e) our generation does not have a global perspective on environmental problems and how to solve them
2) List the six unifying themes in environmental science introduced in the first chapter of the textbook.
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
3) One distinction between (A) science and (B) religion, ethics, and morals is that scientific statements are:
a) disprovable
b) universally accepted
c) inference
d) deductive
e) numerical
Answer
4) Like the Scientific Method, the process of making decisions can be presented as a series of steps. List these steps, as enumerated in the textbook.
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
5)
The flooding disaster of the Missouri River is a good example of
a) a materially closed system
b) a human attempt to control a natural ecological system
c) misuse of the carrying capacity of the environment
d) overpopulation of an environment
e) a natural fixed ecological system
Answer
6) The growth rate at which the amount increases at a constant rate for a fixed unit of time is called:
a) linear growth
b) negative feedback
c) exponential growth
d) positive feedback
e) equilibrium
Answer
7) Which of the following examples describes the maximum number of a particular species that an environment can support without degrading the environment?
a) demographic transition
b) replacement fertility curve
c) logistic growth curve
d) sustainability
e) carrying capacity
Answer
8) Which of the following examples describes the movement of a nation from a high population growth to a low population growth?
a) demographic transition
b) replacement fertility curve
c) logistic growth curve
d) sustainability
e) carrying capacity
Answer
9) An ecological community is:
a) a set of interacting species that occur in the same place
b) a system of interdependent living and nonliving components in a given area over a given period of time
c) a system based on the living environment
d) the smallest group that has all characteristics necessary to sustain life
e) the total physical and chemical environment of a continent
Answer
10)
The most basic processes in an ecosystem are:
a) photosynthesis and respiration
b) transport and storage of food
c) trophic chains and storage of food
d) flow of energy and cycling of chemical elements
e) waste decomposition and cycling of energy
Answer
11) The reservoirs and pathways that any chemical element follows through the Earth’s system is called the:
a) carbon cycle
b) nitrogen cycle
c) hydrologic cycle
d) geological cycle
e) biogeochemical cycle
Answer
12) What substance that has major impact on global climate is recycled through the carbonate-silicate cycle?
Answer
13) What does the “tragedy of the commons” lead to?
a) indirect costs
b) policy instruments
c) marginal costs
d) overexploitation of resources
e) direct costs
Answer
14) In the field of environmental economics, the central characteristic of an “externality” is that it is:
a) intangible
b) overt
c) damaging to the environment
d) expensive
e) based on factors outside the ecosystem
Answer
15)
What is biological diversity?
a) the relative abundance of all species on Earth
b) the adaptation of living things to their environment
c) the variety of life forms on earth
d) the environmental variability of species
e) the complexity of life forms on earth
Answer
16) Humans have, and have had in the past, great influence on the biological diversity in their surrounding environment as a result of:
a) hunting
b) habitat destruction
c) introduction of non-native species
d) pollution of the environment
e) all of the above
Answer
17) Providing assistance to the recovery of an ecosystem that has been damaged is referred to as:
a) diversity reconstruction
b) ecological restoration
c) applied ecology
d) applied succession
e) natural reconstruction
Answer
18) Which of the following changes to an ecosystem is considered unnatural?
a) wildfire
b) introduction of an exotic species
c) flooding
d) windstorms
e) all of the above are considered natural
Answer
19) Which of the following exotic species has become established in the Florida Everglades?
a) grizzly bears
b) mountain goats
c) cobras
d) bison
e) pythons
Answer
20)
Which of the following terms refers to the accumulation of a substance in living tissue as it moves through the food web?
a) dose response
b) synergism
c) particulates
d) threshold
e) biomagnification
Answer
21) The word “toxic” refers to materials that are:
a) poisonous
b) retained in tissue by biomagnification
c) a form of synergism with other chemicals
d) increasing the risk of cancer
e) all of the above
Answer
22) List the four general steps involved in the process of risk assessment.
a)
b)
c)
d)
23) What is the relationship between farming and ecological succession?
a) farming keeps the land in a late successional stage
b) farming abbreviates succession, skipping the middle stage
c) farming promotes the premature change to late successional stage
d) farming keeps the land in an early successional stage
e) land succession is a process in natural ecosystems, and crop land cannot be discussed in the same terms
Answer
24) According to the Environmental Science text, what is the key to food production in the future?
a) increased usage of fertilizers
b) increased food production per unit area
c) increased water availability
d) conversion of forests to crop lands
e) introduction of macronutrients to the soil
Answer
25) Define an “agricultural limiting factor”?
a)
26)
The problem of deforestation is especially severe in:
a) poor nations of the humid tropics
b) developed countries
c) the homes of colonial New England
d) during the Industrial Revolution
e) wealthy ski communities of the U.S. West
Answer
27) List three factors that affect the productivity of a forest.
a)
b)
c)
28) Modern conflicts about forests center upon which of the following questions?
a) What role do forests play in our global environment, such as climate?
b) Can a forest be managed sustainably?
c) Should a forest be used only as a resource to provide materials for people and civilization?
d) all of the above
e) a and b only
Answer
29) Which of the following are the three main energy sources used in the U.S?
a) petroleum, coal, and nuclear
b) wood, petroleum, and nuclear
c) hydroelectric, natural gas, and coal
d) coal, gasoline, and nuclear
e) petroleum, natural gas, and coal
Answer
30) The majority of Earth’s energy input comes from:
a) geothermal heat from the Earth’s interior
b) the Earth’s albedo
c) sunlight
d) combustion of fossil fuels
e) photolysis of ozone in the stratosphere
Answer
31) Name three renewable energy resources.
