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. Poor nutrition that results from an insufficient or poorly balanced diet.






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






3. The number of individuals of a population that inhabit a certain unit of land or water area.






4. The conversion of atmospheric nitrogen into compounds - such as ammonia - by natural agencies or various industrial processes.






5. 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






6. The observed effect of the Coriolis force - especially the deflection of an object moving above the Earth - rightward in the Northern Hemisphere - and leftward in the Southern Hemisphere.






7. 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






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






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






10. 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.






11. The place where two plates abut each other.






12. A process in which cold - often nutrient-rich - waters from the ocean depths rise to the surface.






13. Organisms that consume primary consumers.






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






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






16. 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.






17. When water rights are given to those who have historically used the water in a certain area.






18. One that has never been cut; these forests have not been seriously disturbed for several hundred years.






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






20. The accumulation of a substance - such as a toxic chemical - in various tissues of a living organism.






21. 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.






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






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






24. Organisms that consume both producers and primary consumers.






25. 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






26. 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.






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






28. A species whose very presence contributes to an ecosystem's diversity and whose extinction would consequently lead to the extinction of other forms of life.






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






30. The least pure coal.






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






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






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






34. A group of modern windmills.






35. The process of fusing two nuclei.






36. 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.






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






38. Graphical representations of populations' ages.






39. Radioactive wastes that produce low levels of ionizing radiation.






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






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






42. 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.






43. A nuclear reaction in which an atomic nucleus - especially a heavy nucleus such as an isotope of uranium - splits into fragments - usually two fragments of comparable mass - releasing from 100 million to several hundred million electron volts of ener






44. 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.






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






46. The third purest form of coal.






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






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






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






50. A waste product produced by the burning of coal.