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 layer in a large body of water - such as a lake - that sharply separates regions differing in temperature - so that the temperature gradient across the layer is abrupt.






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






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






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






5. A group of modern windmills.






6. Sunlight.






7. An animal that only consumes other animals.






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






9. 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.






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






11. The development and introduction of new varieties of (mainly) wheat and rice that has increased yields per acre dramatically in countries since the 1960s.






12. An opening in the Earth's crust through which molten lava - ash - and gases are ejected.






13. Energy at rest - or stored energy.






14. 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.






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






16. The dosage level of a toxin at which a negative effect occurs.






17. 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.






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






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






20. A usually triangular alluvial deposit at the mouth of a river.






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






22. 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.






23. The number of children a couple must have in order to replace themselves in a population.






24. The part of the Earth and its atmosphere in which living organisms exist or that is capable of supporting life.






25. An area in which a particular mineral is concentrated - mining -the excavation of the Earth for the purpose of extracting ore or minerals.






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






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






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






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






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






31. The edges of tectonic plates.






32. 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.






33. Pollutants that are released directly into the lower atmosphere.






34. The third purest form of coal.






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






36. Open or forested areas built at the outer edge of a city.






37. In a sewage treatment plant - the initial filtration that is done to remove debris such as stones - sticks - rags - toys - and other objects that were flushed down the toilet.






38. Countries that have a renewable annual water supply of less than 1 -000 m3 per person.






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






40. The amount that the population would grow if there were unlimited resources in its environment.






41. A bloom of dinoflagellates that causes reddish discoloration of coastal ocean waters. Certain dinoflagellates of the genus Gonyamfox produce toxins that kill fish and contaminate shellfish.






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






43. The part of the mantle that lies just below the lithosphere.






44. The fraction of solar energy that is reflected back into space.






45. When ecological succession begins in a virtually lifeless area - such as the area behind a moving glacier.






46. When the majority of a building's occupants experience certain symptoms that vary with the amount of time spent in the building.






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






48. 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.






49. 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.






50. The point at which 50 percent of the test organisms die from a toxin.