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. Open or forested areas built at the outer edge of a city.






2. A fiscal policy that lowers taxes on income - including wages and profit - and raises taxes on consumption - particularly the unsustainable consumption of non-renewable resources.






3. The energy of motion.






4. The point at which 50 percent of the test organisms die from a toxin.






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






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






7. When trees and crops are planted together - creating a mutualistic symbiotic relationship between them.






8. The process of burning.






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






10. The process in which soil bacteria convert ammonium (NH4+) to a form that can be used by plants; nitrate - or NO3.






11. The process in which animals (and plants!) breathe and give off carbon dioxide from cellular metabolism.






12. The place where two plates abut each other.






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






14. A high-speed - meandering wind current - generally moving from a westerly direction at speeds often exceeding 400 km (250 miles) per hour at altitudes of 15 to 25 km (10 to 15 miles).






15. When grass is consumed by animals at a faster rate than it can regrow.






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






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






18. The process of soil particles being carried away by wind or water. Erosion moves the smaller particles first and hence degrades the soil to a coarser - sandier - stonier texture.






19. 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.






20. 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






21. 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.






22. 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






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






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






25. The edges of tectonic plates.






26. A process in which an organism is exposed to a toxin at different concentrations - and the dosage that causes the death of the organism is recorded.






27. The value of natural resources.






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






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






30. The least pure coal.






31. A succession of organisms in an ecological community that constitutes a continuation of food energy from one organism to another as each consumes a lower member and - in turn - is preyed upon by a higher member.






32. Occurs when infection causes a change in the state of health.






33. 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.






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






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






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






37. An organism that must obtain food energy from secondary sources - for example - by eating plant or animal matter.






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






39. Soil composed of a mixture of sand - clay - silt - and organic matter.






40. The broad category under which selective cutting and shelter-wood cutting fall; selective deforestation.






41. When the energy released from waste incineration is used to generate electricity.






42. The form petroleum takes when in the ground.






43. Calculating risk - or the degree of likelihood that a person will become ill upon exposure to a toxin or pathogen.






44. 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.






45. Any substance than is inhaled - ingested - or absorbed at dosages sufficient to damage a living organism.






46. 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.






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






48. 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.






49. Species that originate and live - or occur naturally - in an area or environment.






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