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






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






3. A method of supplying irrigation water through tubes that literally drip water onto the soil at the base of each plant.






4. The movement of individuals into a population.






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






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






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






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






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






10. Soil composed of a mixture of sand - clay - silt - and organic matter.






11. The fraction of solar energy that is reflected back into space.






12. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






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






19. The place where two plates abut each other.






20. 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.






21. The industry or occupation devoted to the catching - processing - or selling of fish - shellfish - or other aquatic animals.






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






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






24. The low-rainfall region that exists on the leeward (downwind) side of a mountain range. This rain shadow is the result of the mountain range's causing precipitation on the windward side.






25. The process by which specialized bacteria (mostly anaerobic bacteria) convert ammonia to NOy NO2 - and N2 and release it back to the atmosphere.






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






27. 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






28. 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.






29. The day-to-day variations in temperature - air pressure - wind - humidity - and precipitation mediated by the atmosphere in a given region.






30. A place where a large quantity of a resource sits for a long period of time.






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






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






33. Change in the genetic composition of a population during successive generations as a result of natural selection acting on the genetic variation among individuals and resulting in the development of new species.






34. The energy of motion.






35. The process that occurs when two different species in a region compete and the better adapted species wins.






36. The day-to-day use of environmental resources as food - clothing - and housing.






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






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






39. When companies are allowed to buy permits that allow them a certain amount of discharge of substances into certain environmental outlets. If they can reduce their amount of discharge - they are allowed to sell the remaining portion of their permit to






40. The least pure coal.






41. 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.






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






43. The number of children an average woman will bear during her lifetime; this information is based on an analysis of data from preceding years in the population in question.






44. 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.






45. Involves the removal of the Earth's surface all the way down to the level of the mineral seam.






46. The condition in which - at ecosystem boundaries - there is greater species diversity and biological density than there is in the heart of ecological communities.






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






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






49. A soil horizon; B receives the minerals and organic materials that are leached out of the A horizon.






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