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. States that matter can neither be created nor destroyed.






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






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






4. The place where two plates abut each other.






5. 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.






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






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






8. The removal of select trees in an area; this leaves the majority of the habitat in place and has less of an impact on the ecosystem.






9. The movement of individuals into a population.






10. 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.






11. An intensification of the Greenhouse Effect due to the increased presence of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere.






12. Ozone that exists in the trophosphere.






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






14. An organism such as a bacterium or protozoan - that obtains its nourishment through the oxidation of inorganic chemical compounds - as opposed to photosynthesis.






15. Nets that are dragged through the water and indiscriminately catch everything in their path.






16. The outermost shell of the atmosphere - between the mesosphere and outer space - where temperatures increase steadily with altitude.






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






18. 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.






19. Being extinct or the process of becoming extinct.






20. The raising of fish and other aquatic species in captivity for harvest.






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






22. Pollution that does not have a specific point of release - open -loop recycling -when materials are reused to form new products.






23. The low-rainfall region that exists on the leeward (downwind) side of a mountain range. This rain shadow is the result of the mountain range's causing precipitation on the windward side.






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






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






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






27. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






33. Organisms that consume secondary consumers or other tertiary consumers.






34. A symbiotic relationship in which both species benefit.






35. The carrier organism through which pathogens can attack.






36. The point at which 50 percent of the test organisms show a negative effect from a toxin.






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






38. Transition in species composition of a biological community - often following ecological disturbance of the community; the establishment of a biological community in any area virtually barren of life.






39. A plate boundary where two plates are moving toward each other.






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






41. Bacteria or fungi that absorb nutrients from nonliving organic matter like plant material - the wastes of living organisms - and corpses. They convert these materials into inorganic forms.






42. 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.






43. Power generated using water.






44. The number of children an average woman will bear during her lifetime; this information is based on an analysis of data from preceding years in the population in question.






45. 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.






46. 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.






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






48. 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.






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






50. 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.