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. A soil horizon - horizon C is made up of larger pieces of rock that have not undergone much weathering.






2. Also known as transform faults - boundaries at which plates are moving past each other - sideways.






3. Organisms that reproduce later in life - produce fewer offspring - and devote significant time and energy to the nurturing of their offspring.






4. When materials - such as plastic or aluminum - are used to rebuild the same product. An example of this is the use of the aluminum from aluminum cans to produce more aluminum cans.






5. 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.






6. Smog resulting from emissions from industry and other sources of gases produced by the burning of fossil fuels - especially coal.






7. The day-to-day variations in temperature - air pressure - wind - humidity - and precipitation mediated by the atmosphere in a given region.






8. Using strategies to reduce the amount of risk (the degree of likelihood that a person will become ill upon exposure to a toxin or pathogen).






9. When an area of vegetation is cut down and burned before being planted with crops.






10. An erosion-resistant marine ridge or mound consisting chiefly of compacted coral together with algal material and biochemically deposited magnesium and calcium carbonates.






11. The place where two plates abut each other.






12. 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.






13. A stable - mature community in a successive series that has reached equilibrium after having evolved through stages and adapted to its environment.






14. Any substance than is inhaled - ingested - or absorbed at dosages sufficient to damage a living organism.






15. To convert or change into a vapor.






16. When soil becomes water-logged and then dries out - and salt forms a layer on its surface.






17. When companies are allowed to buy permits that allow them a certain amount of discharge of substances into certain environmental outlets. If they can reduce their amount of discharge - they are allowed to sell the remaining portion of their permit to






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






19. 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.






20. The number of live births per 1 -000 members of the population in a year.






21. The molten core of the Earth.






22. The degree to which a substance is biologically harmful.






23. An organism such as a bacterium or protozoan - that obtains its nourishment through the oxidation of inorganic chemical compounds - as opposed to photosynthesis.






24. The industry or occupation devoted to the catching - processing - or selling of fish - shellfish - or other aquatic animals.






25. A specific location from which pollution is released; an example of a point source location is a factory where wood is being burned.






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






27. Piles of gangue - which is the waste material that results from mining.






28. States that matter can neither be created nor destroyed.






29. Soil composed of a mixture of sand - clay - silt - and organic matter.






30. In fishing - the use of long lines that have baited hooks and will be taken by numerous aquatic organisms.






31. A succession of organisms in an ecological community that constitutes a continuation of food energy from one organism to another as each consumes a lower member and - in turn - is preyed upon by a higher member.






32. 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.






33. Sunlight.






34. The more or less constant winds blowing in horizontal directions over the Earth's surface - as part of Hadley cells.






35. The act or process of transpiring - or releasing water vapor - especially through the stomata of plant tissue or the pores of the skin.






36. Biotic and abiotic natural ecosystems.






37. A method of supplying irrigation water through tubes that literally drip water onto the soil at the base of each plant.






38. Organisms in the first stages of succession.






39. The process in green plants and certain other organisms by which carbohydrates are synthesized from carbon dioxide and water using light as an energy source. Most forms of photosynthesis release oxygen as a byproduct.






40. The value of natural resources.






41. The atmospheric pressure conditions corresponding to the periodic warming of El Nino and cooling of La Nina.






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






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






44. Change in the genetic composition of a population during successive generations as a result of natural selection acting on the genetic variation among individuals and resulting in the development of new species.






45. When each family in a community grows crops for themselves and rely on animal and human labor to plant and harvest crops.






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






47. A soil horizon; B receives the minerals and organic materials that are leached out of the A horizon.






48. 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.






49. A semiconductor device that converts the energy of sunlight into electric energy.






50. A basic substance; chemically - a substance that absorbs hydrogen ions or releases hydroxyl ions; in reference to natural water - a measure of the base content of the water.