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. Resources that are often formed by very slow geologic processes - so we consider them incapable of being regenerated within the realm of human existence.






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






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






4. An organism such as a bacterium or protozoan - that obtains its nourishment through the oxidation of inorganic chemical compounds - as opposed to photosynthesis.






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






6. 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.






7. A long - relatively narrow island running parallel to the mainland-built up by the action of waves and currents and serving to protect the coast from erosion by surf and tidal surges.






8. One that has never been cut; these forests have not been seriously disturbed for several hundred years.






9. 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).






10. The process of burning.






11. 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






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






13. The point at which 50 percent of the test organisms show a negative effect from a toxin.






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






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






16. The process of fusing two nuclei.






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






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






19. 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.






20. A process in which cold - often nutrient-rich - waters from the ocean depths rise to the surface.






21. 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.






22. The value of natural resources.






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






24. 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.






25. 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.






26. 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.






27. To convert or change into a vapor.






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






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






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






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






32. Devices containing alkaline substances that precipitate out much of the sulfur dioxide from industrial plants.






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






34. A fishing technique in which the ocean floor is literally scraped by heavy nets that smash everything in their path.






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






36. When water rights are given to those who have historically used the water in a certain area.






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






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






40. 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.






41. A process that allows the organic material in solid waste to be decomposed and reintroduced into the soil - often as fertilizer.






42. Organisms in the first stages of succession.






43. 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.






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






45. Acid rain - acid hail - acid snow; all of which occur as a result of pollution in the atmosphere.






46. Refers to resources - such as plants and animals - which can be regenerated if harvested at sustainable yields.






47. The second-purest form of coal.






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






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






50. Close - prolonged associations between two or more different organisms of different species that may - but do not necessarily benefit the members.