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. Land that's fit to be cultivated.






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






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






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






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






6. Smog resulting from emissions from industry and other sources of gases produced by the burning of fossil fuels - especially coal.






7. The solids that remain after the secondary treatment of sewage.






8. 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.






9. The least pure coal.






10. Being extinct or the process of becoming extinct.






11. A region of the ocean near the equator - characterized by calms - light winds - or squalls.






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






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






14. Involves the sinking of shafts to reach underground deposits. In this type of mining - networks of tunnels are dug or blasted and humans enter these tunnels in order to manually retrieve the coal.






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






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






17. An animal that only consumes other animals.






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






19. 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






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






21. Gave the EPA power to set emission standards for major sources of noise - including transportation - machinery - and construction.






22. 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.






23. The movement of individuals into a population.






24. Air currents caused by the vertical movement of air due to atmospheric heating and cooling.






25. The removal of all of the trees in an area.






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






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






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






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






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






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






32. States that matter can neither be created nor destroyed.






33. Involves the removal of the Earth's surface all the way down to the level of the mineral seam.






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






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






36. Bacteria - virus - or other microorganisms that can cause disease.






37. The maintenance of a species or ecosystem in order to ensure their perpetuation - with no concern as to their potential monetary value






38. An erosion-resistant marine ridge or mound consisting chiefly of compacted coral together with algal material and biochemically deposited magnesium and calcium carbonates.






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






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






41. A cyclonic storm having winds ranging from approximately 48 to 121 km (30 to 75 miles) per hour.






42. 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.






43. Sunlight.






44. Graphical representations of populations' ages.






45. When materials - such as plastic or aluminum - are used to rebuild the same product. An example of this is the use of the aluminum from aluminum cans to produce more aluminum cans.






46. The capacity to do work.






47. The carrier organism through which pathogens can attack.






48. Power generated using water.






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






50. 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.