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 complex of interrelated food chains in an ecological community.






2. The industry or occupation devoted to the catching - processing - or selling of fish - shellfish - or other aquatic animals.






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






4. The number of children a couple must have in order to replace themselves in a population.






5. Non-moving sources of pollution - such as factories.






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






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






8. 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.






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






10. 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






11. A severe tropical cyclone originating in the equatorial regions of the Atlantic Ocean or Caribbean Sea or eastern regions of the Pacific Ocean - traveling north - northwest - or northeast from its point of origin - and usually involving heavy rains.






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






13. The third purest form of coal.






14. 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.






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






16. 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.






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






18. 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.






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






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






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






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 finest soil - made up of particles that are less than 0.002 mm in diameter.






24. The result of vibrations (often due to plate movements) deep in the Earth that release energy. They often occur as two plates slide past one another at a transform boundary.






25. The number of individuals of a population that inhabit a certain unit of land or water area.






26. Organisms that consume primary consumers.






27. Organisms that reproduce later in life - produce fewer offspring - and devote significant time and energy to the nurturing of their offspring.






28. The edges of tectonic plates.






29. The result of chemical interaction with the bedrock that is typical of the action of both water and atmospheric gases.






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






31. A nuclear reaction in which an atomic nucleus - especially a heavy nucleus such as an isotope of uranium - splits into fragments - usually two fragments of comparable mass - releasing from 100 million to several hundred million electron volts of ener






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






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






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






35. Ozone that exists in the trophosphere.






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






37. The gradual breakdown of rock into smaller and smaller particles - caused by natural chemical - physical - and biological factors.






38. The result of a pathogen invading a body.






39. A cyclonic storm having winds ranging from approximately 48 to 121 km (30 to 75 miles) per hour.






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






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






42. The process by which the concentration of toxic substances increases in each successive link in the food chain.






43. 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






44. The effect caused by a short exposure to a high level of toxin.






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






46. Urban areas that heat up more quickly and retain heat more than do nonurban areas.






47. 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.






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






49. A stable - mature community in a successive series that has reached equilibrium after having evolved through stages and adapted to its environment.






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