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 use of devices - such as solar panels - to collect - focus - transport - or store solar energy.






2. When an area of vegetation is cut down and burned before being planted with crops.






3. Biotic and abiotic natural ecosystems.






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






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






6. The right - as to fishing or to the use of a riverbed - of one who owns riparian land (the land adjacent to a river or stream).






7. 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.






8. A specific location from which pollution is released; an example of a point source location is a factory where wood is being burned.






9. Also known as plantations - these are planted and managed tracts of trees of the same age that are harvested for commercial use.






10. A platinum - coated device that oxidizes most of the VOCs and some of the CO that would otherwise be emitted in exhaust - converting them to CO2.






11. A soil horizon - horizon C is made up of larger pieces of rock that have not undergone much weathering.






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






13. The gradual breakdown of rock into smaller and smaller particles - caused by natural chemical - physical - and biological factors.






14. A waste product produced by the burning of coal.






15. The effect caused by a short exposure to a high level of toxin.






16. 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.






17. Pollutants that are released directly into the lower atmosphere.






18. A climate variation that takes place in the tropical Pacific about every three to seven years - for a duration of about one year.






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






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






21. Living or derived from living things.






22. 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.






23. The practice of alternating the crops grown on a piece of land - for example - corn one year - legumes for two years - and then back to corn.






24. Resources that are often formed by very slow geologic processes - so we consider them incapable of being regenerated within the realm of human existence.






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






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






27. The edges of tectonic plates.






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






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






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






31. 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.






32. 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






33. A lowland area - such as a marsh or swamp - that is saturated with moisture - especially when regarded as the natural habitat of wildlife.






34. 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.






35. A process in which rows of crops are plowed across the hillside; this prevents the erosion that can occur when rows are cut up and down on a slope. ...






36. 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.






37. A process that allows the organic material in solid waste to be decomposed and reintroduced into the soil - often as fertilizer.






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






39. The dark - crumbly - nutrient-rich material that results from the decomposition of organic material.






40. The observed effect of the Coriolis force - especially the deflection of an object moving above the Earth - rightward in the Northern Hemisphere - and leftward in the Southern Hemisphere.






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






42. 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.






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






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






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






46. The least pure coal.






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






48. 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






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






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