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 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.






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






3. Non-moving sources of pollution - such as factories.






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






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






6. A program funded by the federal government and a trust that's funded by taxes on chemicals; identifies pollutants and cleans up hazardous waste sites.






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






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






9. 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.






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






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






12. Organisms that consume secondary consumers or other tertiary consumers.






13. Organisms that derive energy from consuming nonliving organic matter.






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






15. 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.






16. Energy at rest - or stored energy.






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






18. 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.






19. 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.






20. The molten core of the Earth.






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






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






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






24. A cyclonic storm having winds ranging from approximately 48 to 121 km (30 to 75 miles) per hour.






25. A process in which rows of crops are plowed across the hillside; this prevents the erosion that can occur when rows are cut up and down on a slope. ...






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






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






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






29. The development and introduction of new varieties of (mainly) wheat and rice that has increased yields per acre dramatically in countries since the 1960s.






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






31. Occurs when infection causes a change in the state of health.






32. The effect caused by a short exposure to a high level of toxin.






33. 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.






34. This category includes organisms that consume producers (plants and algae).






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






36. The result of vibrations (often due to plate movements) deep in the Earth that release energy. They often occur as two plates slide past one another at a transform boundary.






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






38. Pollutants that are formed by the combination of primary pollutants in the atmosphere.






39. 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.






40. A complex of interrelated food chains in an ecological community.






41. Ozone that exists in the trophosphere.






42. The process in which plants absorb ammonium (NH3) - ammonia ions (NH4+) - and nitrate ions (NO3) through their roots.






43. The amount of sugar that the plants produce in photosynthesis and subtracting from it the amount of energy the plants need for growth maintenance - repair - and reproduction.






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






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






46. A fiscal policy that lowers taxes on income - including wages and profit - and raises taxes on consumption - particularly the unsustainable consumption of non-renewable resources.






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






48. The bedrock - which lies below all of the other layers of soil - is referred to as the R horizon.






49. 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.






50. Organisms that consume both producers and primary consumers.