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 cleanest-burning coal; almost pure carbon.






2. 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.






3. A specific location from which pollution is released; an example of a point source location is a factory where wood is being burned.






4. The form petroleum takes when in the ground.






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






6. The maximum population size that can be supported by the available resources in a region.






7. To convert or change into a vapor.






8. A climate variation that takes place in the tropical Pacific about every three to seven years - for a duration of about one year.






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






10. The region draining into river system or other body of water.






11. Living or derived from living things.






12. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






18. 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.






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






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






22. The process of burning.






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






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






25. A waste product produced by the burning of coal.






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






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






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






29. Using strategies to reduce the amount of risk (the degree of likelihood that a person will become ill upon exposure to a toxin or pathogen).






30. Land that's fit to be cultivated.






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






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






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






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






35. The second-purest form of coal.






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






37. 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.






38. 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.






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






40. Any compound that releases hydrogen ions when dissolved in water. Also - a water solution that contains a surplus of hydrogen ions.






41. 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.






42. The amount of the Earth's surface that's necessary to supply the needs of - and dispose of the waste from a particular population.






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






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






45. 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.






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






47. 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.






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






49. When trees and crops are planted together - creating a mutualistic symbiotic relationship between them.






50. 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.