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






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






3. The raising of fish and other aquatic species in captivity for harvest.






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






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






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






7. Is equal to the number of deaths per 1 -000 members of the population in a year.






8. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






14. The energy of motion.






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






16. 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.






17. The result of graphing a dose-response analysis.






18. An area in which a particular mineral is concentrated - mining -the excavation of the Earth for the purpose of extracting ore or minerals.






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






20. 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.






21. 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.






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






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






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






25. Species that originate and live - or occur naturally - in an area or environment.






26. Areas where cutting has occurred and a new - younger forest has arisen.






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






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. The least pure coal.






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






31. 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






32. Any process that breaks rock down into smaller pieces without changing the chemistry of the rock; typically wind and water.






33. The molten core of the Earth.






34. The gaseous mass or envelope surrounding a celestial body - especially the one surrounding the Earth - which is retained by the celestial body's gravitational field.






35. To convert or change into a vapor.






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






37. Gave the EPA power to set emission standards for major sources of noise - including transportation - machinery - and construction.






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






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






40. An estimate of the amount of fossil fuel that can be obtained from reserve.






41. The carrier organism through which pathogens can attack.






42. 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.






43. The second-purest form of coal.






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






45. 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).






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






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






48. The thinning of the ozone layer over Antarctica (and to some extent - over the Arctic).






49. When the size of an organism's natural habitat is reduced - or when development occurs that isolates a habitat.






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