Unit 2

• Sustainable Development Goal 15 (Life on Land): Directly addresses terrestrial ecosystems, combating desertification, halting biodiversity loss, and reversing land degradation.
• Target 15.3 (LDN): Specifically mandates achieving Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) by 2030, restoring degraded land and soil affected by desertification, drought, and floods.

Correct option: (4) SDG 15

• Statement (A) is Correct: Phenology is the study of periodic biological life-cycle events (flowering, leafing, migration) in response to seasonal climatic variations.
• Statement (D) is Correct: Stratification represents the vertical and horizontal structural layering (canopy, understory, ground layer) of plant populations in a community.
• Why (B) and (C) are Incorrect: Physiognomy (B) refers to the general outward architecture and dominant growth forms of a community, not less dominant species. Dominance (C) refers to the ecological control and biomass influence exerted by species, whereas individuals per sampling unit defines numerical density/abundance.

• Assertion (A) is False: Large-bodied mammals and humans exhibit a Type I survivorship curve (high survivorship through early and middle life, with mortality concentrated among older individuals). In contrast, a Type III curve is characteristic of $r$-selected species (marine invertebrates, oysters, fish, trees) that produce massive quantities of offspring with extreme juvenile mortality.
• Reason (R) is True: The shape of ecological survivorship curves directly reflects maternal investment and the degree of parental care provided to offspring.
• Conclusion: (A) is false but (R) is true.

Correct option: (4) (A) is false but (R) is true.

• Pampas $\rightarrow$ (IV) South America: Fertile temperate grassland biome occupying over $1,200,000\text{ km}^2$ across Argentina, Uruguay, and southernmost Brazil.
• Steppes $\rightarrow$ (III) Eurasia: Massive temperate grassland belt stretching from Eastern Europe through Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, to Mongolia and China.
• Pustaz $\rightarrow$ (I) Hungary: Traditional temperate grassland / treeless steppe ecosystem (Puszta) situated in the Great Hungarian Plain (Alföld).
• Velds $\rightarrow$ (II) South Africa: Open temperate grassland plateaus and savannah landscapes of Southern Africa (Highveld and Lowveld).

Correct option: (1) (A) - (IV), (B) - (HIN), (C)- (), (D) - HN)