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. Organisms that consume secondary consumers or other tertiary consumers.






2. A fiscal policy that lowers taxes on income - including wages and profit - and raises taxes on consumption - particularly the unsustainable consumption of non-renewable resources.






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






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






5. 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.






6. 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.






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






8. A group of organisms of the same species that live in the same area.






9. Involves the sinking of shafts to reach underground deposits. In this type of mining - networks of tunnels are dug or blasted and humans enter these tunnels in order to manually retrieve the coal.






10. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






16. The uppermost horizon of soil. It is primarily made up of organic material - including waste from organisms - the bodies of decomposing organisms - and live organisms.






17. Land that's fit to be cultivated.






18. The movement of individuals out of a population.






19. A complex of interrelated food chains in an ecological community.






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






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






22. Species that originate and live - or occur naturally - in an area or environment.






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






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






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






26. Energy at rest - or stored energy.






27. 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.






28. 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.






29. 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).






30. The A layer of soil is often referred to as topsoil and is most important for plant growth.






31. A fishing technique in which the ocean floor is literally scraped by heavy nets that smash everything in their path.






32. Organisms that reproduce early in life and often and have a high capacity for reproductive growth.






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






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






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






36. 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.






37. The process by which specialized bacteria (mostly anaerobic bacteria) convert ammonia to NOy NO2 - and N2 and release it back to the atmosphere.






38. 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.






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






40. Any waste that poses a danger to human health; it must be dealt with in a different way from other types of waste.






41. 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.






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






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






44. The carrier organism through which pathogens can attack.






45. 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.






46. A soil horizon; the layer below the O layer is called the A layer. The A layer is formed of weathered rock - with some organic material; often referred to as topsoil.






47. States that matter can neither be created nor destroyed.






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






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






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