Skip to content

The cartoon below… (Class 10 Science SQP 2024-25, Q26)

questionbuddy.in/q/cbse-10-science-2024-25-sqp-q26-cartoon-addresses-growing-concern-impact

ScienceCBSE Class 10 · Sample paper, session 2024-25 · 2 marks · Very short answer

CBSE Class 10 Science sample paper 2024-25: question 26

From the official CBSE sample question paper for 2024-25, section B, question 26, for 2 marks. Try it first; the hints and our step-by-step solution are below.

Q26 · 2 marks · Very short answerCompetency-basedOur Environment

The cartoon below addresses a growing concern:

What impact will the process shown in the image have on Humans if they occupy the last trophic level? Explain.

(For visually impaired students: Create a food chain with more than 2 trophic levels that exists in the cabbage farm. If Humans occupy the last trophic level, then how would spraying pesticide affect the humans? Explain.)

Figure in the paper: Cartoon split diagonally: on the left a farmer sprays pesticide on a cabbage field; on the right an underwater scene with fish and aquatic plants. See it in the official paper.

Source: official sample paper from cbseacademic.nic.in (PDF). See it in the full Sample paper 2024-25.

Hints

Open one hint at a time and try again before the next.

Hint 1

Can organisms break down or excrete pesticide chemicals?

Hint 2

What happens to the amount of such a chemical as it passes from one trophic level to the next?

Hint 3

Name the process in which the concentration increases up the food chain.

Step-by-step solution

Each step shows the marks it earns, as an examiner would award them. Checked by an independent re-solve from the question paper.

  1. Pesticides sprayed on the cabbage field are washed into the soil and water bodies. They are non-biodegradable, so they persist for a long time and enter the food chain through plants and aquatic organisms.

    1 mark

  2. These chemicals are not broken down or excreted. They accumulate at each trophic level, so their concentration increases at every step. Humans at the last trophic level therefore receive the highest concentration of pesticide. This is called biological magnification, and it can harm human health.

    1 mark

  3. (For visually impaired students) Food chain: cabbage → rabbit → snake → owl, or cabbage → caterpillar → bird → human. The pesticide then magnifies along the chain as explained above, with humans getting the most.

Answer: Biological magnification: non-biodegradable pesticides accumulate at each trophic level, so humans at the last level get the highest concentration.

Where the marks are

  • Pesticides are non-biodegradable and persist, entering the food chain (1 mark)
  • They accumulate at each trophic level, so humans have the highest concentration (biomagnification) (1 mark)

Revise the chapter

  • Chapter: Our Environment (notes, formulas, where marks are lost and every past question)
Practise this chapterBoard-style questions from Our Environment, one at a time, marked against the answer key and marking points.Back to the full paperSample paper 2024-25: every question, by section.

The question is transcribed from the official paper; figures are described in words. The solution, hints and chapter tag are ours. Spotted an error? Write tosupport@questionbuddy.in.