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






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






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






4. 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.






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






6. 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.






7. An introduced - normative species.






8. The removal of all of the trees in an area.






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






10. When ecological succession begins in a virtually lifeless area - such as the area behind a moving glacier.






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






12. 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.






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






14. Organisms that consume primary consumers.






15. When the energy released from waste incineration is used to generate electricity.






16. 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.






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






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






19. Sunlight.






20. 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.






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






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






23. A layer of soil.






24. Any other species of fish - mammals - or birds that are caught that are not the target organism.






25. A model that's used to predict population trends based on the birth and death rates as well as economic status of a population.






26. Nets that are dragged through the water and indiscriminately catch everything in their path.






27. When physically treated sewage water is passed into a settling tank - where suspended solids settle out as sludge; chemically treated polymers may be added to help the suspended solids separate and settle out.






28. The structure obtained if we organize the amount of energy contained in producers and consumers in an ecosystem by kilocalories per square meter - from largest to smallest.






29. 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.






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






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






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






33. Energy at rest - or stored energy.






34. 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.






35. 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).






36. The process of burning.






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






38. Air currents caused by the vertical movement of air due to atmospheric heating and cooling.






39. The region draining into river system or other body of water.






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






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






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






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






44. Piles of gangue - which is the waste material that results from mining.






45. 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.






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






47. 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.






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






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






50. The A layer of soil is often referred to as topsoil and is most important for plant growth.