Studied by 10 people
Environmental science is the study of the interaction of humans with the environment. Which of these would NOT be included as part of the environment?
d. All of these would be considered part of the environment.
Environmental science is an interdisciplinary field of study. This means that...
d. Many science and non-science fields of study, such as economics and politics, are included.
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a section of federally-owned land in Alaska. What activities would not normally be allowed in this area? Select two.
b. Commercial logging
c. Drilling for oil
One of the three major environmental problems is resource depletion. Which is a major contributing factor to this problem?
b. Developed countries have a much higher rate of resource consumption than others.
Trees are considered ________________ resources because they will eventually regrow, given enough time.
a. Renewable
An example of an inexhaustible resource would be:
a.Sunlight
Which of these words is analogous (similar in meaning) to pollution?
a. Degradation
Pollution that is ______ will break down over time. A good example would be __________________.
b. Biodegradable / Grass clippings.
Which of these events during the modern environmentalism era was the result of a town constructed on a chemical waste dumpsite, and raised awareness of the problem of hazardous waste disposal?
a. Love Canal
Sets rules for the disposal of hazardous waste.
d. Resource conservation and recovery act
Restrictions pollution into the atmosphere
c. Clean Air Act
Restricts pollution into rivers, lakes, oceans, and ponds.
b. clean water act
. The near-extinction of the whooping crane helped lead to the passage of this law.
e. Endangered species act
Establishes testing protocols for municipal tap water.
a. Safe Drinking Water Act
Which government agency is responsible for enforcing laws such as the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act?
c. The EPA
What exactly does biodiversity measure within an ecosystem?
a. The number of different species within an ecosystem
Which of the following is true about species extinction?
d. The current rate of species extinction is much faster than the normal background rate due to habitat loss and overhunting
Which of the following types of environmental ethics places an emphasis on human interests?
a. Anthropocentric
The Hetch Hetchy dam construction was one of the first debates between the anthropocentrist and ecocentrist environmental philosophies. What decision was eventually made regarding the dam?
b. The dam was built in the Hetch Hetchy valley
Which option aligns with the environmental wisdom worldview?
b. Declaring the lake a protected area that is completely off-limits to people to preserve its natural biodiversity.
Which option aligns with the stewardship worldview?
a. Allowing the lake to be used, in spite of the endangered species. Fishing would be somewhat restricted so that catch rates would be sustainable in the long-term.
With option aligns with the planetary management worldview?
c. Encouraging commercial fishing operations on the lake to harvest as much fish as possible as quickly as possible to maximize job growth in the region.
Which example best illustrates the point behind the Tragedy of the Commons essay?
a. Various nations overfishing in international waters, leading to a collapse of fish stocks.
According to the Law of Supply and Demand, if the amount of oil extracted worldwide were to increase and the demand stayed the same, the price of oil should _____________.
b. Decrease
Which of these is true regarding the Bhopal pesticide plant explosion in 1984?
d. These statements are all true.
Which of these accurately describes a developing country compared to a developed country?
a. Higher total fertility rate.
an average person from _______________ would be expected to have a higher ecological footprint than the other two countries.
a. Country "A"
Based on the graph above, which country would you expect to have the best standard of living, highest rates of education, and lowest birth rates?
a. Japan
Which country would you expect to experience the most severe short-term problems like overpopulation, deforestation, poverty, and disease?
b. Pakistan
Sustainability is defined as...
c. Maintaining a rate of resource consumption that will allow the population to survive indefinitely.
The temperature inside the classroom is 68.5°F.
A. Fact
During all observed chemical reactions, matter is conserved: it is not created or destroyed; it changes form.
D. Law
If you run through a rainstorm, you will absorb less water than if you walk the same distance.
B. Hypothesis
Organisms evolve; they change over time as a result in changes in heritable physical or behavioral traits.
C. Theory
Which of these statements best describes a hypothesis, compared to a theory?
c. A specific prediction that can be tested with a single experiment.
