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 removal of all of the trees in an area.






2. 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.






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






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






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






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






7. Sunlight.






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






9. 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.






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






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






12. 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






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






14. The observed effect of the Coriolis force - especially the deflection of an object moving above the Earth - rightward in the Northern Hemisphere - and leftward in the Southern Hemisphere.






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






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






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






18. Also known as transform faults - boundaries at which plates are moving past each other - sideways.






19. Creating flat platforms in the hillside that provide a level planting surface - which reduces soil runoff from the slope.






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






21. An introduced - normative species.






22. Any substance that has an LD50 - of 50 mg or less per kg of body weight.






23. 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






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






25. Organisms that consume both producers and primary consumers.






26. The number of individuals of a population that inhabit a certain unit of land or water area.






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






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






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






30. The movement of individuals into a population.






31. Refers to when farmers plant seeds without using a plow to turn the soil.






32. The uppermost horizon of soil. It is primarily made up of organic material - including waste from organisms - the bodies of decomposing organisms - and live organisms.






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






34. The outer part of the Earth - consisting of the crust and upper mantle - approximately 100 km (62 miles) thick.






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






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






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






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






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






40. The process of fusing two nuclei.






41. The management of forest plantations for the purpose of harvesting timber.






42. Graphical representations of populations' ages.






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






44. Formed from populations of different species occupying the same geographic area.






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






46. A platinum - coated device that oxidizes most of the VOCs and some of the CO that would otherwise be emitted in exhaust - converting them to CO2.






47. 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.






48. A soil horizon; the layer below the O layer is called the A layer. The A layer is formed of weathered rock - with some organic material; often referred to as topsoil.






49. The process of soil particles being carried away by wind or water. Erosion moves the smaller particles first and hence degrades the soil to a coarser - sandier - stonier texture.






50. 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.