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. Poor nutrition that results from an insufficient or poorly balanced diet.






2. When companies are allowed to buy permits that allow them a certain amount of discharge of substances into certain environmental outlets. If they can reduce their amount of discharge - they are allowed to sell the remaining portion of their permit to






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






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






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






6. An animal that only consumes other animals.






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






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






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






10. 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.






11. 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.






12. When photochemical smog - NOx compounds - VOCs - and ozone combine to form smog with a brownish hue.






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






14. The process in which soil becomes saltier and saltier until - finally - the salt prevents the growth of plants. Salinization is caused by irrigation because salts brought in with the water remain in the soil as water evaporates.






15. The result of vibrations (often due to plate movements) deep in the Earth that release energy. They often occur as two plates slide past one another at a transform boundary.






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






17. A hydrocarbon that forms as sediments are buried and pressurized.






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






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






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






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






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






23. 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).






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






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






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






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






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






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






30. The development and introduction of new varieties of (mainly) wheat and rice that has increased yields per acre dramatically in countries since the 1960s.






31. 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






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






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






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






35. Refers to resources - such as plants and animals - which can be regenerated if harvested at sustainable yields.






36. 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.






37. One that has never been cut; these forests have not been seriously disturbed for several hundred years.






38. 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.






39. The removal of all of the trees in an area.






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






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






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






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






44. The biological treatment of wastewater in order to continue to remove biodegradable waste.






45. The solids that remain after the secondary treatment of sewage.






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






47. A symbiotic relationship in which both species benefit.






48. 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.






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






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