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 amount of sugar that the plants produce in photosynthesis and subtracting from it the amount of energy the plants need for growth maintenance - repair - and reproduction.






2. The place where two plates abut each other.






3. An estimate of the amount of fossil fuel that can be obtained from reserve.






4. 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.






5. An organism that obtains organic food molecules without eating other organisms or substances derived from other organisms. autotrophs use energy from the sun or from the oxidation of inorganic substances to make organic molecules from inorganic ones.






6. 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.






7. 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.






8. A program funded by the federal government and a trust that's funded by taxes on chemicals; identifies pollutants and cleans up hazardous waste sites.






9. The bedrock - which lies below all of the other layers of soil - is referred to as the R horizon.






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






11. A tank filled with aerobic bacteria that's used to treat sewage.






12. Any substance than is inhaled - ingested - or absorbed at dosages sufficient to damage a living organism.






13. When water rights are given to those who have historically used the water in a certain area.






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






15. The third purest form of coal.






16. A model that's used to predict population trends based on the birth and death rates as well as economic status of a population.






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






18. 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






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






20. The energy of motion.






21. Organisms that derive energy from consuming nonliving organic matter.






22. A place where a large quantity of a resource sits for a long period of time.






23. 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.






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






25. The random fluctuations in the frequency of the appearance of a gene in a small isolated population - presumably owing to chance - rather than natural selection.






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






27. The broad category under which selective cutting and shelter-wood cutting fall; selective deforestation.






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






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






30. 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.






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






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






33. When mature trees are cut over a period of time (usually10 -20 years); this leaves mature trees - which can reseed the forest - in place.






34. The conversion of atmospheric nitrogen into compounds - such as ammonia - by natural agencies or various industrial processes.






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






36. A plate boundary where two plates are moving toward each other.






37. The form petroleum takes when in the ground.






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






39. Change in the genetic composition of a population during successive generations as a result of natural selection acting on the genetic variation among individuals and resulting in the development of new species.






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. Each of the feeding levels in a food chain.






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






43. Is equal to the number of deaths per 1 -000 members of the population in a year.






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






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






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






47. The water from which a river rises; a source.






48. Fires that typically burn only the forest's underbrush and do little damage to mature trees. Surface fires actually serve to protect the forest from more harmful fires by removing underbrush and dead materials that would burn quickly and at high temp






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






50. The edges of tectonic plates.