APES Unit 7
In the figure above, the letters A, B, and C represent the different thermal layers present in an inversion. Which of the following shows the correct sequence of thermal layers as one moves vertically upwards from the surface of Earth?
Cool sea breeze → Warm → Cool
The graph below depicts the various components of smog for a densely populated urban area in the Northern Hemisphere. Each plotted line (A, B, C, and D) is a different component of smog. Which of the curves on the graph depicts the concentration of ozone, which requires sunlight to form?
C; Ozone concentrations peak in the afternoon as the intensity of the sunlight peaks. Ozone is a secondary pollutant formed in the atmosphere in a reaction that involves both nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the presence of sunlight. By late afternoon, the ozone that forms during the day breaks down.
An experiment to evaluate the efficiency of wet and dry scrubber networks that filter particulate gas at different flow rates was conducted under different flow rate conditions. The results are shown below. Which of the following best describes the efficiency of dry scrubbers at removing particles that are less than 2 micrometers in diameter?
Dry scrubbers are less than 10% efficient at removing particles less than 1μm in size. The efficiency of all flow rates for dry scrubbers is less than 10%.
n addition to a nearby mountain range, which of the following environmental conditions would be required for the process in the diagram to occur?
A cool sea breeze and a high pressure system A dominant high pressure system keeps the warm air from rising. At night, the Sun's energy no longer heats the air near the ground, allowing the cool sea breeze (more-dense air) to wedge underneath the less-dense warm layer. This process traps the warm layer between two cooler layers, forming the inversion.
A paper company located on the banks of a river discharges its treated wastewater into the river. Which of the following would be the best control group to evaluate the treated wastewater from the paper company?
A sample of water upstream from the same river A sample taken upstream from the same river contains water that would be free from the paper factory discharge. This will be the best control to see if variations in pH downstream from the paper factory may be because of the paper factory effluent.
Air pollution from a power plant is being monitored for levels of nitrogen dioxide and ground-level ozone. The levels are measured daily at the same time. Which of the following best predicts the impact of a dark and cloudy day on the readings for the levels of air pollutants measured?
There will be an increase in the level of nitrogen dioxide and a decrease in the level of ground-level ozone. Ground-level ozone is a secondary pollutant that forms from nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds, catalyzed by ultraviolet (UV) light. Cloud coverage would reduce the amount of UV light (sunlight) reaching Earth, which would result in reduced ozone formation. Levels of nitrogen dioxide would be expected to be higher as a result of decreased ground-level ozone production.
A paper company located on the banks of a river discharges its treated wastewater into the river. Which of the following would be the best location to obtain a water sample from to determine if the paper plant is affecting the acidity of the river?
Immediately downstream from the paper plant Water sampled immediately downstream will contain discharge water from the factory. Measuring its pH will indicate possible acidification as a result of factory effluent.
Scientists have observed that the health of people living in moderately developed regions, which have developed transportation and industry but lack environmental control measures, is more likely to be affected by urban outdoor pollution than by indoor air pollution. Which of the following conclusions can be drawn from the data presented in the graph?
In moderately developed regions such as China and Latin America, an individual's health is more or as likely to be affected by urban outdoor pollution than by indoor pollution. Both of these regions are moderately developed and therefore are likely to lack environmental control measures that limit urban outdoor pollution.
Over a three-year period, a city's environmental protection department measured the particulate matter (PM2.5) in a ten-square-mile area around one of the city's coal-fired power plants. The annual mean level of PM2.5PM2.5 measured was 20.0μgm320.0μgm3 over the three-year study period. The National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for PM2.5 is an annual mean level of 12.0μgm312.0μgm3, averaged over three years. The city instructs the manager of the power plant to propose a plan to aid the city in meeting the NAAQS for PM2.5 in the area around the power plant over the next ten years. Which of the following would be the most effective plan for the manager to propose to the city?
Install electrostatic precipitators at the plant.
Atmospheric deposition is receiving increased attention in the scientific community, and has become the subject of a specific research area in the environmental sciences. Acid rain is detrimental to our ecosystems and can be measured in several ways. Which of the following methods would best identify changes from acid deposition in an area over time?
Monitoring the long-term chemical and biological parameters of an ecosystem To fully understand the effects of acid deposition on ecosystems, long-term studies should be conducted to evaluate soils, surface water chemistry, and living things in an area.
