Chapters 14-16 APES Test Questions 70-121

The graph below represents the dose response curves of insect pests for four different pesticides. A farmer needs to kill more than half of the insect crop pests to ensure a profitable harvest. Based on the graph, what is the minimum concentration of pesticide C that the farmer must use to make a profit?

1,500 g/cm^3

Which of the following describes a component of a modern sanitary landfill?

A bottom liner of plastic or clay to prevent groundwater contamination

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

Which of the following are direct products of the use of hydrocarbon fuels in automobile engines?

CO2, NOx, and VOCs

Which method would be best suited for neutralizing the acidic components of waste? (A) Sanitary landfill (B) Incineration (C) Discharge to sewers, streams, and rivers (D) Chemical treatment (E) Biological treatment

Chemical treatment

Major anthropogenic sources of nitrogen pollution include commercial fertilizers, vehicle exhaust, industrial air pollution, and

Discharge of sewage to surface waters

Which of the following components, which are not shown on the diagram, are part of the tertiary treatment of wastewater?

Disinfectants

Which of the following characteristically produces non-point-source pollution?

Erosion from agricultural land

Based on the diagram, which of the following best describes how a malfunctioning air compressor would affect the process of sewage treatment?

Fewer bacteria would be available to absorb dissolved organics in the tank.

Based on the diagram, which of the following is associated with the primary treatment of sewage?

Grit chamber

Which method reduces the volume of waste but could release toxic emissions into the atmosphere? (A) Sanitary landfill (B) Incineration (C) Discharge to sewers, streams, and rivers (D) Chemical treatment (E) Biological treatment

Incineration

Rachel Carson's contributions to the environmental movement include which of the following?

Increasing public awareness of the risks of using pesticides

Poses a health risk to humans who eat large quantities of marine fish such as swordfish and tuna (A) Radon (B) Mercury (C) Lead (D) Copper (E) Iron

Mercury

Is a flammable gas produced by landfills Carbon dioxide Carbon monoxide Methane Radon Sulfur dioxide

Methane

Which of the following illustrates the reactants needed to form tropospheric ozone?

NO2+VOCs+O2+sunlight

In addition to volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which of the following components must be present in the atmosphere to create photochemical smog?

NOx and UV light

Which of the following is a common component of photochemical smog and is a reddish-brown gas with a pungent odor?

Nitrogen dioxide, NO2

Chemical compound that leads to formation of photochemical smog in the troposphere when it reacts with other compounds in the presence of sunlight

Nitrogen oxides (NOx)

Directions: Each of the questions or incomplete statements below is followed by five suggested answers or completions. Select the one that is best in each case. The following questions refer to the pH scale below. The arrow represents the approximate pH of which of the following?

Normal rainfall

Which of the following is the best example of a point source pollutant?

Oil tanker spill

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

Ozone

Step P. Water is passed through a screen to remove debris. Step Q. Pathogenic organisms are killed by chlorination, UV, or ozone. Step R. Suspended particles clump and settle out. Step S. A floccing agent, such as alum, is added to the water. The processes described above are steps in the purification and treatment of municipal wastewater. The steps are listed in random order. Which of the following lists the steps in the correct sequence?

P → S → R → Q

The graph below represents the dose response curves of insect pests for four different pesticides. Other than potential negative health effects on humans, which of the following is a disadvantage of using chemical pesticides to eliminate crop pests?

Pesticides may harm organisms other than the target crop pests through biomagnification in the food web.

Which of the following environmental problems is most often linked to the combustion of fossil fuels?

Photochemical smog formation in the troposphere

Which of the following practices would best help to protect against inland and coastal flooding in urban areas?

Preserving wetland and coastal mangrove habitats

A leading cause of lung cancer in the United States (A) Radon (B) Mercury (C) Lead (D) Copper (E) Iron

Radon

Which of the following actions would be the most effective in decreasing acid rain and acid deposition problems?

Reducing use of fossil fuels

The graphs below show inputs of several different pollutants into the Chesapeake Bay from four major river systems. Which of the following strategies will best reduce eutrophication in the Chesapeake Bay?

Regulating the use of inorganic fertilizer in the Susquehanna River watershed

Which of the following laws gave the EPA the authority to control hazardous waste from "cradle-to-grave", including the generation, transportation, treatment, storage, and disposal of hazardous waste?

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)

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

Scientists are interested in determining if selenium, from a nearby mine, magnifies in the tissues of fish living in a lake. Which of the following best describes a testable hypothesis for the study?

Selenium will be at a higher concentration in fish tissue than in the tissue of fish prey.

Bats use echolocation to find prey by emitting high-pitched bursts of sound and analyzing the reflection. Scientists studying a population of bats in a forest observed that their population size had declined in the years following the completion of a nearby highway. Based on the information above, which of the following best explains how noise pollution from the highway has affected the size of the bat population?

The highway noise is interfering with bats' echolocation, preventing them from successfully locating and catching prey as they fly.

Which of the following statements best describes the concept of phytoremediation?

The use of plants to absorb and accumulate toxic materials from the soil.

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.

Which of the following is true of sewage treatment plants in the United States?

They are not designed to remove pharmaceutical chemicals from wastewater.

Which of the following contributes to global climate change through the direct release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere?

Transporting products from one continent to another on a cargo ship

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.

Which of the following is used to reduce SO2 emissions from coal-burning power plants?

Wet-scrubber units

Which of the following identifies an unintended result from recycling programs?

When items are placed in recycling that cannot be recycled, the cost of recycling increases

Which of the following is a nonanthropogenic source of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere?

cellular respiration

Ticks are vectors for various diseases. The ticks acquire the disease-causing organisms from

feeding on host animals

Although ozone in the stratosphere has been decreasing in recent years, ozone near Earth's surface is on the increase. The ozone near the surface is undesirable because it

is a strong oxidant and a respiratory irritant

Three common methods employed in the cleanup of oil spills are

large floating booms, skimmer boats, and genetically engineered bacteria

The activity with the health risk most likely to be overestimated by the general public in the United States is

living near a nuclear power plant

Lakes that are characterized by high water clarity and low concentrations of dissolved nutrients are classified as

oligotrophic

In the United States, the largest single component of municipal solid waste is

paper

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 aluminum ore

Of the following strategies to decrease the landfill volume of packaging material from food and other consumer products, the most energy efficient is

promoting the use of reusable containers for consumer goods

Which of the following correctly orders the methods of solid-waste management in terms of energy required?

reduce, reuse, recycle

Information gathered by a scientist abut 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 is a measure of the amount of suspended material in water?

turbidity