ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF (PhD) — Environmental Sciences (subject 71) and Agricultural Meteorology (subject 60) · India · National Testing Agency for ICAR
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersThe services nature provides to farming and farming provides back: pollination, pest control, soil formation, water regulation, carbon storage. The economics of valuing them (contingent valuation, travel cost, hedonic pricing) is taught in the Agribusiness subject natural-resource-environmental-economics; this subject covers the ecology, the classification systems, the mapping tools and natural-capital accounting.
In the exams: ICAR AICE subject 71 Unit 2 (values of biodiversity); UGC NET Unit 3; TNFD-related professional work; PG research
How our questions for ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF spread across the units of Ecosystem Services & Pollinators in Agricultural Landscapes. Difficulty: 16 easy, 25 medium, 7 hard.
| Pollination services, pollinator decline and pollinator-friendly farming | 13 | |
| Natural pest control and functional agrobiodiversity | 8 | |
| Soil and water regulating services | 8 | |
| Supporting, provisioning, regulating and cultural services | 6 | |
| Payments for ecosystem services: design and examples | 5 | |
| Ecosystem service frameworks: MA, TEEB, CICES, IPBES nature's contributions to people | 4 | |
| Ecosystem disservices to agriculture | 4 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
Which initiative, launched by G8+5 environment ministers in 2007 and hosted by UNEP, aimed to make nature's economic values visible?
C. TEEB
The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) produced reports from 2008 and later TEEB for Agriculture and Food (2018). The IPCC assesses climate science; UNCCD and CITES are conventions.
Further reading: TEEB
Flood regulation by a wetland is which type of ecosystem service?
D. Regulating
Regulating services arise from the regulation of ecosystem processes, such as floods, climate and water quality. Provisioning are products; cultural non-material benefits; supporting underlying processes.
Further reading: Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005
Which is an ecosystem disservice to agriculture?
A. Crop raiding by wild boar
Damage by wildlife is a disservice; pollination, pest control and nitrogen fixation are services.
Further reading: Zhang et al. 2007
A crop yields 1000 t worth 2000 per tonne and has a pollination dependence ratio of 0.65. What is the value attributable to pollination?
B. 1300000
Value = production × price × dependence = 1000 × 2000 × 0.65 = 1300000. 2000000 ignores dependence; 650 multiplies only tonnes by ratio; 3077000 divides by the ratio.
Further reading: Gallai et al. 2009
Why does a crop list showing 75 % of leading crops depend on pollinators not mean 75 % of food volume depends on them?
B. Staple cereals providing most calories are wind- or self-pollinated
Wheat, rice and maize dominate volume and do not need animal pollination; pollinator-dependent crops are about a third of volume but a large share of micronutrients and value. The other claims are false.
Further reading: Klein et al. 2007
What is a 'beetle bank'?
C. A raised grassy strip in a field that shelters predatory beetles and spiders
Beetle banks provide overwintering habitat for ground beetles and spiders that prey on pests. The other options are unrelated.
Further reading: Conservation biological control
Fields totalling 100 ha lose 40 kg nitrate-N per hectare a year to a stream. A riparian buffer removes 60 % of the load reaching it. How much nitrogen is retained?
B. 2400 kg N
Load = 40 × 100 = 4000 kg; retained = 4000 × 0.60 = 2400 kg. 4000 is the total load; 1600 is what passes through; 24 omits the area.
Which feature is essential in Wunder's (2005) definition of payments for ecosystem services?
B. Conditionality: payment only if the service is secured
Wunder defined PES as voluntary, with at least one buyer and one provider, paid if and only if the service is secured. Compulsion, state ownership and taxes are not part of the definition.
Further reading: Wunder 2005
Which country created a national payments for environmental services programme under its 1996 Forestry Law, funded partly by a fuel tax?
D. Costa Rica
Costa Rica's programme pays landowners for forest protection, reforestation and agroforestry, financed partly by fuel tax and water charges.
Further reading: Costa Rica Forestry Law 7575
Which crop is largely wind-pollinated and does not depend on animal pollinators?
C. Wheat
Wheat is self- and wind-pollinated; apple, mustard and cucumber benefit from insect pollination.
Further reading: Klein et al. 2007
Ten here, 48 in the app. The Laisha app has every practice question we have written to ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF 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.
An AI operating system for agriculture: free guides, manuals and tools written for every country.