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






2. Power generated using water.






3. The phenomenon whereby the Earth's atmosphere traps solar radiation - caused by the presence in the atmosphere of gases such as carbon dioxide - water vapor - and methane that allow incoming sunlight to pass through - but absorb heat radiated back fr






4. 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






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






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






7. The energy of motion.






8. 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






9. An effect that results from long -term exposure to low levels of toxin.






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






11. 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.






12. An intensification of the Greenhouse Effect due to the increased presence of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere.






13. Smog resulting from emissions from industry and other sources of gases produced by the burning of fossil fuels.






14. The dosage level of a toxin at which a negative effect occurs.






15. 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






16. 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.






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






18. The part of the Earth and its atmosphere in which living organisms exist or that is capable of supporting life.






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






20. A cooling of the ocean surface off the western coast of South America - occurring periodically every 4 to 12 years and affecting Pacific and other weather patterns.






21. 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.






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






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






24. Each of the feeding levels in a food chain.






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






26. When one species feeds on another.






27. The process of soil particles being carried away by wind or water. Erosion moves the smaller particles first and hence degrades the soil to a coarser - sandier - stonier texture.






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






29. The least pure coal.






30. 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.






31. The outer part of the Earth - consisting of the crust and upper mantle - approximately 100 km (62 miles) thick.






32. The low-rainfall region that exists on the leeward (downwind) side of a mountain range. This rain shadow is the result of the mountain range's causing precipitation on the windward side.






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






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






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






36. In fishing - the use of long lines that have baited hooks and will be taken by numerous aquatic organisms.






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






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






39. The unit used to describe the volume of fossil fuels.






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






41. The movement of individuals out of a population.






42. A basic substance; chemically - a substance that absorbs hydrogen ions or releases hydroxyl ions; in reference to natural water - a measure of the base content of the water.






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






44. To convert or change into a vapor.






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






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






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






48. 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. ...






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






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