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 place where a large quantity of a resource sits for a long period of time.






2. 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.






3. The third purest form of coal.






4. An introduced - normative species.






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






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






7. When physically treated sewage water is passed into a settling tank - where suspended solids settle out as sludge; chemically treated polymers may be added to help the suspended solids separate and settle out.






8. Sunlight.






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






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






11. 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






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






13. 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).






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






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






16. A system of vertical and horizontal air circulation predominating in tropical and subtropical regions and creating major weather patterns.






17. The liquid that percolates to the bottom of a landfill.






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






19. Any weathering that's caused by the activities of living organisms.






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






21. The process of fusing two nuclei.






22. 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.






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






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






25. 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.






26. A group of modern windmills.






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






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






29. Any noise that causes stress or has the potential to damage human health.






30. 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.






31. To convert or change into a vapor.






32. Urban areas that heat up more quickly and retain heat more than do nonurban areas.






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






34. Biotic and abiotic natural ecosystems.






35. An organism that obtains organic food molecules without eating other organisms or substances derived from other organisms. autotrophs use energy from the sun or from the oxidation of inorganic substances to make organic molecules from inorganic ones.






36. When one species feeds on another.






37. 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.






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






39. The result of graphing a dose-response analysis.






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






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






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






43. The movement of individuals out of a population.






44. 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.






45. A tank filled with aerobic bacteria that's used to treat sewage.






46. The total sum of a species' use of the biotic and abiotic resources in its environment.






47. Creating flat platforms in the hillside that provide a level planting surface - which reduces soil runoff from the slope.






48. The amount of sugar that the plants produce in photosynthesis and subtracting from it the amount of energy the plants need for growth maintenance - repair - and reproduction.






49. Also known as plantations - these are planted and managed tracts of trees of the same age that are harvested for commercial use.






50. 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.