biodegradable chemicals (like DDT) in each trophic level.
 From the soil these chemicals are absorbed by the plants.
 The primary consumers eat these plants and the harmful chemicals become
residues in their bodies.
 As these chemicals are non biodegradable, they accumulate in the bodies of the
organisms and the top level of the food chain gets the highest concentration of
these harmful chemicals.

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 19. What are trophic levels? Give an example of a food chain and state the
different trophic levels in it. (text book questions page 261)
Trophic level is the functional level occupied by an organism in a food chain.
Trophic literally means feeding, so trophic levels are the positions at which species
feed.
An example of a food chain showing various trophic level are as follows:
Grass → Grasshopper → Frog → Snake → Eagle
Producer → Herbivore → 1st Carnivore → 2nd Carnivore →3rd Carnivore

20. What is the role of decomposers in an ecosystem? (text book questions page
261)
The decomposers break down the organic waste products and dead remains of
organisms into the inorganic substances needed by the producers (plants). Most
decomposition is carried out by the saprophytic fungi and bacteria.

i) Without decomposers, the remains of the other organisms in a community would

accumulate.
ii) Eventually the world would run out of carbon dioxide or nitrate or phosphate or
other organic material essential for life as there would be no nutrient recycling.
iii) Moreover fertility of the soil will decrease.

21. What is the role of the ozone layer in the atmosphere? How is it formed?
 There is a layer of Ozone gas in the Stratosphere.
 Ozone at higher levels of atmosphere is a product of UV radiation acting on
oxygen molecules.
 The higher energy UV radiations split apart some molecules of O2 into free
oxygen ‘O’ atoms.
 These atoms then combine with O2 to form O3.
O2 + UV radiations → O + O
O + O 2 → O3
Ozone layer protects us from the sun’s harmful UV radiations by cutting them off.

22. What practices we can follow to change our lifestyles so that there is less
waste generated?
 We can use materials which come packed in bio degradable packs such
as paper, jute, coir etc.
 We can separate the waste generated into recyclable and non recyclable
parts.
 We can reduce the use of certain products which are not so essential for
our life.
 We may recycle plastic, paper, glass and metal items.
 We can reuse certain things like paper, plastic and glass bottles.

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23. What is ozone and how does it affect any ecosystem? (text book questions
page 264)
 Ozone layer is present in the stratosphere and protects us from Sun’s harmful
UV radiations by cutting them off.
 Major air pollutants responsible for depletion of ozone layer are CFC, nitrogen
oxides and hydrocarbons
 The depletion of ozone causes the harmful UV radiation to reach the earth and
this has resulted in increased incidents of skin cancers in humans
 Depletion of the ozone layer may also cause:
 Temperature changes and rainfall failures on earth.
 Cancer in human beings
 Destruction of aquatic life and vegetation
 Loss of immunity in humans
 Effect on crops like rice.

24. How can you help in reducing the problem of waste disposal? Give any two
methods. (text book questions page 264)
 Separating recyclable and non recyclable waste in the house
 Separated waste can be recycled.

25. What will happen if we kill all the organisms in one trophic level? (text book
questions page 265)
 The food chain would end and ecological balance would be affected.
 If the herbivores were destroyed, then the carnivores would not get food
and would die.
 If carnivores are killed, then the population of herbivores would increase to
unsustainable levels and then they would have competition amongst
themselves for food.
 If producers are killed then the organisms in all the trophic levels will die
due to lack of oxygen.
 If decomposers are destroyed then the nutrient cycle in that area would
not be complete.

26. Will the impact of removing all the organisms in a trophic level be different for
different Trophic levels? Can the organisms of any trophic level be removed
without causing any damage to the ecosystem? (text book questions pg 265)

Removing producers: Herbivores would not be able to survive, ecosystem will collapse.
Removing herbivores: Producers would grow unchecked, carnivores would not get food.
Removing carnivores: Herbivores would increase to unsustainable levels.
Removing decomposer: Waste material and animal dead remains would pile up and
nutrients would not be available to the producers.

 Some or the other damage would be caused to the ecosystem if the organisms of
any trophic level are removed.

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  Impact of removing producers or decomposers would be severe as the whole
ecosystem would collapse.
 Without plants sun’s energy cannot be converted to chemical energy which is the
basis of life on earth. Without decomposers the nutrients cannot be recycled and
made available to producers.

27. Will the levels of this magnification be different at different levels of the
ecosystem? (text book questions page 265)
 The primary consumers eat these plants and the harmful chemicals become
residue in their bodies. As these chemicals are not degradable, they accumulate
in the bodies of the organisms and the top level of the food chain has the
maximum concentration of these harmful chemicals.
 These chemicals cannot be removed from the plant products by washing or other
means.
 As humans are at the top level of the food chain these chemicals get
accumulated in our bodies and cause various disorders.
Thus it is seen that levels of bio-magnification would increase as the trophic level
increases and would be higher for higher trophic levels.

28. What are the problems caused by the non-biodegradable wastes that are
generated? (text book questions page 265)
 Clogging of drains
 Death of cattle by ingestion of plastic
 Quality of the soil is degraded
 Non aesthetic look
 Biomagnification of poisonous chemicals in our body or other animals
disturb the body metabolism resulting in various diseases.
 Pollution of air, water and land
 Destruction of the balance of ecosystem

29. If all the waste we generate is bio-degradable, will this have no impact on the
environment? (text book questions page 265)
The biodegradable substances become pollutants when they are present in large
quantities and are not degraded at right time due to any reasons.

30. What steps are taken to limit the damage caused to the ozone layer?
 Main pollutants responsible for the threat to ozone layer are CFCs which are
found in air conditioners and refrigerators and in some fire extinguishers.
 Montreal Protocol in 1987 called for a 50% cut in the use of CFCs by 1998.
 In 1992 the participants in the Montreal Protocol meeting agreed to phase out
CFCs entirely by 1996.
 As of now CFCs have been replaced by HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons) which
contain no bromine or chlorine and do not contribute to ozone depletion.

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