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






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






3. Organisms in the first stages of succession.






4. The fraction of solar energy that is reflected back into space.






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






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






7. The amount of sugar that the plants produce in photosynthesis and subtracting from it the amount of energy the plants need for growth maintenance - repair - and reproduction.






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






9. Drilling a hole in the ground that's below the water table to hold waste.






10. A bloom of dinoflagellates that causes reddish discoloration of coastal ocean waters. Certain dinoflagellates of the genus Gonyamfox produce toxins that kill fish and contaminate shellfish.






11. 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.






12. 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.






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






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






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






16. Living or derived from living things.






17. Refers to when farmers plant seeds without using a plow to turn the soil.






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






19. The carrier organism through which pathogens can attack.






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






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






22. 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.






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






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






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






26. 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.






27. Power generated using water.






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






29. A model that's used to predict population trends based on the birth and death rates as well as economic status of a population.






30. 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.






31. The edges of tectonic plates.






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






33. To convert or change into a vapor.






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






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






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






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






38. Gave the EPA power to set emission standards for major sources of noise - including transportation - machinery - and construction.






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






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






41. 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.






42. An introduced - normative species.






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






44. Soil with particles 0.002 -0.05 mm in diameter.






45. Land that's fit to be cultivated.






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






47. When the signs and symptoms of an illness can be attributed to a specific infectious organism that resides in the building.






48. The atmospheric pressure conditions corresponding to the periodic warming of El Nino and cooling of La Nina.






49. 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.






50. 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.