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






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






3. 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.






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






5. 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.






6. The capacity to do work.






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






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






9. Devices containing alkaline substances that precipitate out much of the sulfur dioxide from industrial plants.






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






11. An animal that only consumes other animals.






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






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






14. Can consist of hazardous waste - industrial solid waste - or municipal waste. Many types of solid waste provide a threat to human health and the environment.






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






16. The movement of individuals into a population.






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






18. Energy at rest - or stored energy.






19. Organisms that are capable of interbreeding with one another and incapable of breeding with other species.






20. The amount that the population would grow if there were unlimited resources in its environment.






21. The amount of time it takes for half of a radioactive sample to disappear.






22. In tectonic plates - the site at which an oceanic plate is sliding under a continental plate.






23. An erosion-resistant marine ridge or mound consisting chiefly of compacted coral together with algal material and biochemically deposited magnesium and calcium carbonates.






24. The management or regulation of a resource so that its use does not exceed the capacity of the resource to regenerate itself.






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






26. 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.






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






28. 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.






29. When soil becomes water-logged and then dries out - and salt forms a layer on its surface.






30. 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.






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






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






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






34. The part of the mantle that lies just below the lithosphere.






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






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






37. The day-to-day variations in temperature - air pressure - wind - humidity - and precipitation mediated by the atmosphere in a given region.






38. When the majority of a building's occupants experience certain symptoms that vary with the amount of time spent in the building.






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






40. Any other species of fish - mammals - or birds that are caught that are not the target organism.






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






42. To convert or change into a vapor.






43. Graphical representations of populations' ages.






44. Also known as transform faults - boundaries at which plates are moving past each other - sideways.






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






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






47. This category includes organisms that consume producers (plants and algae).






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






49. 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.






50. Any substance that has an LD50 - of 50 mg or less per kg of body weight.