APES Exam Questions

If a city of population 10,000 experiences 100 births, 40 deaths, 10 immigrants, and 30 emigrants in the course of a year, what is its net annual percentage growth rate?

0.4%

Approximate efficiency of the conversion of light energy to chemical energy in photosynthesis.

1%

A metropolitan region of 100,000 people has 2, 000 births, 500 deaths, 200 emigrants and 100 immigrants over a 1-yr. period. Its population growth rate is

1.4 percent

United States residents are how many times more likely to die from breast cancer than residents of Hungary?

1.5

The maximum efficiency possible in an energy conversion process that is not limited by the second law of thermodynamics.

100%

Strontium-90 is a radioactive waste product from nuclear reactors. It has a half-life of 29 years. How many years will it take for a quantity of strontium-90 to decay to 1/16 of its original mass?

116 years

If the population of a country grows at a rate of approximately 5 percent per year, the number of years required for the population to double is closest to

15 years

Approximate efficiency of an average coal-fired power plant.

30%

The combustion of one gallon of automobile fuel produces about 5 pounds of carbon (in CO2). Two autos are making a trip of 600 miles. The first auto gets 20 miles per gallon, and the second gets 30 miles per gallon. Approximately how much less carbon (in CO2) will be produced by the second auto on this trip?

50 lbs

If the annual consumption of petroleum in the United States is about 23 barrels per capita, the total annual consumption of petroleum in the United States is closest to

6 billion barrels

Uranium-235 has a half-life of 710 million years. If it is determined that a certain amount of stored U-235 will be considered safe only when its radioactivity has dropped to 0.10 percent of the original level, approximately how much time must the U-235 be stored securely to be safe?

7.1 x 10^9 years

The current global human population is about 6.1 billion and is growing at an annual rate of 1.35 percent. If world population were to grow at this rate for the next year, approximately how many people would be added?

8 x 10^7

Approximate percentage of electrical energy converted into heat in the average incandescent light bulb.

95%

Represents the biotic potential of the species

A

Which of the following components of a wastewater treatment plant is designed to facilitate the decomposition of organic material by aerobic microorganisms?

Activated-sludge tank

The element commercially extracted from bauxite

Aluminum

Which of the following would be the strongest evidence in support of a scientist's contention that a local area was experiencing acid deposition?

An increase in the concentrations of soluble heavy metals in a local pond

The drop in stratospheric ozone levels in the Southern Hemisphere (the "ozone hole") is most evident during which season?

Antarctic spring (October)

Plant roots absorb ammonium ions and nitrate ions for use in making molecules such as DNA, amino acids, and proteins

Assimilation

Country with the greatest percentage of land area affected by desertification

Australia

Represents the growth of a population predicted by the logistic model

C

An industry uses natural gas for manufacturing and uses the waste heat to produce electricity. This is an example of which of the following processes?

Cogeneration

If wastewater treatment plant effluent that contains nitrates and phosphates is allowed to flow into a body of water, which of the following may result

Decomposition

The rapid rate of this process in tropical forests results in low-nutrient soils.

Decomposition

Nitrate ions and nitrite ions are converted into nitrous oxide gas (N2)

Denitrification

The process by which a soil nutrient is reduced and released to the atmosphere as a gas.

Denitrification

Which of the following best illustrates the concept of the tragedy of the commons?

Depletion of an aquifer by regional farmers

Which of the following identifies the two factors thought to be the most harmful to biodiversity?

Destruction of habitat and invasion by nonnative species

Which of the following is the primary environmental problem associated with the use of nuclear power to generate electricity?

Disposal of radioactive waste

Stratospheric ozone depletion is most likely to result in which of the following?

Disruption of photosynthesis in plants

At the current rate of growth, Earth's human population will double in about 50 years. Which of the following is the LEAST viable strategy for ensuring adequate nutrition for a population of this size?

Doubling the area of arable land on a global basis

Which of the following methods of agricultural irrigation results in the loss of the least amount of water by evaporation?

Drip irrigation

Represents the maximum number of individuals that can be supported by a particular ecosystem on a long-term basis

E

For a certain insecticide, the LD-50 dosage level for rats is determined to be 250 milligrams per kilogram of body mass. On the basis of this information, which of the following is the best prediction regarding the consequences of receiving this dosage of the insecticide?

Five hundred out of every one thousand rats would die.

Which of the following is a process that indirectly removes carbon from Earth's atmosphere?

Formation of carbonate deposits

Which of the following statements about genetic diversity is true

Genetic resistance to pests and diseases can be increased by crossing a crop plant with ancestral varieties

Which of the following energy sources is not derived directly or indirectly from solar energy

Geothermal

The most commonly used measure of the economic growth of a country is which of the following

Gross national product

Economic benefits of building large dams include which of the following? I. Storage of water for agriculture and domestic use II. Controlling floods upstream III. Production of renewable energy

I and III only

Regulations that deal directly with the disposal of hazardous materials in the United States include which of the following? I. RCRA II. Clean Water Act III. Clean Air Act

I only

Characteristics that tend to increase the risk of a species becoming endangered include which of the following? I. Having a very limited distribution II. Being a specialist at the end of a long food chain III. Having a small population size

I, II, and III

Critics of incineration of municipal solid waste suggest that it may not be the best solution for the future, for which of the following reasons?

Incineration contributes to air pollution.

The chart above compares the daily water use per person to the price of water in selected countries. Which of the following conclusions can be correctly drawn using only the data in the chart?

Increased water use is generally correlated with lower water prices.

The factor that likely poses the greatest threat of extinction of species worldwide is

Increasing loss of habitat

Which of the following pairs of indicators best reflects the availability of health care in a country?

