BGS NATIONAL PUBLIC SCHOOL
HULIMAVU, BANGALORE-76
BIOLOGY
OUR ENVIRONMENT
CLASS – X
Answers
1. List two man-made ecosystems.
Or
Give two examples of an artificial eco-system.
Ans. Aquarium and park.
2. State the direction of flow of energy in a food chain.
Ans. Unidirectional.
3. Identify the organisms from following food chain which will respectively have
maximum and minimum concentration of chemicals in its body.
Peacock → Frog → Snake → Grasshopper
Ans. Peacock has maximum concentration of chemicals in its body.
Grasshopper has minimum concentration of chemicals in its body.
4. Which one of following is always at the third trophic level in a food chain?
a. Carnivores b. Herbivores c. Producers d. Decomposers
Ans. Carnivores.
5. List two main components of our environment.
Ans. Abiotic and Biotic.
6. Why are green plants called producers?
Ans. Because green plants prepare food by photosynthesis by using solar
energy in the presence of chlorophyll.
7. Producers always occupy the first trophic level in any food chain. Why?
Ans. Only producers have the ability to trap solar energy with the help of
chlorophyll.
8. Name the two abiotic components of ecosystem.
Ans. (i) Soil (ii) Minerals.
9. List two raw materials used by living organisms of the first trophic level for
making food.
Ans. CO 2 , H2 O.
10. Consider the following two food chains:
Food chain –I : Grass → Mouse → Hawk
Food chain-II : Grass → Grasshopper → Frog → Snake → Hawk
In which of the above food chains hawk will get maximum energy?
Ans. Food chain-I.
11. In a food chain comprising tiger, plants and goat which will:
a. Transfer the maximum amount of energy?
b. Receive minimum amount of energy?
Ans. (a) Plants (b) Tiger.
12. Identify producers from the following:
a. Frog b. Blue-green algae c. Grass hopper d. Fish e. Grass
Ans. (b) Blue-green algae (e) Grass.
13. Choose one consumer each that belongs to the second and third trophic levels
from the organisms given below:
a. Eagle b. Frog c. Tiger d. Rabbit e. Fox
Ans. Second trophic level: Frog.
Third trophic level: Rabbit.
14. Consider a food chain consisting of wheat, rat, snakes and peacock. What will
happen if all the snakes are killed?
Ans. If all snakes of food chain are killed, the peacocks belonging to the next
level will also die. Also the population of rats in the preceding level will highly
increase.
15. Consider a geographical area bearing grasshopper, hawk, snake, grass and frog.
Mention the trophic level of snake.
Ans. Fourth.
16. Why is food chain having two steps most advantageous in terms of energy?
Ans. The loss of energy at the each step is so great that very little useable
energy remains after four step.
17. Name the functional unit of the environment comprising of the living and non-
living component.
Ans. Ecosystem.
18. In which from do the plants store the trapped solar energy?
Ans. Chemical energy.
19. “Flow of energy is unidirectional.” Name the first two components of the
environment involved in this flow of energy from the sun.
Ans. Producers and primary consumers.
20. Consider a food chain of the following:
Fish → Crab → Plankton → Shark
Arrange the above chain in proper order of trophic level
Or
Construct an aquatic food chain ending with shark.
Ans. Plankton → Crab → Fish → Shark.
21. In the following food chain, grass provides 4000 J of energy to the
grasshopper. How much energy will be available to snakes and frogs?
Grass → Grasshopper → Frogs → Snakes
Ans. Grass → Grasshopper → Frogs → Snakes
(4000 J) (400 J) (40 J) (4 J)
So, for snakes and frogs, 4 J and 40 J energy respectively will be available by
10% law.
22. Calculate the amount of energy available to lion in the following food chain if
plants have 20000 J of energy available from the sun:
Plants → Deer → Lion
Ans. (i) Plants can trap only 1% of the sun's energy falling on them. Now , 1%
of 20000 J is 200 J, so the plants have actually 200 J of energy available
in them as food (The 10 per cent law does not apply at this stage).
(ii) The plants are eaten up by deer. Now, according to 10 per cent law,
10% of 200 J, that is 20 J of energy will be available in deer as flesh
food.
(iii) The deer will transfer 10% of its 20 J energy to the lion. Thus, The
food energy available to the lion will be 10% of 20 J which comes to
2 J.
The above results can be shown more clearly as follows :
Sun
20,000 J
( 1% absorbed)
Plants 10% of 200 J Deer 10% of 20 J Lion
200 J 20J 2J
23. Consider the following food chain:
Grass → Mice → Snakes → Peacocks
If in this chain, 100 j of energy is available at the producer level, then calculate
the energy transferred to the peacocks as food. State the law used in the
calculations.
Ans. The producer level in this food chain is grass, so 100 J of energy is
available in grass as food. We have now to apply 10 per cent law to the above
food chain:
(i) According to ten per cent law, 10%10% of the energy of grass will be
available as food in mice. Thus, the energy available to mice will be 10% of
100 J, which is 10 J.
(ii) The energy available to snakes will be 10% of 10 J which is 1 J.
(iii) And finally, the energy available to peacocks will be 10% of 1 J, which is
0.1 J.
The above conclusions can now be depicted as follow:
Grass 10% Mice 10% Snakes 10% Peacocks
100 J 10 J 1J 0.1 J
24. Which of the following will have the maximum concentration of harmful
chemical in its body?
a. Peacock b. Frog. c. Grass d. Snake. e. Grasshopper
Ans. The organism which occurs at the highest trophic level (on the extreme
right side) in the food chain will have the maximum concentration of harmful
chemicals in its body. In this case, grass is eaten by grasshopper, grasshopper is
eaten by frog, frog is eaten by snake by snake and finally snake is eaten by
peacock. So, the food chain will be:
Grass → Grasshopper → Frog → Snake → Peacock
In this food chain, since peacock occurs at the highest trophic level (on the
extreme right side), therefore, peacock will have maximum concentration of
harmful chemicals in its body.
25. Define a food web. State its significance for ecosystem.
Ans. A system of interconnected food chains between various organisms is
called a food web. A food web maintains ecological balance by maintaining the
interdependence of different organisms.
26. State 10% law. Explain with an example how energy flow through different
trophic levels.
Ans. According to 10% law, only 10 percent of energy entering a particular
trophic level of a food chain is available for transfer to the next higher trophic
level. This means that the energy available at each successive trophic level is
10% of the previous level. For example:
Grass 10 J Deer 1J Lion
27. Write two characteristic features of energy flow in an ecosystem.
Ans. (a). The flow of energy is unidirectional.
(b). There is a loss of energy as we go from one trophic level to the next
in an ecosystem.
28. Explain how do decomposers help in recycling of materials in the ecosystem?
Ans. Decomposers are called natural cleaning agents. They act on
biodegradable substances and break them into simple substances. In this way,
they create a balance in the environment and help in recycling of materials in
the ecosystem.
29. What are top carnivores? Give two examples.
Ans. The tertiary consumers of a trophic level are known as top carnivores.
Example: Lion, Tiger.
30. What percentage of energy available at the producer level is transferred at
successive trophic level in a food chain?
Ans. 10%.
31. In a certain study conducted on occurrence of DDT along food chains in an
ecosystem, the concentration of DDT in grass was found to be 0.5 ppm (parts
per million), in sheep it was 2 ppm and in man it was 10 ppm. Why was the
concentration of DDT maximum in case of man?
Ans. DDT is non-biodegradable and accumulates at each tropic level. Since
man is at the highest trophic level, there is maximum accumulation of DDT in
him. It happens due to biological magnification.
