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. 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






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






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






4. A process in which cold - often nutrient-rich - waters from the ocean depths rise to the surface.






5. Calculating risk - or the degree of likelihood that a person will become ill upon exposure to a toxin or pathogen.






6. An introduced - normative species.






7. The energy of motion.






8. Radioactive wastes that produce high levels of ionizing radiation.






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






10. The amount of energy that plants pass on to the community of herbivores in an ecosystem.






11. Soil with particles 0.002 -0.05 mm in diameter.






12. Countries that have a renewable annual water supply of about 1 -000 -2 -000 m3 per person.






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






14. Close - prolonged associations between two or more different organisms of different species that may - but do not necessarily benefit the members.






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






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






17. Soil composed of a mixture of sand - clay - silt - and organic matter.






18. Any waste that poses a danger to human health; it must be dealt with in a different way from other types of waste.






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






20. Energy at rest - or stored energy.






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






22. 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.






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






24. 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.






25. 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.






26. Species that originate and live - or occur naturally - in an area or environment.






27. 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).






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






29. 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.






30. The process in which animals (and plants!) breathe and give off carbon dioxide from cellular metabolism.






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






32. 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.






33. 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.






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






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






36. The part of the mantle that lies just below the lithosphere.






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






38. 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






39. One that has never been cut; these forests have not been seriously disturbed for several hundred years.






40. The cleanest-burning coal; almost pure carbon.






41. When each family in a community grows crops for themselves and rely on animal and human labor to plant and harvest crops.






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






43. A bloom of dinoflagellates that causes reddish discoloration of coastal ocean waters. Certain dinoflagellates of the genus Gonyamfox produce toxins that kill fish and contaminate shellfish.






44. The right - as to fishing or to the use of a riverbed - of one who owns riparian land (the land adjacent to a river or stream).






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






46. The day-to-day use of environmental resources as food - clothing - and housing.






47. The least pure coal.






48. Any other species of fish - mammals - or birds that are caught that are not the target organism.






49. The movement of individuals into a population.






50. 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.