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






2. When one species feeds on another.






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






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






5. 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.






6. 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.






7. Piles of gangue - which is the waste material that results from mining.






8. The third purest form of coal.






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






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






11. Smog resulting from emissions from industry and other sources of gases produced by the burning of fossil fuels.






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






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






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






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






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






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






18. The removal of trees for agricultural purposes or purposes of exportation.






19. The bedrock - which lies below all of the other layers of soil - is referred to as the R horizon.






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






21. The amount of energy that plants pass on to the community of herbivores in an ecosystem.






22. The management of forest plantations for the purpose of harvesting timber.






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






24. An effect that results from long -term exposure to low levels of toxin.






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






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






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






28. The least pure coal.






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






30. Pollutants that are formed by the combination of primary pollutants in the atmosphere.






31. 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.






32. 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.






33. The part of the wide lower course of a river where its current is met by the tides.






34. An animal that only consumes other animals.






35. The process by which - according to Darwin's theory of evolution - only the organisms best adapted to their environment tend to survive and transmit their genetic characteristics in increasing numbers to succeeding generations - while those less adap






36. Organisms in the first stages of succession.






37. Being extinct or the process of becoming extinct.






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






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






40. The act or process of transpiring - or releasing water vapor - especially through the stomata of plant tissue or the pores of the skin.






41. Pertaining to factors or things that are separate and independent from living things; nonliving.






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






43. The A layer of soil is often referred to as topsoil and is most important for plant growth.






44. Drilling a hole in the ground that's below the water table to hold waste.






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






46. Fires that typically burn only the forest's underbrush and do little damage to mature trees. Surface fires actually serve to protect the forest from more harmful fires by removing underbrush and dead materials that would burn quickly and at high temp






47. 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.






48. 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.






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






50. Organisms that derive energy from consuming nonliving organic matter.