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






2. A layer in a large body of water - such as a lake - that sharply separates regions differing in temperature - so that the temperature gradient across the layer is abrupt.






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






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






5. The use of devices - such as solar panels - to collect - focus - transport - or store solar energy.






6. Organisms in the first stages of succession.






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






8. Ozone that exists in the trophosphere.






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






10. 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.






11. 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.






12. 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).






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






14. 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.






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






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






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






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






19. 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.






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






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






22. 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






23. Biotic and abiotic natural ecosystems.






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






25. The form petroleum takes when in the ground.






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






27. 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.






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






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






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






31. A process in which an organism is exposed to a toxin at different concentrations - and the dosage that causes the death of the organism is recorded.






32. Being extinct or the process of becoming extinct.






33. 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.






34. Piles of gangue - which is the waste material that results from mining.






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






36. Graphical representations of populations' ages.






37. The dosage level of a toxin at which a negative effect occurs.






38. When photochemical smog - NOx compounds - VOCs - and ozone combine to form smog with a brownish hue.






39. 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.






40. The act or process of transpiring - or releasing water vapor - especially through the stomata of plant tissue or the pores of the skin.






41. The process in green plants and certain other organisms by which carbohydrates are synthesized from carbon dioxide and water using light as an energy source. Most forms of photosynthesis release oxygen as a byproduct.






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






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






44. 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






45. The outermost shell of the atmosphere - between the mesosphere and outer space - where temperatures increase steadily with altitude.






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






47. The process in which soil becomes saltier and saltier until - finally - the salt prevents the growth of plants. Salinization is caused by irrigation because salts brought in with the water remain in the soil as water evaporates.






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






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






50. The unit used to describe the volume of fossil fuels.