Scientists have been monitoring CO2 in the atmosphere from Mauna Loa in Hawaii since 1958. Which of the following units is used by scientists to measure CO2 in the atmosphere?
Parts per million
If the air layers in the diagram were relabeled to illustrate normal atmospheric conditions, the correct labeling from the air layer closest to the Earth's surface to the one farthest from the Earth's surface would be
warm air, cool air, cooler air
Which of the following is most responsible for the change in the emissions of volatile organic compounds ( VOC ) from 1970 to 2020 as shown in the graph?
An increase in air emission standards that began in 1970 that regulated corporate average fuel economy ( CAFE ) standards. In 1970 the Clean Air Act, which was passed and amended in 1977 and 1990, targeted emissions from vehicles (nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons specifically) and required the use of catalytic converters on vehicles. Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards were enacted in 1975 to improve the average fuel economy of cars and light trucks produced for sale in the United States, leading to the trends seen in the graph. Although the number of miles has increased, the VOC emissions have decreased.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the United States recommends taking corrective measures to reduce exposure to radon gas. The EPA has set an action level of 4pCiL for radon gas. The graph below shows radon samples taken from seventeen buildings in California. The radon samples were taken from the air inside the buildings, and the uranium concentrations were sampled from the soil under the buildings. Data points from four of the seventeen building locations are labeled A-D. Which of the following conclusions can best be drawn from the data in the graph?
Location A has the greatest need for remediation because the radon levels in the building are the highest and exceed the EPA action level.
Which of the following best describes how a scientist could accurately study the effects of soil buffering on plant growth in a region that is affected by acid deposition downwind of a coal-burning power plant?
Measure the changes in plant height over a year in two different groups of trees the same distance from the power plant; one group is in topsoil and one group is in topsoil with limestone added. Limestone, the one independent variable in this study, can naturally buffer the acid in the rain. With the control group, this study would measure the effect of soil buffering on plant growth in a region affected by acid rain.
Which of the following best describes why the authors claim that reducing noise exposure is currently more of a public policy problem than a scientific problem?
Most public health impacts of noise were already identified in the 1960s. This option supports the claim as written in the fourth sentence of the passage: "Most public health impacts of noise were already identified in the 1960s, and noise abatement is less of a scientific but primarily a policy problem." The author uses evidence of multiple studies to show that there is ample scientific evidence but limited policy addressing human health concerns from noise pollution.
Which of the following best describes why the authors claim that noise exposure will be a major health problem in the twenty-first century?
Noise exposure is on the increase in both industrialized nations and in developing regions. This supports the claim as written in the seventh sentence of the passage. There will be an increase in exposure to noise pollution as a result of a growing human population and increasing industrialization.
An engineer is assigned the task of reducing the air pollutants being released from a power plant that generates electricity by burning coal. The engineer performs a variety of computer simulations to determine which techniques and methods would be most effective at reducing air pollution generated by the plant. The air pollutant that computer simulations would likely show as being the most reduced by the installation of baghouse filters in exhaust systems
Particulate matter
An engineer is assigned the task of reducing the air pollutants being released from a power plant that generates electricity by burning coal. The engineer performs a variety of computer simulations to determine which techniques and methods would be most effective at reducing air pollution generated by the plant. The air pollutant that computer simulations would likely show as being the most reduced by the installation of electrostatic precipitators in exhaust systems
Particulate matter
Which of the following is the most likely reason for the trend shown in the graph of fluctuating indoor radon levels over the course of a year?
Radon levels tend to increase in the colder months because of the difference in temperature inside and outside the home, which creates a vacuum pulling radon into the home at a higher rate. Radon levels tend to increase in the colder months owing to the difference in temperature inside and outside the home. If the outside temperature is drastically lower than the indoor temperature, then a vacuum is created within the home as the warm, indoor air circulates. This vacuum pulls radon into the home at a faster rate than normal, resulting in elevated radon levels.
An engineer is assigned the task of reducing the air pollutants being released from a power plant that generates electricity by burning coal. The engineer performs a variety of computer simulations to determine which techniques and methods would be most effective at reducing air pollution generated by the plant. The air pollutant that computer simulations would likely show as being the most reduced by the use of fluidized-bed combustion in the boiler furnaces
Sulfur dioxide
Based on the layers in the diagram, which of the following best explains why a thermal inversion tends to concentrate pollutants in the air layer closest to the Earth's surface?
