Daily Current Affairs Quiz: January 15, 2026

Statement 1 is correct: Ecology is defined as the scientific study of interactions between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment, covering both biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living) components.

Statement 2 is correct: Ecology examines vital relationships among plants, animals, microorganisms, and their surroundings, helping explain how organisms interact with each other and adapt to environmental conditions.

Statement 3 is correct: Ecology provides insights into ecosystem services such as food, water, climate regulation, and biodiversity conservation, guiding sustainable use of natural resources to protect environmental health for future generations.

Statement 4 is correct: The term ecology was coined in 1866 by Ernst Haeckel, who described it as the comprehensive science dealing with relationships between organisms and their environment.

Factor 1 (Natality) is incorrect: Natality refers to the birth rate in a population. It increases the number of individuals and therefore contributes to an increase, not a decrease, in population density.

Factor 2 (Mortality) is correct: Mortality is the death rate within a population. An increase in deaths reduces the total population size, directly leading to a decrease in population density.

Factor 3 (Immigration) is incorrect: Immigration involves the movement of individuals into a population. It adds new members and raises population size, thereby increasing population density.

Factor 4 (Emigration) is correct: Emigration is the movement of individuals out of a population. It lowers the number of individuals present, resulting in a decline in population density.

Statement 1 is correct: Ecocide causes large-scale environmental destruction that can permanently damage ecosystems, reduce genetic diversity, and push many plant and animal species towards extinction.

Statement 2 is incorrect: Ecocide weakens ecosystems by degrading habitats and resources. It reduces ecosystem resilience and adaptive capacity rather than improving the ability of ecosystems to recover from environmental stress.

Statement 3 is correct: Ecocide disrupts natural ecological cycles such as the water cycle and carbon cycle by damaging forests, soils, and oceans, leading to climate instability and broader environmental imbalances.

Statement 4 is correct: Long-term environmental destruction from ecocide affects food security, water availability, and disease patterns, thereby impacting human health, livelihoods, and socio-economic stability.

Statement 1 is correct: In a pyramid of energy, energy flows in one direction from producers to successive higher trophic levels. Energy is lost as heat at each transfer, so it never moves back to lower levels.

Statement 2 is correct: In aquatic ecosystems, the pyramid of biomass can be inverted because phytoplankton have low standing biomass but very high reproduction and turnover rates compared to consumers like zooplankton.

Statement 3 is incorrect: In a pyramid of numbers, producers do not always form the broadest base. For example, a single large tree can support many herbivores, creating an inverted pyramid of numbers.

Statement 1 is correct: Ecological pyramids graphically depict the trophic structure of an ecosystem by showing the relative quantities of organisms in terms of numbers, biomass, or energy at successive trophic levels.

Statement 2 is correct: In ecological pyramids, producers form the base as the first trophic level, while the apex represents higher-level consumers, usually tertiary or top consumers, depending on the ecosystem.