Test your basic knowledge |

AP Environmental Science

Subjects : science, ap
Instructions:
  • Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
  • If you are not ready to take this test, you can study here.
  • Match each statement with the correct term.
  • Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.

This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.
1. An estimate of the amount of fossil fuel that can be obtained from reserve.






2. Also known as plantations - these are planted and managed tracts of trees of the same age that are harvested for commercial use.






3. The use of building materials - building placement - and design to passively collect solar energy that can be used to keep a building warm or cool.






4. When grass is consumed by animals at a faster rate than it can regrow.






5. Involves the sinking of shafts to reach underground deposits. In this type of mining - networks of tunnels are dug or blasted and humans enter these tunnels in order to manually retrieve the coal.






6. Close - prolonged associations between two or more different organisms of different species that may - but do not necessarily benefit the members.






7. Living or derived from living things.






8. The structure obtained if we organize the amount of energy contained in producers and consumers in an ecosystem by kilocalories per square meter - from largest to smallest.






9. A hydrocarbon deposit - such as petroleum - coal - or natural gas - derived from living matter of a previous geologic time and used for fuel.






10. Biotic and abiotic natural ecosystems.






11. The result of graphing a dose-response analysis.






12. The practice of alternating the crops grown on a piece of land - for example - corn one year - legumes for two years - and then back to corn.






13. The cleanest-burning coal; almost pure carbon.






14. When one species feeds on another.






15. The process in which soil bacteria convert ammonium (NH4+) to a form that can be used by plants; nitrate - or NO3.






16. The cultivation of a single crop on a farm or in a region or country; a single - homogeneous culture without diversity or dissension.






17. A region of the ocean near the equator - characterized by calms - light winds - or squalls.






18. The thinning of the ozone layer over Antarctica (and to some extent - over the Arctic).






19. Acid rain - acid hail - acid snow; all of which occur as a result of pollution in the atmosphere.






20. Pertaining to factors or things that are separate and independent from living things; nonliving.






21. A program funded by the federal government and a trust that's funded by taxes on chemicals; identifies pollutants and cleans up hazardous waste sites.






22. Organisms that consume both producers and primary consumers.






23. Fish farming in which fish are caught in the wild and not raised in captivity for consumption.






24. The biological treatment of wastewater in order to continue to remove biodegradable waste.






25. A symbiotic relationship in which one member is helped by the association and the other is harmed.






26. Organisms that reproduce early in life and often and have a high capacity for reproductive growth.






27. A plate boundary where two plates are moving toward each other.






28. Ozone that exists in the trophosphere.






29. An underground layer of porous rock - sand - or other material that allows the movement of water between layers of nonporous rock or clay. Aquifers are frequently tapped for wells.






30. Organisms that consume secondary consumers or other tertiary consumers.






31. An organism that cannot synthesize its own food and is dependent on complex organic substances for nutrition.






32. Creating flat platforms in the hillside that provide a level planting surface - which reduces soil runoff from the slope.






33. Radioactive wastes that produce high levels of ionizing radiation.






34. The maximum population size that can be supported by the available resources in a region.






35. An animal that only consumes other animals.






36. A hydrocarbon that forms as sediments are buried and pressurized.






37. The uppermost horizon of soil. It is primarily made up of organic material - including waste from organisms - the bodies of decomposing organisms - and live organisms.






38. A climate variation that takes place in the tropical Pacific about every three to seven years - for a duration of about one year.






39. Says that the entropy (disorder) of the universe is increasing. One corollary of the Second Law of thermodynamics is the concept that - in most energy transformations - a significant fraction of energy is lost to the universe as heat.






40. The low-rainfall region that exists on the leeward (downwind) side of a mountain range. This rain shadow is the result of the mountain range's causing precipitation on the windward side.






41. The region draining into river system or other body of water.






42. The right - as to fishing or to the use of a riverbed - of one who owns riparian land (the land adjacent to a river or stream).






43. The process of soil particles being carried away by wind or water. Erosion moves the smaller particles first and hence degrades the soil to a coarser - sandier - stonier texture.






44. The process that occurs when two different species in a region compete and the better adapted species wins.






45. A platinum - coated device that oxidizes most of the VOCs and some of the CO that would otherwise be emitted in exhaust - converting them to CO2.






46. Bacteria or fungi that absorb nutrients from nonliving organic matter like plant material - the wastes of living organisms - and corpses. They convert these materials into inorganic forms.






47. The use of devices - such as solar panels - to collect - focus - transport - or store solar energy.






48. An introduced - normative species.






49. In tectonic plates - the site at which an oceanic plate is sliding under a continental plate.






50. The movement of individuals into a population.