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. The act or process of transpiring - or releasing water vapor - especially through the stomata of plant tissue or the pores of the skin.






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






3. A system of vertical and horizontal air circulation predominating in tropical and subtropical regions and creating major weather patterns.






4. An underground layer of porous rock - sand - or other material that allows the movement of water between layers of nonporous rock or clay. Aquifers are frequently tapped for wells.






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






6. 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.






7. Countries that have a renewable annual water supply of less than 1 -000 m3 per person.






8. A soil horizon - horizon C is made up of larger pieces of rock that have not undergone much weathering.






9. Any weathering that's caused by the activities of living organisms.






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






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






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






13. The edges of tectonic plates.






14. 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.






15. The value of natural resources.






16. Organisms in the first stages of succession.






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






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






19. Bacteria or fungi that absorb nutrients from nonliving organic matter like plant material - the wastes of living organisms - and corpses. They convert these materials into inorganic forms.






20. 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.






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






22. An introduced - normative species.






23. The movement of individuals out of a population.






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






25. Areas where cutting has occurred and a new - younger forest has arisen.






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






27. Formed from populations of different species occupying the same geographic area.






28. The process of fusing two nuclei.






29. 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.






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






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






32. When the size of an organism's natural habitat is reduced - or when development occurs that isolates a habitat.






33. 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.






34. 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.






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






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






37. 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






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






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






40. Pertaining to factors or things that are separate and independent from living things; nonliving.






41. 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.






42. The condition in which - at ecosystem boundaries - there is greater species diversity and biological density than there is in the heart of ecological communities.






43. The observed effect of the Coriolis force - especially the deflection of an object moving above the Earth - rightward in the Northern Hemisphere - and leftward in the Southern Hemisphere.






44. 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






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






46. Living or derived from living things.






47. Fish farming in which fish are caught in the wild and not raised in captivity for consumption.






48. The point at which 50 percent of the test organisms die from a toxin.






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






50. A process in which an organism is exposed to a toxin at different concentrations - and the dosage that causes the death of the organism is recorded.