GATE — Ecology and Evolution (EY) · India · IITs and IISc on rotation (2026: IIT Guwahati)
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersWhy forest biodiversity matters, what threatens it, and how genes, species and ecosystems are conserved in situ and ex situ, under national law and international conventions. The Sustainability track's biodiversity-conservation is the general version; this subject focuses on forest species and forest genetic resources.
In the exams: IFoS Forestry Paper I Section B (environmental conservation and biodiversity); ICAR AICE-JRF 59 Unit 11 (in situ and ex situ conservation, sacred groves); GATE EY Section 5
GATE Ecology and Evolution (Section 5, applied ecology)
Species-area relationships, island biogeography, metapopulations, minimum viable populations, IUCN criteria and conservation genetics.
How our questions for GATE spread across the units of Conservation Biology & Forest Genetic Resources. Difficulty: 6 easy, 18 medium, 7 hard.
| Island biogeography, metapopulations and minimum viable populations | 7 | |
| Levels of biodiversity: genetic, species, ecosystem | 5 | |
| Threats: habitat loss, fragmentation, overexploitation, invasive species, climate change | 5 | |
| IUCN Red List categories and criteria | 5 | |
| Ecosystem services and their conservation | 3 | |
| Ex situ conservation: arboreta, seed banks, clone banks, cryopreservation | 2 | |
| Environmental impact assessment for forest projects | 2 | |
| Conservation of forest genetic resources | 1 | |
| Convention on Biological Diversity, Nagoya Protocol and national biodiversity laws | 1 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
The change in species composition between sites along a gradient is:
B. Beta diversity
Beta diversity measures turnover.
FST measured with molecular markers indicates:
B. Population differentiation
FST partitions diversity among populations.
Fragmentation makes species more vulnerable to climate change mainly because it:
C. Blocks range shifts
Threats interact: fragmentation blocks range shifts.
Edge effects in fragmented forest include:
D. Higher light, wind and tree mortality
Edges are hotter, drier, windier and weedier.
The theory of island biogeography was published in 1967 by:
D. MacArthur and Wilson
MacArthur and Wilson.
Island biogeography predicts the most species on islands that are:
A. Large and near the mainland
High immigration, low extinction.
Shaffer's 1981 definition of a minimum viable population used, as an example, a probability of persistence of:
B. 99% over 1,000 years
Shaffer's illustrative standard.
A species has 180 mature individuals and is declining. Under criterion C (CR below 250), it is:
D. Critically Endangered
Fewer than 250 mature individuals with decline.
IPBES uses which broader term for ecosystem services?
C. Nature's contributions to people
Emphasises cultural perspectives.
Classifications such as CICES drop supporting services mainly to avoid:
A. Double counting
Supporting services underpin the others.
Ten here, 31 in the app. The Laisha app has every practice question we have written to GATE in this subject, marked as you go, with timed papers, a jump-to-unanswered list and a certificate when you pass at 70 per cent.
Free for ten days, then one subscription of US$10 a month. We would rather say so here than have you find it later.
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