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. A symbiotic relationship in which one member is helped by the association and the other is harmed.






2. Sunlight.






3. When a species occupies a smaller niche than it would in the absence of competition.






4. Being extinct or the process of becoming extinct.






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






6. Ozone that exists in the trophosphere.






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






8. 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.






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






10. Also known as plantations - these are planted and managed tracts of trees of the same age that are harvested for commercial use.






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






12. Living or derived from living things.






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






14. A basic substance; chemically - a substance that absorbs hydrogen ions or releases hydroxyl ions; in reference to natural water - a measure of the base content of the water.






15. 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.






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






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






18. The fraction of solar energy that is reflected back into space.






19. An influential theory that concerns the long-term rate of conventional oil (and other fossil fuel) extraction and depletion. It predicts that future world oil production will soon reach a peak and then rapidly decline.






20. The uppermost horizon of soil. It is primarily made up of organic material - including waste from organisms - the bodies of decomposing organisms - and live organisms.






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






22. A soil horizon; B receives the minerals and organic materials that are leached out of the A horizon.






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






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






25. The layer of the Earth between the crust and the core.






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






27. Organisms in the first stages of succession.






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






29. 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






30. Smog resulting from emissions from industry and other sources of gases produced by the burning of fossil fuels.






31. The finest soil - made up of particles that are less than 0.002 mm in diameter.






32. An organism that obtains organic food molecules without eating other organisms or substances derived from other organisms. autotrophs use energy from the sun or from the oxidation of inorganic substances to make organic molecules from inorganic ones.






33. 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).






34. The accumulation of a substance - such as a toxic chemical - in various tissues of a living organism.






35. When populations are well below the size dictated by the carrying capacity of the region they live in - they will grow exponentially - but as they approach the carrying capacity - their growth rate will decrease and the size of the population will ev






36. 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.






37. The value of natural resources.






38. The use of building materials - building placement - and design to passively collect solar energy that can be used to keep a building warm or cool.






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






40. A symbiotic relationship in which both species benefit.






41. An influential theory that concerns the long - term rate of conventional oil (and other fossil fuel) extraction and depletion. It predicts that future world oil production will soon reach a peak and then rapidly decline.






42. The day-to-day variations in temperature - air pressure - wind - humidity - and precipitation mediated by the atmosphere in a given region.






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






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






45. 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.






46. Smog resulting from emissions from industry and other sources of gases produced by the burning of fossil fuels - especially coal.






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






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






49. 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.






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