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. The unit used to describe the volume of fossil fuels.






2. Formed from populations of different species occupying the same geographic area.






3. A symbiotic relationship in which both species benefit.






4. 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.






5. The second-purest form of coal.






6. 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.






7. Any substance that has an LD50 - of 50 mg or less per kg of body weight.






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






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






10. 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.






11. The finest soil - made up of particles that are less than 0.002 mm in diameter.






12. Soil with particles 0.002 -0.05 mm in diameter.






13. A fiscal policy that lowers taxes on income - including wages and profit - and raises taxes on consumption - particularly the unsustainable consumption of non-renewable resources.






14. The number of children an average woman will bear during her lifetime; this information is based on an analysis of data from preceding years in the population in question.






15. The form petroleum takes when in the ground.






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






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






18. The outer part of the Earth - consisting of the crust and upper mantle - approximately 100 km (62 miles) thick.






19. Being extinct or the process of becoming extinct.






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






21. A complex of interrelated food chains in an ecological community.






22. The random fluctuations in the frequency of the appearance of a gene in a small isolated population - presumably owing to chance - rather than natural selection.






23. Organisms that are capable of interbreeding with one another and incapable of breeding with other species.






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






25. Sunlight.






26. The water from which a river rises; a source.






27. The phenomenon whereby the Earth's atmosphere traps solar radiation - caused by the presence in the atmosphere of gases such as carbon dioxide - water vapor - and methane that allow incoming sunlight to pass through - but absorb heat radiated back fr






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






29. The condition in which - at ecosystem boundaries - there is greater species diversity and biological density than there is in the heart of ecological communities.






30. An animal that only consumes other animals.






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






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






33. Each of the feeding levels in a food chain.






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






35. The day-to-day use of environmental resources as food - clothing - and housing.






36. The management or regulation of a resource so that its use does not exceed the capacity of the resource to regenerate itself.






37. An estimate of the amount of fossil fuel that can be obtained from reserve.






38. The carrier organism through which pathogens can attack.






39. The result of vibrations (often due to plate movements) deep in the Earth that release energy. They often occur as two plates slide past one another at a transform boundary.






40. Areas where cutting has occurred and a new - younger forest has arisen.






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






42. Any process that breaks rock down into smaller pieces without changing the chemistry of the rock; typically wind and water.






43. The process by which the concentration of toxic substances increases in each successive link in the food chain.






44. 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.






45. When populations are well below the size dictated by the carrying capacity of the region they live in - they will grow exponentially - but as they approach the carrying capacity - their growth rate will decrease and the size of the population will ev






46. The vertical movement of a mass of matter due to heating and cooling; this can happen in both the atmosphere and Earth's mantle.






47. The energy of motion.






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






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






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