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






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






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






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






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






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






7. The form petroleum takes when in the ground.






8. Organisms in the first stages of succession.






9. The process of fusing two nuclei.






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






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






12. 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.






13. The removal of trees for agricultural purposes or purposes of exportation.






14. The part of the wide lower course of a river where its current is met by the tides.






15. 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.






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






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






18. When the signs and symptoms of an illness can be attributed to a specific infectious organism that resides in the building.






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






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






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






22. The number of live births per 1 -000 members of the population in a year.






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






24. A climate variation that takes place in the tropical Pacific about every three to seven years - for a duration of about one year.






25. An animal that only consumes other animals.






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






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






28. Creating flat platforms in the hillside that provide a level planting surface - which reduces soil runoff from the slope.






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






30. Countries that have a renewable annual water supply of less than 1 -000 m3 per person.






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






32. A species whose very presence contributes to an ecosystem's diversity and whose extinction would consequently lead to the extinction of other forms of life.






33. Any substance than is inhaled - ingested - or absorbed at dosages sufficient to damage a living organism.






34. The energy of motion.






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






36. Ozone that exists in the trophosphere.






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






38. Refers to when farmers plant seeds without using a plow to turn the soil.






39. The edges of tectonic plates.






40. 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






41. 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.






42. 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.






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






44. A usually triangular alluvial deposit at the mouth of a river.






45. 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.






46. 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.






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






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






49. An opening in the Earth's crust through which molten lava - ash - and gases are ejected.






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