The air layer closest to the Earth's surface is denser than the layer above it.
A paper company located on the banks of a river discharges its treated wastewater into the river. Which of the following water quality indicators should be measured to best determine if the wastewater is increasing the acidity of the river?
The amount of hydrogen ions The acidity of water is measured on the pH scale, which is a logarithmic measurement of the abundance of hydrogen (H+) ions.
Canada has proposed an action plan to address climate change and air pollution. The action plan will reduce the impact of greenhouse gases and pollutants on the environment and human health. Which of the following claims about the Canadian action plan is best supported by the data in the graph?
The plan supports phasing out traditional coal power plants and transitioning to sources like hydroelectricity, wind, and solar power. The four pollutants in the graph are typically released from the combustion of coal. If a major goal of the action plan is to produce a significant amount of power (but not all power) from nonemitting sources of electricity, it would be projected that the emissions of these four gases would decrease. This is a major goal of the climate change plan and is supported by the data in the graph.
Noise Exposure and Public Health Exposure to noise constitutes a health risk. There is sufficient scientific evidence that noise exposure can induce hearing impairment, hypertension and heart disease, annoyance, sleep disturbance, and decreased school performance. For other effects such as changes in the immune system and birth defects, the evidence is limited. Most public health impacts of noise were already identified in the 1960s, and noise abatement is less of a scientific but primarily a policy problem. A subject for further research is the [clarification] of the mechanisms underlying noise-induced cardiovascular disorders and the relationship of noise with annoyance and nonacoustical factors modifying health outcomes. A high-priority study subject is the effect of noise on children, including cognitive effects and their reversibility. Noise exposure is on the increase, especially in the general living environment, both in industrialized nations and in developing world regions. This implies that in the twenty-first century noise exposure will still be a major public health problem. Which of the following best describes why the authors do not claim that noise exposure induces birth defects in humans?
There is insufficient evidence to support that noise exposure induces birth defects in humans. The third sentence of the passage is "For other effects such as changes in the immune system and birth defects, the evidence is limited." Therefore, the author did not make this claim.
A student is setting up a model to study the carbon cycle and natural sources of carbon dioxide. They create a microenvironment that contains soil, leaf debris, an earthworm, heterotrophic bacteria, and a sun lamp. What natural source of carbon dioxide and major metabolic process was left out of the model?
There is no representation of photosynthesis in the model environment. There is no autotrophic organism (producer) in the system that will be able to fix carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into sugars by the process of photosynthesis. Producers both produce carbon dioxide during the process of cellular respiration and take in carbon dioxide during photosynthesis. They are a natural source of carbon dioxide emissions.
Which of the following best explains the cause of the trend shown in the graph for lead emissions in the United States from 1970 to 2011?
Unleaded gasoline was first introduced in 1974, and amendments to the Clean Air Act required cars with the model year 1975 or later to use only unleaded gasoline. The change from leaded to unleaded gasoline during the 1970s was the primary cause of the reduced lead emissions into the air. The Clean Air Act required cars made after 1975 to have a catalytic converter, which could not be exposed to lead and, therefore, required unleaded gasoline.
Scientists have observed that the health of people living in moderately developed regions, which have developed transportation and industry but lack environmental control measures, is more likely to be affected by urban outdoor pollution than by indoor air pollution. Which of the following activities would most likely account for the levels of indoor air pollution in India and sub-Saharan Africa, as shown in the graph?
Use of biomass fuel sources such as wood and charcoal for cooking.
Which of the following sources should be examined in a study to determine the impact of a geologic source on levels of CO2 in the atmosphere?
Volcanoes
An experiment to evaluate the efficiency of wet and dry scrubber networks that filter particulate gas at different flow rates was conducted under different flow rate conditions. The results are shown below. Based on the data in the graph, which of the following methods would be most effective at removing the greatest amount of particulate matter from coal-burning power plant emissions?
Wet scrubbers using a flow rate of 450Lmin are best suited to remove large particles. A flow rate of 450Lmin is the most efficient for removing particles of all sizes. For all flow rates, wet scrubbers are more efficient at removing the largest particle size.