Mastering Questions

A

A person's culture plus his or her personal experience contributes to his or her ________.

Worldview

Two individuals can look at the same environmental problem and come up with exactly the opposite solution, although both individuals have sound explanations based on their culture. This reflects a difference in __________.

Worldview

A(n) ________ is best defined as one who evaluates an action based on its impact on human health, economic costs and benefits, and aesthetic concerns.

Anthropocentrist

When someone believes that something in nature has intrinsic value he or she believes __________.

That things in nature have value as themselves, regardless of what others use them for

Which type of ethics dictates the sustainable use of natural resources while also managing them wisely?

Conservation

A(n) ________ is a person who gives intrinsic value to all living things in general.

Biocentrist

Which one of the following is an ecosystem service?

Pollination of crop plants

________ encourages more sustainable business practices.

Ecolabeling

Which of the following is a similarity between the two projections shown?

Resources continue to be depleted in both scenarios.

What is sustainable development?

Promoting a viable economy while maintaining a viable environment and meeting social needs

Juliana v. United States is a lawsuit filed in 2015 that asserts that federal policies promoting ________ have violated their constitutional rights to life, liberty and property.

fossil fuel use

Which of the following requires those responsible for pollution to cover the cost of repairing the damage?

the polluter-pays principle

If we assume that donations are a sign of successful lobbying, which of the following is currently most successful at lobbying in the United States?

American fossil fuel corporations

Rules or guidelines intended to address a problem or guide decision making

policies

Agreements with foreign countries

treaties

Specific legal instructions, drafted by the president, for use by government agencies

executive orders

Requires an environmental impact statement for any federal project that might affect the environment

National environmental policy act

Law addressing harm to another person

tort law

Legislation whose purpose is to clean up the nation's worst hazardous waste sites

CERCLA, superfund act

Requires that the generation, transport, and disposal of hazardous waste be tracked "from cradle to grave"

resource conservation and recovery act

Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring, published in the 1960s, ________.

focused on the dangers of pesticides and industrial chemicals

Which of the following is TRUE regarding environmental laws and the U.S. Constitution?

State laws cannot violate the Constitution.

What event is credited with leading to the passage of the Clean Water Act?

the Cuyahoga River catching fire

The Montreal Protocol was an international environmental treaty ________.

whose goal was to protect the ozone layer

How do power utilities promote energy efficiency as a market incentive to their customers?

They offer discounts to customers who purchase and use energy efficient appliances and light bulbs

A tax break is a common form of __________.

subsidy

The smallest components of elements that still maintain the chemical properties of the elements

atoms

Negatively charged particles

electrons

Elements with the same atomic number but different atomic masses

isotopes

Atoms or molecules with a charge

ions

Uncharged particles that contribute to an atom's mass number

neutrons

Combinations of elements held together with bonds

molecules

________ are composed of amino acids.

proteins

Which of the following describes a property of pure water?

can hold many molecules in solution

The law of conservation matter states that ________.

matter cannot be created or destroyed

During photosynthesis within plants, ________

water and carbon dioxide are consumed

A leaf falls from a tree and lands on the ground. Through time, bugs and bacteria consume the leaf. Which of the following statements regarding this scenario is true?

The organic materials in the leaf have been recycled by bugs and bacteria and released back into the soil.

The force driving plate tectonics is ________.

heat in the inner layers of Earth

This type of rock is formed over time as deep layers of sediment accumulate, causing the weight and pressure on the layers of sediment below them to increase.

sedimentary rock

Which of the following describes mass wasting?

downslope movement of soil and rock due to gravity

Earthquakes, volcanoes, and landslides can displace large volumes of water and trigger which of the following natural disasters?

tsunamis

In some areas, cattle on an open range may compact fragile soils while grazing. This can damage plant roots, leading to fewer, smaller plants, which may in turn cause cattle to graze more and work harder to obtain food. This is an example of a ________.

positive feedback loop

The precipitation that flows over land and enters waterways is ________.

runoff

What does the term emergent properties describe?

characteristics that are not evident in the system's individual components but are evident only by looking at the whole operating system

