AP Environmental Science Test Review
Based on the second law of thermodynamics, how much biomass of phytoplankton would be needed to produce 1 kilogram of large fish in this food web?
1,000 kg
A temperate grassland biome has a gross primary productivity of 3,480kilocalories/meter2/year and a net primary productivity of 2,000kilocalories/meter2/year. Which of the following is the approximate number of kilocalories/meter2/year available to herbivores in that biome?
200kilocalories/meter2/year
Identify which biome this climatograph shows
Tropical Rain Forest
Which box represents a carbon sink that holds carbon compounds for the shortest period of time?
A
Which of the following types of organisms are required to complete the nitrogen cycle, including the process of denitrification?
Bacteria
This rate of reaction can be measured in the dark by determining the amount of oxygen gas consumed in a period of time.
Cellular respiration
This biome is found in shallow waters off the coastline and is Earth's most biologically diverse marine biome.
Coral Reefs
Which of the boxes represents a carbon source?
D
Identify which biome this climatograph shows
Desert
This biome contains a nutrient-rich environment created by falling leaves and trapped organic materials from the large trees, and it provides the ecosystem service of filtering pollutants from water.
Freshwater wetlands
What is the equation used to find net primary productivity?
GPP-Respiration Loss
What is the equation used to find efficiency?
NPP/Insolation Energy x 100
The energy available to consumers determined by subtracting the energy used by plants from the total energy transformed by the process of photosynthesis.
Net primary productivity
Which of the following process is illustrated by the downward arrows from the atmosphere that show the conversion of nitrogen gas into usable forms available to producers?
Nitrogen fixation
This freshwater biome is characterized by fast-flowing water that can originate from underground springs or runoff, which carries sediment and organic material.
Rivers
Identify which biome this climatograph shows
Savanna
What is assimilation?
Since heterotrophic organisms cannot readily absorb nitrogen as plants do, they rely on acquiring nitrogen-based compounds through the foods they eat. Nitrogen compounds assimilate in plant tissue and continue to pass from one organism to another through consumption.
The majority of nitrogen on Earth can be found in which of the following reservoirs?
Soil Bacteria
What do negative feedback loops look like?
Stabalized and sustained
Identify which biome this climatograph shows
Taiga
Identify which biome this climatograph shows
Temperate Deciduous Forest
What is nitrogen fixation?
The conversion of atmospheric nitrogen (N2) into reactive compounds such as ammonia (NH3) and nitrate (NO3-). The breaking of the bonds between the nitrogen atoms requires a great deal of energy and occurs naturally in two primary ways: abiotic fixation (lightning, cosmic radiation) and biotic fixation (aerobic and anaerobic bacteria).
Which of the following best describes what is represented by the arrows in the food web?
The flow of energy
Which of the following describes the most likely change to terrestrial biomes resulting from warmer average global temperatures?
The global distribution of midlatitude biomes, such as grasslands and temperate rain forests, would increase.
The diagram above best illustrates major processes in which of the following biogeochemical cycles?
The nitrogen cycle
Which of the following statements is best supported by the diagram of the phosphorus cycle?
The phosphates absorbed by animal tissue through consumption eventually return to the soil.
What is nitrification?
The process by which ammonia is oxidized to nitrite ions (NO2-) and then to nitrate ions (NO3-), which is the form most usable by plants. The two groups of microorganisms involved by the process are nitrosomas and nitrobacter. Nitrosomas oxidize ammonia to nitrite and nitrobacter oxidize nitrite to nitrate.
What is denitrification?
The process by which nitrates are reduced to gaseous nitrogen (N2) and lost to the atmosphere. This process occurs by falcultative anaerobes in anaerobic environments. Farmers with waterlogged fields and soils that have high clay content are especially vulnerable to nitrogen losses due to denitrification.
Six white-tailed deer and six sika deer were enclosed in a pasture for observation during an eight-year study in central Texas. White-tailed deer are a native species to central Texas, while sika deer are a nonnative species to central Texas. White-tailed deer feed on flowering plants and the tips of trees and shrubs but do not eat grass. Sika deer feed on flowering plants, the tips of trees and shrubs, and grass. All other grazing animals were kept out of the pasture during the study. The number of sika deer more than doubled after the eight years, while the population of white-tailed deer decreased by 50 percent. Which of the following statements best supports the results from the study?
The sika deer out competed the white-tailed deer in consuming flowering plants and shrubs.
What is the role of a scavenger?
They break down dead organic material and recycle it into the ecosystem as nutrients.
Which of the following terrestrial biomes has the highest primary productivity per unit area?
Tropical Rain Forest
Which of the following terrestrial biomes has the highest net primary productivity?
Tropical rain forest
Identify which biome this climatograph shows
Tundra
Which of the following best describes an example of resource partitioning in an ecosystem?
Two different bird species feed from the same oak tree; one eats acorns, and the other eats insects in the bark.
What do positive feedback loops look like?
Uncontrolled but consistent
Which of the following smaller reservoirs of freshwater are missing from the diagram?
Ice Caps
Which of the following biogeochemical cycles includes the processes of buffering ocean pH and photosynthesis?
The carbon cycle
Identify which biome this climatograph shows
Temperate Grasslands
Farmers in a suburban coastal town started using no-till agriculture, a practice that reduces soil erosion from their farmland. Use the image above to determine which of the following long-term effects no-till agriculture will have on the ecosystem surrounding the farmland.
There will be less algal growth in the nearby ocean.
Which of the following best describes a terrestrial ecosystem that will have the highest net primary productivity?
Warm temperatures, high rainfall, and consistent sunlight
Based on the diagram, which of the following statements about the hydrologic cycle is true?
Water from the ocean evaporates and condenses in the atmosphere.
What is ammonification?
A host of decompositioned microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi, break down nitrogenous wastes and organic matter found in animal waste and dead plants and animals and convert it to inorganic ammonia (NH3) for absorption by plants as ammonium ions. Therefore, decomposition rates affect the level of nutrients available to primary producers.
The total rate of photosynthesis in a given area.
Gross primary productivity
Energy is transferred along food chains from one stage to the next. Which statement best explains how the energy is transferred?
If a primary producer stores 10,000kcal10,000kcal of energy, then a tertiary consumer will have 10kcal10kcal of energy available.
Which trophic level has the least available energy in kilojoules in this food web?
Killer Whale
What is leaching?
Leaching primarily describes the process of water carrying soluble substances or small particles through soil or rock. Although this process seems trivial, leaching is one of the key processes of the Critical Zone, controlling the rate and direction in which compounds move.
In reef ecosystems, corals often have microalgae living inside them. The algae supply the corals with nutrients, and the coral give shelter to the algae. Which of the following interactions best describes the relationship between the corals and the algae?
Mutualism
Which of the following trophic levels represents a primary producer in an aquatic food chain?
Phytoplankton
Which of the following best describes the flow of energy in most terrestrial and near-surface marine ecosystems?
Producers use energy from the sun to make organic matter, such as sugars, from carbon dioxide and water and are then consumed by organisms higher in the food chain.
Which of the following best identifies a key component of the hydrologic cycle that powers the movement of water and is missing from the diagram?
The Sun
