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 organism that is capable of converting radiant energy or chemical energy into carbohydrates.






2. The part of the wide lower course of a river where its current is met by the tides.






3. The result of chemical interaction with the bedrock that is typical of the action of both water and atmospheric gases.






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






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






6. The area or environment where an organism or ecological community normally lives or occurs.






7. An effect that results from long -term exposure to low levels of toxin.






8. A plate boundary at which plates are moving away from each other. This causes an upwelling of magma from the mantle to cool and form new crust.






9. Graphical representations of populations' ages.






10. Resources that are often formed by very slow geologic processes - so we consider them incapable of being regenerated within the realm of human existence.






11. Any waste that poses a danger to human health; it must be dealt with in a different way from other types of waste.






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






13. The result of a pathogen invading a body.






14. Occurs when infection causes a change in the state of health.






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






16. The third purest form of coal.






17. Biotic and abiotic natural ecosystems.






18. A cooling of the ocean surface off the western coast of South America - occurring periodically every 4 to 12 years and affecting Pacific and other weather patterns.






19. Any compound that releases hydrogen ions when dissolved in water. Also - a water solution that contains a surplus of hydrogen ions.






20. The amount of energy that plants pass on to the community of herbivores in an ecosystem.






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






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






23. When the signs and symptoms of an illness can be attributed to a specific infectious organism that resides in the building.






24. Living or derived from living things.






25. Can consist of hazardous waste - industrial solid waste - or municipal waste. Many types of solid waste provide a threat to human health and the environment.






26. The movement of individuals out of a population.






27. When photochemical smog - NOx compounds - VOCs - and ozone combine to form smog with a brownish hue.






28. The gaseous mass or envelope surrounding a celestial body - especially the one surrounding the Earth - which is retained by the celestial body's gravitational field.






29. The management of forest plantations for the purpose of harvesting timber.






30. The process by which specialized bacteria (mostly anaerobic bacteria) convert ammonia to NOy NO2 - and N2 and release it back to the atmosphere.






31. When a species occupies a smaller niche than it would in the absence of competition.






32. A soil horizon; the layer below the O layer is called the A layer. The A layer is formed of weathered rock - with some organic material; often referred to as topsoil.






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






34. An influential theory that concerns the long-term rate of conventional oil (and other fossil fuel) extraction and depletion. It predicts that future world oil production will soon reach a peak and then rapidly decline.






35. When the energy released from waste incineration is used to generate electricity.






36. A process that allows the organic material in solid waste to be decomposed and reintroduced into the soil - often as fertilizer.






37. The coarsest soil - with particles 0.05 -2.0 mm in diameter.






38. An organism that must obtain food energy from secondary sources - for example - by eating plant or animal matter.






39. The amount of time it takes for half of a radioactive sample to disappear.






40. 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.






41. Non-moving sources of pollution - such as factories.






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






43. 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).






44. 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.






45. Devices containing alkaline substances that precipitate out much of the sulfur dioxide from industrial plants.






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






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






48. The form petroleum takes when in the ground.






49. The bedrock - which lies below all of the other layers of soil - is referred to as the R horizon.






50. Says that energy can neither be created nor destroyed; it can only be transferred and transformed.