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. The degree to which a substance is biologically harmful.






2. 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.






3. 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






4. A program funded by the federal government and a trust that's funded by taxes on chemicals; identifies pollutants and cleans up hazardous waste sites.






5. 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.






6. Any other species of fish - mammals - or birds that are caught that are not the target organism.






7. A layer of soil.






8. The place where two plates abut each other.






9. The rocks and Earth that is removed when mining for a commercially valuable mineral resource.






10. 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.






11. 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.






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






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






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






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






16. A plate boundary at which plates are moving away from each other. This causes an upwelling of magma from the mantle to cool and form new crust.






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






18. The energy of motion.






19. Biotic and abiotic natural ecosystems.






20. Living or derived from living things.






21. The process of fusing two nuclei.






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






23. A symbiotic relationship in which one member is helped by the association and the other is harmed.






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






25. 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






26. The coarsest soil - with particles 0.05 -2.0 mm in diameter.






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






28. The molten core of the Earth.






29. A group of modern windmills.






30. The capacity to do work.






31. The vertical movement of a mass of matter due to heating and cooling; this can happen in both the atmosphere and Earth's mantle.






32. Any process that breaks rock down into smaller pieces without changing the chemistry of the rock; typically wind and water.






33. The movement of individuals into a population.






34. Being extinct or the process of becoming extinct.






35. 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.






36. The management or regulation of a resource so that its use does not exceed the capacity of the resource to regenerate itself.






37. Energy at rest - or stored energy.






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






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






40. The process in which plants absorb ammonium (NH3) - ammonia ions (NH4+) - and nitrate ions (NO3) through their roots.






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






42. Is the practice of planting bands of different crops across a hillside.






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






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






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






46. A hydrocarbon deposit - such as petroleum - coal - or natural gas - derived from living matter of a previous geologic time and used for fuel.






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






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






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






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