Which of the following is true about scientific theories?
d. They are broad explanations based on large amounts of data and research
A new explanation, idea, or claim would probably be considered pseudoscience if...
a. The results or data claimed were not reproducible.
One example of pseudoscience given in class was alchemy; the idea that low-value materials like lead could be transmuted into gold. What was the problem with this study?
d. Each of these was true about alchemy
Before Redi's experiment, what would have been his hypothesis
c. If a jar of food is protected from flies, maggots will not grow in it.
Looking at Redi's experimental design, his independent variable would be the _, while his dependent variable was the ______.
d. Gauze covering on one of the jars, appearance of maggots.
Controlled experiments always have an experimental and control group. The control group ______________ the independent variable. In this case, the control group was the _____________.
c. Does not receive/ uncovered jar
What is always the last step of the scientific method?
c. Communicating or publishing any findings
What is the primary advantage of natural experiments over controlled experiments?
c. Natural experiments take place in the most authentic environment possible.
A group of doctors is looking to determine if a new drug is effective in treating a disease. Which one of these would be most effective in minimizing bias?
Double-blind experiment
An experiment is conducted. The researchers perform 3 trials, average the data, then write a conclusion based on their results. A second group of scientists repeats this experiment, however, they conduct 10 trials. Which is likely to have more accurate results?
The second group that conducted 10 trials
The scenario in the previous question is an example of how _____________ can affect data.
Sample size and probability
The Mythbusters conducted an experiment to see if running in the rain keeps you drier. They performed trials of both running and walking a distance of 100 meters through an artificial rainstorm. Their clothes were weighed before and after the experiment to see how much water had been absorbed. What is the dependent variable in this experiment?
The mass of water absorbed by the clothes
A team of doctors is trying to determine if acupuncture is a viable treatment option. Two groups of patients are blindfolded. One group is administered acupuncture by the doctors; the other group is simply poked with toothpicks to simulate acupuncture. What is the control group in this experiment?
The patients receiving the toothpick treatment.
Assume the doctors in this study know who is receiving each treatment. The patients are blindfolded. This is an example of a:
Single-Blind experiment
What is the primary reason for scientists across the world working as a community rather than individually?
Experimental results must be repeatable; Peer review checks for bias and accuracy.
What was the original (before the discovery of photosynthesis) hypothesis that explained how plants grew and gained so much mass throughout their lives?
a. Plants "eat" or absorb soil through their roots.
Jean Baptiste von Helmont planted a 5-pound Willow tree sapling in 200 pounds of dry soil. He re-measured both the tree and the soil after five years of growth. What changed?
a. The tree gained a significant amount of mass.
c. The mass of the soil decreased slightly.
Everything in the universe is composed of energy and matter. Which one of these examples does not represent matter?
d. Heat from the sun
Given the diagram of the atom to the right, which letter indicates an electron?
b
The nucleus of the atom contains...
b. Protons and neutrons.
Which of these is not an example of a molecule?
c. Carbon (C)
Which of these makes up the greatest part of air?
a. Nitrogen
Joseph Priestley performed an experiment where a candle was lit and placed under a sealed jar. The candle eventually went out. What did he discover?
b. Oxygen
A rollercoaster full of people stopped at the top of a large hill has a lot of _________________ as a result of its position.
a. Potential energy
Which one of these wavelengths of energy is the smallest and most damaging to living tissue?
b. Ultraviolet
Which of these wavelengths of energy is used by plants to perform photosynthesis?
c. Visible - Blue, red
Which of these organisms is capable of the following reaction:
6 H2O + 6 CO2 + solar energy →C6H12O6 + 6 O2
.d. Grass.
Products released during cellular respiration include (select all that apply).
a. Water
b. Carbon dioxide
Most cars on the road today are 25-30% efficient. Someone claims to have invented a car that can take the potential energy within gasoline and convert 100% of it into kinetic motion without waste. What law of thermodynamics does this violate?
b. Second Law: During each transformation, some energy is given off in the form of heat.
