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 right - as to fishing or to the use of a riverbed - of one who owns riparian land (the land adjacent to a river or stream).






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






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






4. The degree to which a substance is biologically harmful.






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






6. When one species feeds on another.






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






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






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






10. A hydrocarbon that forms as sediments are buried and pressurized.






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






12. Drilling a hole in the ground that's below the water table to hold waste.






13. The maintenance of a species or ecosystem in order to ensure their perpetuation - with no concern as to their potential monetary value






14. An intensification of the Greenhouse Effect due to the increased presence of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere.






15. A lowland area - such as a marsh or swamp - that is saturated with moisture - especially when regarded as the natural habitat of wildlife.






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






17. The value of natural resources.






18. A region of the ocean near the equator - characterized by calms - light winds - or squalls.






19. The movement of individuals into a population.






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






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






22. Organisms in the first stages of succession.






23. A waste product produced by the burning of coal.






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






25. Pollution that does not have a specific point of release - open -loop recycling -when materials are reused to form new products.






26. When grass is consumed by animals at a faster rate than it can regrow.






27. The more or less constant winds blowing in horizontal directions over the Earth's surface - as part of Hadley cells.






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






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






30. An introduced - normative species.






31. 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.






32. A nuclear reaction in which an atomic nucleus - especially a heavy nucleus such as an isotope of uranium - splits into fragments - usually two fragments of comparable mass - releasing from 100 million to several hundred million electron volts of ener






33. The unit used to describe the volume of fossil fuels.






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






35. Land that's fit to be cultivated.






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






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






38. To convert or change into a vapor.






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






40. A succession of organisms in an ecological community that constitutes a continuation of food energy from one organism to another as each consumes a lower member and - in turn - is preyed upon by a higher member.






41. The total sum of a species' use of the biotic and abiotic resources in its environment.






42. When mature trees are cut over a period of time (usually10 -20 years); this leaves mature trees - which can reseed the forest - in place.






43. The effect caused by a short exposure to a high level of toxin.






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






45. 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






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






47. 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.






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






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






50. 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.