Infant mortality rate and life expectancy

The most abundant element in Earth's core

Iron

Which of the following is a true statement about replacement-level fertility?

It is greater in countries with high infant mortality rates than in countries with low infant-mortality rates.

Negative environmental impacts associated with large-scale hydroelectric projects have been demonstrated in which of the following areas

James Bay, Quebec

Implicated in human neurological damage

Lead

Which of the following is a greenhouse gas that is also a by-product of anaerobic respiration?

Methane, CH4

Ammonia is converted to nitrite, then to nitrate

Nitrification

The most abundant element in Earth's atmosphere

Nitrogen

Which of the following is likely to minimize soil erosion?

No-till agriculture

Photosynthesis is the major source of which of the following gases in Earth's atmosphere?

O2

Of the following sources, which supplies the most commercial energy in the world today?

Oil

Which of the following is the best explanation of the fact that agricultural production on floodplains is often relatively high?

On floodplains, soils tend to be nutrient-rich and fertile.

The most abundant element in Earth's crust

Oxygen

Considered harmful in the troposphere but beneficial in the stratosphere

Ozone

Which of the following is an effective alternative to chlorine for disinfecting wastewater in a municipal treatment plant

Ozone

Is the major pollutant that electrostatic precipitators are designed to remove from power-plant smokestack emissions

Particulates

The water-holding capacity of soil is LEAST likely to be affected by the addition of which of the following?

Pesticide

The process in which glucose is synthesized by plants.

Photosynthesis

Even if a country reduces its birth rate and maintains replacement level fertility, its population will still continue to grow for several decades because of

Population momentum

Of the following, which is the best example of reclamation of disturbed lands?

Restoring vegetation to an area that has been mined

Which of the following is the usual cause of cultural eutrophication in surface waters of both developed and developing countries?

Runoff of nitrate compounds into bodies of water

Country with the largest area of boreal forests

Russia

If mean global temperature keeps on increasing as predicted by contemporary scientists, which of the following is most likely?

Specialist species living in fragile ecosystems will risk extinction.

Most often cited as the causative factor for acid deposition

Sulfur dioxide

Information gathered by a scientist about the toxicity of chemical X and chemical Y showed that they had individual safe limits for fish at particular concentrations. But when they were used together at the safe concentrations, there were extensive fish kills. This is an example of

Synergism

Which of the following best exemplifies global collaboration for a sustainable environment

The Clean Air Act of 1972

The increase in the size of Earth's human population in the last century has been dramatic. Which of the following identifies two major contributors to this increase?

The Industrial Revolution and modem medicine

Acid rain is associated with which of the following?

The burning of fossil fuels

Which of the following best describes the significance of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, which was held in 1972 in Stockholm?

The conference provided the first global forum for dialogue on environmental problems.

Which of the following describes a fundamental characteristic of the green revolution in food resources?

The development of new strains of crops with higher yields

Which of the following will occur if the trend of global temperature increase continues?

The troposphere will contain more water vapor.

Which of the following statements is best supported by the data?

There is a positive correlation between breast cancer and dietary fat intake.

Many scientists maintain that a rise in sea level has occurred in the last hundred years as a result of global warming. If this is true, which of the following factors best explains such a rise?

Thermal expansion of the ocean

Why do introduced species often become pests?

They displace native species.

Which of the following best helps to explain why phosphorous is often a limiting factor in many ecosystems

Under many conditions, phosphorous forms stable insoluble compounds

Country with the largest area of temperate deciduous forest

United States of America

Which of the following natural events would be most likely to contribute to the cooling of Earth's atmosphere?

Volcanism

Traveling southward from the Arctic regions of Canada to the tropics of Panama, one passes through several biomes—tundra, coniferous forest, temperate deciduous forest, and tropical rain forest. This pattern of change in vegetation is primarily the result of

an increase in both mean annual temperature and mean annual precipitation

One solution for reducing the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide would be to

decrease the use of fossil fuels

Factors contributing to the rise in world hunger include all of the following EXCEPT

increasing consumption of vegetable protein in place of meat protein

A country with an age distribution like that shown in the figure above, is most likely a country that

is experiencing slow or no population growth

In the United States, most municipal solid waste is disposed of by

landfilling

As urbanization increases and natural soil surfaces are covered, the groundwater supply is reduced due to

loss of recharge area

The major human health problem related to radon accumulation is

lung cancer

The data in the graph can be useful in explaining the greenhouse effect when they are compared with

mean global temperatures

A state highway was constructed over wetlands. The state obtained a permit to fill the existing wetlands in accordance with the provisions of the Clean Water Act of 1972, and agreed to create another wetland. This trade-off approach to addressing an environmental issue is known as

mitigation

The major cause for the decline in the worldwide catch of fish since 1990 is

overfishing

An advantage of recycling aluminum rather than disposing of it in landfills is that aluminum can be

produced from recycled metal using much less energy than is required for its production from bauxite (aluminum ore)

The annual fluctuation in carbon dioxide concentration can best be explained by the

seasonal photosynthetic activity of green plants

The presence of fecal coliform bacteria in a sample of river water suggests which of the following

the pH of the river is very high

The major source of radon in houses in the United States is

the underlying bedrock

Which of the following factors is fundamentally responsible for seasons on Earth

the varying distance of Earth from the Sun

Compared to a coal-fired power plant that produces the same amount of energy, a nuclear power plant generates more

thermal pollution

The polar regions radiate away more heat energy than they receive from the Sun in the course of a year. However, they are prevented from becoming progressively colder each year primarily by the

transport of heat through the atmosphere and oceans

Ozone in the stratosphere is most important to life at Earth's surface because it absorbs

ultraviolet light

Integrated waste management employs all of the following EXCEPT

using disposable diapers instead of cloth diapers