Which organism represents a producer?
a. Tree
Which animal represents a secondary consumer?
c. Bird
If you did a complete population count of all the animals and plants in this ecosystem, what would you expect to see the leastof?
d. Snakes
What trophic level of a food web is completely absent from this diagram?
d. Decomposer
Which type of ecosystem would you expect to have a smaller and simpler food web?
a. A harsh, dry desert.
Assume that an ecosystem has 5,000 kcal worth of producers growing it in at any given time. Approximately how many calories would be available to a primary consumer, such as a caterpillar?
b. 500 kcal
The Earth is a closed system to which of the following forms of matter?
d. All of the above.
Complete the following statement: "Energy ___, while matter _ through the environment."
b. Flows, cycles
Imagine you have a seed. That seed is planted and grows into a huge tree weighing thousands of pounds. Where did most of the mass of that adult tree come from?
b. Carbon dioxide from air.
A field is abandoned, and an invasive plant that can live in nutrient-poor soil moves into the field. If the land is later cleared of this invasive species and it is discovered that the soil has an abundance of nitrogen compounds, what conclusion can best be made?
(C) Bacteria in soil and in root nodules converted free nitrogen into nitrogen compounds.
Which of the following is true of carbon as it cycles in nature?
(C) Carbon sinks include forests and oceans.
Based on the laws of thermodynamics, which of the following is the applied mathematical routine used to estimate the biomass of the mice in the pyramid?
(C) 18,705 kg x .10 x .10
Based on the diagram, which group of organisms would be considered herbivores?
(C) Grasshoppers
The net annual primary productivity of a particular wetland ecosystem is found to be 8,000 kcal/m2 per year. If respiration by the aquatic producers is 12,000 kcal/m2 per year, what is the gross annual primary productivity for this ecosystem, in kcal/m2 per year?
(D) 20,000
Which of the following best explains why decomposers in soils and water are important to ecosystems?
(C) They recycle nutrients.
The ultimate source of energy for terrestrial ecosystem is
(E) the Sun
Which of the following best describes the first law of thermodynamics?
(B) In a closed system of constant mass, the energy involved in any physical or chemical change is neither created nor destroyed, but merely changed from one form to another.
Losses of usable energy between successive trophic levels in an ecosystem are best accounted for by which of the following?
(B) The second law of thermodynamics
Which letter correctly identifies a process of the hydrologic cycle in which the phase of water is changed from a liquid to a gas?
(B) B
Of the following organisms, which occupies the lowest trophic level?
(B) Deer
Open oceans produce the largest share of Earth's biomass because the net primary productivity (NPP) of the oceans is
(C) low, but the large expanse of the oceans supports enormous numbers of producers such as phytoplankton
Based on the diagram, which of the following best describes the most likely direct effect of a decline of the small fish population on the marine food web?
(B) The jellyfish population will increase because of decreased predation.
Which process in the nitrogen cycle releases nitrogen gas into the atmosphere?
(D) Denitrification of soil nitrates by bacteria
The process in the hydrologic cycle in which water vapor is released from leaves into the atmosphere is called
(A) transpiration
Based on the diagram above, which process most directly results in the storage of carbon as coal and oil over millions of years?
(C) Decomposition
The net primary production of a pine forest on a lava flow on Mount Fuji is about 175,000 kcal/m2/yr, and the plant respiration is estimated to be 115,000 kcal/m2/yr . What is the total amount of energy transferred during photosynthesis for this ecosystem?
(D) 290,000 kcal/m2/yr
All of the spur-throated grasshoppers living in the field directly behind the school.
c. Population
The birds, insects, plants, fungi, and other organisms that reside in a nearby wetland.
d. Biological community
A white-tailed deer that wanders into your back yard.
b. Organism
A tour guide taking a group through Costa Rica describes it as a lush, moist, tropical rainforest.
e. Ecosystem
Only the areas that life inhabit, from the upper crust of the Earth through the lower atmosphere.
ab. Biosphere
In the range of tolerance graph above, which letter (or letters) represent a zone of physiologic stress?
B and D
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