Question

a) What do you understand by “Watershed Management”? List any two advantages of watershed management.

b) “Human beings occupy the top level in any food chain.” What are the consequences of this on our body?

Answer 1

Watershed management emphasises scientific soil and water conservation in order to increase the biomass production.
Advantages:
(i) The main aim is to develop primary resources of land and water.
(ii) To produce secondary resources of plants and animals for use in a manner which will hot cause ecological imbalance.
(iii) Watershed management not only increases the production and income of the watershed community, but also mitigates droughts and floods and increases the life of the downstream dam and reservoirs.

Environment is the total surrounding of an organism. Environment comprises of biotic and abiotic components. Balance in nature is maintained by the interaction between biotic components with that of abiotic components. Environment comprises of many ecosystems.

b)
The ecosystem is a community of organisms and their physical environment interacting with each other as an ecological unit, involving the flow of energy.

An ecosystem consists of biotic components including living organisms and abiotic components which include the physical factors like temperature, rainfall, wind, soil and minerals.
*An ecosystem can be natural or artificial. Organisms in the ecosystem can be categorised into producers, consumers and decomposers.

Producers are the organisms that produce their own food without the help of any other organism.
*They are also known as autotrophs.
*They make their food from inorganic substances through a process called photosynthesis.
Autotrophs are green plants, phytoplankton and blue green algae.

Answer 2

Explanation:

Human Health A healthy watershed provides safe drinking water, provides food, enables us to adapt to the impacts of climate change more easily by cooling the air and absorbing greenhouse gas emissions, and provides natural areas for people to keep active and recharge our batteries.

benefit eco health

Ecological Health A healthy watershed conserves water, promotes streamflow, supports sustainable streams, rivers, lakes, and groundwater sources, enables healthy soil for crops and livestock, and also provides habitat for wildlife and plants.