a)
b)
c)
32)
All of the following correctly describe fossil fuels except:
a) it is a form of stored solar energy
b) it created from incomplete biological decomposition of dead organic matter
c) it comprises long-term energy reserves
d) it is a renewable energy resource
e) it is organic material, dead and buried
Answer
33) One problem with petroleum as an energy source is that the resource is not distributed evenly throughout the Earth. The largest proven reserves of oil are located in:
a) the North Sea
b) the Gulf of Mexico
c) South America
d) the Middle East
e) the Far East and Australia
Answer
34) Today, the most abundant economic fossil fuel resource is:
a) oil
b) gas
c) coal
d) oil shale
e) hydroelectric
Answer
35) Which of the following terms refers to energy produced from any source other than fossil fuels?
a) power tower
b) alternative energy
c) fuel cell
d) biofuel
e) renewable energy
Answer
36) Wind power is used for all of the following except:
a) to pump water
b) to grind grain
c) to propel ships
d) to generate electricity
e) all of the above utilize wind power
Answer
37)
Photovoltaic systems utilize solar energy by:
a) heating water with solar radiation
b) mirrors focus sunlight on a central collector unit
c) generating electricity directly from sunlight
d) heating water which runs a steam turbine
e) electrolyzing water into its component hydrogen and oxygen
Answer
38) A model that tracks the rates of input, output, and storage of water in a region or in a water system is termed:
a) an overdraft
b) a water budget
c) influent streams
d) a variable-source approach
e) wetlands
Answer
39) In the United States, the single sector which consumes the greatest portion of water supplies is:
a) agriculture
b) municipal water use
c) hydro-electric power plants
d) waste disposal
e) industry
Answer
40) What portion of the Earth’s water is contained in the oceans?
a) 80%
b) 85%
c) 90%
d) 95%
e) more than 95%
Answer
41) The best definition of the term "water pollution" is:
a) release of primary treated sewage into natural waters
b) water unsuitable for human consumption
c) overdrafting in coastal areas
d) uncontrolled dumping of toxic industrial waste
e) degradation of water quality
Answer
42)
According to the Environmental Science text, what is the most critical water pollution problem in the world?
a) lack of clean, disease-free drinking water
b) thermal pollution
c) municipal sewage
d) sediment polluted waters
e) industrial effluent
Answer
43) When nitrogen and phosphorus are added to a body of water, they alter its natural condition because they:
a) tend to cause eutrophication
b) lead to greater biological diversity
c) are an additional food source
d) kill algae, the base of the fresh water food chain
e) cause a long-term increase in fish populations
Answer
44) The carbon-dioxide content in the Earth’s atmosphere before 1500 A.D. was between 200 and 300 ppm. The carbon dioxide content today is about 450 ppm. Which single historical development can be blamed for this increase?
a) the invention of agriculture
b) the Industrial Revolution
c) the American Revolution
d) splitting of the atom
e) the election of George Bush
Answer
45) During the last two million years or so, the climate of the Earth has:
a) been very nearly constant
b) swung sharply both up and down in temperature
c) slowly decreased in humidity
d) slowly increased in temperature
e) seen a steady decrease in precipitation worldwide
Answer
46) Name three adverse effects of global warming?
a)
b)
c)
47)
General class of pollution that characterizes urban areas with frequent, strong sunshine:
a) atmospheric inversion
b) fugitive sources
c) photochemical smog
d) primary pollutants
e) buffers
Answer
48) Discomfort, symptoms, or disease reported by many occupants of the same structure:
a) formaldehyde
b) sick building syndrome
c) chimney effect
d) black lung disease
e) radon
Answer
49) Tall smokestacks on power plants were designed to:
a) allow exhaust to cool before entering the atmosphere
b) disperse pollutants, so they wouldn’t cause harmful effects in the immediate area
c) trap sulfur emissions
d) augment the chimney effect in the area around the plant
e) inhibit the reactions that form sulfuric acid
Answer
50) The phenomenon in which city centers are hotter on average than surrounding areas is called:
a) green belt
b) heat island
c) situation
d) fall line
e) site
Answer
51) Urbanization has what effect on the local hydrologic system?
a) increased storm runoff
b) increased lag time to flood peaks
c) increased infiltration
d) increased transpiration
e) diminished flood peaks
Answer
52)
The location of cities is influenced by two factors: “site” and “situation”. Situation refers to:
a) political and diplomatic issues that affect the location
b) physical and environmental characteristics of the location
c) military considerations – how defensible the location is
d) the relationship between that location and surrounding areas
e) the risk of natural catastrophe at that location
Answer
53) Which of the following qualities would you expect to find in “Ecotopia,” a future community in which the environment, human societies and individuals are treated well?
a) pollution would be maximized
b) all living resources would be sustainable
c) harvests of resources would not be sustainable
d) growth of the human population would be the same as today
e) wilderness for everyone’s recreational opportunities would be limited
Answer
54) The oil spill that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010 is noteworthy because:
a) it was America’s biggest coastal oil spill to date
b) it was so quickly contained
c) it lasted for approximately one year
d) nearly all of the spilled oil was quickly siphoned off the surface
e) it occurred in a very shallow area of the Gulf
Answer
55) In 1991, the Protocol of Madrid was established to:
a) protect the resources of the coastline of Spain against development
b) protect the resources of Europe against development
c) protect large carnivores in Africa against poaching
d) protect the resources of the Arctic against development
e) protect the resources of Antarctica against development
Answer
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