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






2. 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






3. The use of devices - such as solar panels - to collect - focus - transport - or store solar energy.






4. The process of burning.






5. The phenomenon whereby the Earth's atmosphere traps solar radiation - caused by the presence in the atmosphere of gases such as carbon dioxide - water vapor - and methane that allow incoming sunlight to pass through - but absorb heat radiated back fr






6. The gradual breakdown of rock into smaller and smaller particles - caused by natural chemical - physical - and biological factors.






7. The energy of motion.






8. The process in which soil becomes saltier and saltier until - finally - the salt prevents the growth of plants. Salinization is caused by irrigation because salts brought in with the water remain in the soil as water evaporates.






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






10. 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.






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






12. To convert or change into a vapor.






13. The cleanest-burning coal; almost pure carbon.






14. Biotic and abiotic natural ecosystems.






15. A hydrocarbon deposit - such as petroleum - coal - or natural gas - derived from living matter of a previous geologic time and used for fuel.






16. 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.






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






18. 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.






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






20. The conversion of atmospheric nitrogen into compounds - such as ammonia - by natural agencies or various industrial processes.






21. 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).






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






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






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






25. The least pure coal.






26. Pollutants that are released directly into the lower atmosphere.






27. A system of vertical and horizontal air circulation predominating in tropical and subtropical regions and creating major weather patterns.






28. A bloom of dinoflagellates that causes reddish discoloration of coastal ocean waters. Certain dinoflagellates of the genus Gonyamfox produce toxins that kill fish and contaminate shellfish.






29. Land that's fit to be cultivated.






30. The second-purest form of coal.






31. The amount of energy that plants pass on to the community of herbivores in an ecosystem.






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






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






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






35. The number of children a couple must have in order to replace themselves in a population.






36. Ozone that exists in the trophosphere.






37. A stable - mature community in a successive series that has reached equilibrium after having evolved through stages and adapted to its environment.






38. 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).






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






40. 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.






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






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 atmospheric pressure conditions corresponding to the periodic warming of El Nino and cooling of La Nina.






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






45. An erosion-resistant marine ridge or mound consisting chiefly of compacted coral together with algal material and biochemically deposited magnesium and calcium carbonates.






46. The result of chemical interaction with the bedrock that is typical of the action of both water and atmospheric gases.






47. The amount of time it takes for half of a radioactive sample to disappear.






48. Smog resulting from emissions from industry and other sources of gases produced by the burning of fossil fuels - especially coal.






49. An effect that results from long -term exposure to low levels of toxin.






50. 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.