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






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






3. Pollution that does not have a specific point of release - open -loop recycling -when materials are reused to form new products.






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






5. The least pure coal.






6. 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






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






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






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






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






11. Bacteria or fungi that absorb nutrients from nonliving organic matter like plant material - the wastes of living organisms - and corpses. They convert these materials into inorganic forms.






12. The amount of the Earth's surface that's necessary to supply the needs of - and dispose of the waste from a particular population.






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






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






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






16. A plate boundary at which plates are moving away from each other. This causes an upwelling of magma from the mantle to cool and form new crust.






17. The movement of individuals out of a population.






18. The second-purest form of coal.






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






20. 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.






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






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






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






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






25. Open or forested areas built at the outer edge of a city.






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






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






28. 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).






29. Organisms that consume primary consumers.






30. The maintenance of a species or ecosystem in order to ensure their perpetuation - with no concern as to their potential monetary value






31. The process of burning.






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






33. The water from which a river rises; a source.






34. 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.






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






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






37. 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.






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






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






41. The removal of select trees in an area; this leaves the majority of the habitat in place and has less of an impact on the ecosystem.






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






43. A specific location from which pollution is released; an example of a point source location is a factory where wood is being burned.






44. The gradual breakdown of rock into smaller and smaller particles - caused by natural chemical - physical - and biological factors.






45. The third purest form of coal.






46. When an area of vegetation is cut down and burned before being planted with crops.






47. 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.






48. Radioactive wastes that produce low levels of ionizing radiation.






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






50. The molten core of the Earth.