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 unit used to describe the volume of fossil fuels.






2. An organism such as a bacterium or protozoan - that obtains its nourishment through the oxidation of inorganic chemical compounds - as opposed to photosynthesis.






3. The movement of individuals into a population.






4. Nets that are dragged through the water and indiscriminately catch everything in their path.






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






6. An organism that is capable of converting radiant energy or chemical energy into carbohydrates.






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






8. The amount of time it takes for half of a radioactive sample to disappear.






9. An organism that must obtain food energy from secondary sources - for example - by eating plant or animal matter.






10. 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.






11. The A layer of soil is often referred to as topsoil and is most important for plant growth.






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






13. The form petroleum takes when in the ground.






14. 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






15. Being extinct or the process of becoming extinct.






16. 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.






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






18. The more or less constant winds blowing in horizontal directions over the Earth's surface - as part of Hadley cells.






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






20. The process that occurs when two different species in a region compete and the better adapted species wins.






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






22. A region of the ocean near the equator - characterized by calms - light winds - or squalls.






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






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






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






26. A long - relatively narrow island running parallel to the mainland-built up by the action of waves and currents and serving to protect the coast from erosion by surf and tidal surges.






27. 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.






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






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






30. 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).






31. To convert or change into a vapor.






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






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






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






35. 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.






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






37. Involves the removal of the Earth's surface all the way down to the level of the mineral seam.






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






39. The place where two plates abut each other.






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






41. Land that's fit to be cultivated.






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






43. Air currents caused by the vertical movement of air due to atmospheric heating and cooling.






44. The dark - crumbly - nutrient-rich material that results from the decomposition of organic material.






45. The point at which 50 percent of the test organisms show a negative effect from a toxin.






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






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






48. 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






49. 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






50. A plate boundary at which plates are moving away from each other. This causes an upwelling of magma from the mantle to cool and form new crust.