Containing elements of both forests and coastal marshes, the swamplands of extreme southern Louisiana are an example of ________.

an ecotone

Nitrogen and phosphorus are referred to as macronutrients because ________.

they are required in large amounts for organisms to survive

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can be used by scientists to ________.

study changes in an ecosystem using satellite imagery

Scientists use simplified representations called ________ to understand large, complex systems and make predictions about them.

models

Nitrogen fixation is a process that makes nitrogen available to plants and is carried out by ________.

mutualistic and free-living bacteria

The atmosphere is an important reservoir (pool) in all the following cycles except ________.

phosphorus

Matter contained in living organisms

biomass

The solid earth beneath our feet

lithosphere

The process by which water moves from Earth's surface (such as in lakes or rivers) to the atmosphere

evaporation

Release of water vapor by plants through their leaves

transpiration

Upper limit of groundwater in soil or rocks

water table

The process by which water returns from the clouds to Earth's surface

precipitation

Most of the precipitation that falls onto Earth's surface ________.

either runs off to form rivers or filters down into underground aquifers

Humans use more fresh water for ________ than for any other purpose.

agricultural irrigation

Overpumping groundwater in coastal areas can cause ________ to move into aquifers, making the water undrinkable.

saltwater from oceans

All of the following are true of ocean currents EXCEPT ________.

they are always rapid and powerful

The rapid melting of Greenland's ice cap could disrupt the North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) formation by ________.

adding huge amounts of less dense fresh water to the surface of the North Atlantic

Which term describes the process of the ocean's height increasing and decreasing periodically?

tides

The relative humidity is the ________.

amount of water vapor a given volume of air holds compared to the maximum amount it could hold at a given temperature

Earth's atmosphere is composed mostly of ________.

nitrogen and oxygen

__________ pulls gas molecules toward the Earth's surface, causing air to be __________ dense near the surface.

gravity, more

Seasons are a result of ________.

differences in the amount and intensity of sunlight brought about by the tilt of Earth's axis

Which of the following is an example of an ecosystem?

a colony of leafcutter ants, the leaves they harvest, the fungi that they cultivate and tend to, and the soil nutrients and moisture needed for their garden

Endemic species ________.

are found only in one place on the planet

Dog breeds are a classic example of artificial selection. Which of the following is another example of artificial selection?

breeding wild cabbage to create broccoli and cauliflower

Which of the following descriptions of a hummingbird best describes its niche?

is a nectivore

The carrying capacity is the ________.

maximum sustainable population that a given environment can support

Which of the following are the major factors that determine a population's growth rate?

birth rate, death rate, emigration, immigration

Which of the following would protect Earth's biodiversity?

Prevent the introduction of a non-native species into an area, Preserve habitats in many countries, Encourage ecotourism, all would help

Why are island species particularly vulnerable to introduced species?

island species evolved in isolation and lack defenses against introduced species.

In order to determine the population growth rate, ________ must be included in addition to birth and death rates.

immigration and emigration

Many interacting species that live in the same area

community

Community and the abiotic material with which its members interact

ecosystem

Specific environment in which an organism lives

habitat

Number of individuals within a population per unit area

population density

The process by which unrelated species acquire similar traits

convergent evolution

things with similar traits come from a descendent or ancestory

divergent evolution

Species occurring in only one area

endemic

A group of individuals of a species that live in a particular area

population

By definition, parasites ________ their host.

get nourishment from and harm

Which organism pollinates 3/4 of our crops?

bees

Secondary succession ________.

occurs after a fire or flood, come after something that already existed once, notlike primary succession

A climax community ________.

remains in place until a disturbance restarts succession

Temperature remains relatively stable through the year in what biome?

tropical rainforest

Which of the following biomes is experiencing the greatest temperature increases resulting from global climate change?

arctic tundra

Pioneer species are the first organisms to colonize during ________.

succession

Which list includes biomes in the correct order from those that have the lowest annual rainfall to those that have the highest?

 desert, grassland, temperate deciduous forest, tropical rain forest        

A trophic cascade is the effect of the loss of ________ on ________.

top consumers; the abundance of lower consumers and producers

Detritivores include ________.

millipedes and soil insects