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 papersHow farming pollutes water and how to stop it: nitrate leaching, phosphorus runoff, sediment, pesticides and pathogens, eutrophication and dead zones, and the best management practices and policies that work.
In the exams: GATE ES Section 5 (eutrophication, oxygen sag); ICAR AICE subject 71 Unit 4; UGC NET Unit 6
ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF (PhD) Environmental Sciences (Unit 4) and UGC NET Environmental Sciences (Unit 6)
Point and non-point sources, nitrate and blue-baby syndrome, phosphorus and eutrophication, dead zones, pesticide residues, pathogens and indicator organisms, BMPs and constructed wetlands, India's water quality classes and Water Act.
How our questions for ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF spread across the units of Water Quality & Agricultural Non-point Source Pollution. Difficulty: 0 easy, 19 medium, 0 hard.
| Nitrate leaching and groundwater contamination | 2 | |
| Eutrophication, algal blooms and hypoxic zones | 2 | |
| Thermal stratification of lakes | 2 | |
| Sediment and turbidity | 2 | |
| Pesticide and veterinary drug residues in water | 2 | |
| Best management practices: buffer strips, constructed wetlands, cover crops | 2 | |
| Nutrient indices and catchment modelling | 2 | |
| Point and non-point sources of water pollution | 1 | |
| Phosphorus loss: particulate and dissolved pathways | 1 | |
| River pollution and the oxygen sag curve | 1 | |
| Pathogens from manure and wastewater | 1 | |
| Water quality standards and regulation of diffuse pollution | 1 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
High nitrate in drinking water is linked most firmly to which health effect?
D. Infant methaemoglobinaemia
Nitrite from nitrate oxidises haemoglobin ('blue baby syndrome'). Fluorosis, arsenicosis and Minamata disease are caused by fluoride, arsenic and methylmercury.
Why can reduced tillage lower particulate P losses but raise dissolved P losses?
C. It cuts erosion, but P accumulates at the surface where runoff and drains pick it up in solution
Surface stratification of P and broadcast fertiliser on untilled soil increase DRP.
Which group of organisms dominates toxic freshwater blooms in warm, calm, nutrient-rich lakes?
C. Cyanobacteria
Cyanobacteria such as Microcystis produce toxins; dinoflagellates cause many marine harmful blooms.
A temperate lake that mixes completely in spring and in autumn is called:
C. Dimictic
Dimictic lakes turn over twice a year; meromictic lakes never fully mix; amictic lakes are permanently ice-covered; warm monomictic lakes mix once, in winter.
Why are summer low flows usually the critical condition for river oxygen?
A. Dilution is lowest and warmer water holds less oxygen while decay runs faster
Low flow, low saturation DO and faster kinetics combine to deepen the sag.
Why is the sediment delivery ratio usually well below 1 and smaller for larger catchments?
C. Much eroded soil is deposited on slopes, field margins and floodplains before the outlet
Opportunities for deposition increase with catchment size.
Which class of antiparasitic drugs is highly toxic to aquatic invertebrates and dung fauna?
D. Macrocyclic lactones
Macrocyclic lactones (such as ivermectin) are toxic to invertebrates; the others are antibiotics.
Why do water-quality improvements often lag years behind adoption of BMPs?
D. Legacy nutrients in soils, groundwater and sediments keep supplying loads
Stores of nitrate and P delay response, requiring long-term monitoring.
What does a Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency of 0 mean?
A. No better than the observed mean
NSE = 1 is perfect; 0 equals using the observed mean; negative is worse than the mean.
Which model relates measured river loads statistically to sources and landscape characteristics at regional scale?
C. SPARROW
SPARROW is a spatially referenced regression model; HSPF is process-based; USLE estimates field erosion; Streeter-Phelps is oxygen sag.
Ten here, 19 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.
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