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. Organisms that reproduce early in life and often and have a high capacity for reproductive growth.






2. When materials - such as plastic or aluminum - are used to rebuild the same product. An example of this is the use of the aluminum from aluminum cans to produce more aluminum cans.






3. The amount that the population would grow if there were unlimited resources in its environment.






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






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






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






7. The management or regulation of a resource so that its use does not exceed the capacity of the resource to regenerate itself.






8. Energy at rest - or stored energy.






9. The atmospheric pressure conditions corresponding to the periodic warming of El Nino and cooling of La Nina.






10. Any process that breaks rock down into smaller pieces without changing the chemistry of the rock; typically wind and water.






11. A high-speed - meandering wind current - generally moving from a westerly direction at speeds often exceeding 400 km (250 miles) per hour at altitudes of 15 to 25 km (10 to 15 miles).






12. 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.






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






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






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






16. The place where two plates abut each other.






17. An effect that results from long -term exposure to low levels of toxin.






18. The process of fusing two nuclei.






19. Says that the entropy (disorder) of the universe is increasing. One corollary of the Second Law of thermodynamics is the concept that - in most energy transformations - a significant fraction of energy is lost to the universe as heat.






20. Biotic and abiotic natural ecosystems.






21. The result of graphing a dose-response analysis.






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






23. 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.






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






25. In fishing - the use of long lines that have baited hooks and will be taken by numerous aquatic organisms.






26. The least pure coal.






27. 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.






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






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






30. 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.






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






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






33. The process of soil particles being carried away by wind or water. Erosion moves the smaller particles first and hence degrades the soil to a coarser - sandier - stonier texture.






34. 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.






35. The liquid that percolates to the bottom of a landfill.






36. Bacteria - virus - or other microorganisms that can cause disease.






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






38. An organism that cannot synthesize its own food and is dependent on complex organic substances for nutrition.






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






40. The biological treatment of wastewater in order to continue to remove biodegradable waste.






41. Is the practice of planting bands of different crops across a hillside.






42. 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.






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






44. 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.






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






46. 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.






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






48. Any noise that causes stress or has the potential to damage human health.






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






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.