EXAM
Which of the following examples of waste would NOT be considered hazardous?
Carbon
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 it net annual percentage growth rate?
0.4%
Major trends in urban population dynamics
1. proportion of global population living in urban areas is increasing 2. numbers and sizes of urban areas are growing 3. urban growth is much slower in more-developed countries than less-developed 4. poverty is becoming increasingly urbanized, mostly in less-developed countries
If the population of a country grows at a rate of approximately 5% per year, the number of years required for the population to double is closest to:
15 years
Which of the following chemical formulas accurately represents limestone?
CaCO3
You learned about 4 heavy metals that were all non-renewable resources. What else did they have in common?
All are used in electronic technology and mined in same areas of the world
Nitrification
Ammonia is converted to nitrite, then to nitrate
Chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides, such as DDT,
Are noteworthy because of their persistence in the environment
Which method introduces microorganisms to break down hazardous organic compounds?
Biological treatment
When a pesticide was tested, it had no toxicity to mammals. When the pesticide was applied to a farm, the mammals that ate fish in the nearby pond became very sick. Which term below would best explain what happened?
Biomagnification
Which of the following species found at the Frontier Culture museum was not an introduced species?
Black Walnut tree
Elements that cycle in the environment and that also have a gaseous phase at some point in their cycle include which of the following:
Carbon and Nitrogen
Which of the following is true of carbon as it cycles through nature?
Carbon sinks include forest and oceans
Which method would be best suited for neutralizing the acidic components of waste?
Chemical treatment
You are hiking in Mexico and come upon a volcano that has a crater at its summit and many ejected rocks all around the base of volcano. What type of volcano is?
Cinder volcano
Which of the following is the correct order of soil particles in order of increasing size?
Clay-silt-sand
An advantage of using natural gas, rather than oil, as fuel is that natural gas is
Cleaner because it burns more completely
Which of the following would be best definition for Integrated Pest Management?
Combining methods including biological control, chemical pesticides, and different planting methods
Which of the following organizations can designate a wilderness?
Congress
Brownfields encompass which of the following guidelines?
Contain hazardous wastes or potentially hazardous materials
Forces of sustainable growth
Crop improvement (Increased yields, urban gardens, vertical cropping), Improving efficiency (energy star), decrease heating/cooling (windows), and improve water use (reduce waste and low flow toilets/showers/etc.)
The Office of Surface Mining is regulated by which Federal Department?
DOI
Of the following organisms, which occupies the lowest trophic level?
Deer
Which of the following best illustrates the concept of the tragedy of the commons?
Depletion of a community aquifer by regional farmers
When molten rock rushes through a crack and collects in a pocket under the surface, it is called a _______ mountain.
Dome
To prevent desertification and erosion, which of the following irrigation methods would be best?
Drip irrigation
What is the greatest anthropogenic contributor to mercury poisoning in the US?
Electricity production
overgrazing of grasslands can lead to reduced range quality. two of the major effects of overgrazing are
Erosion and desertification
Mutualism
Exemplified by bees consuming nectar and carrying pollen from one flower to another
Commensalism
Exemplified by moss growing on a tree trunk in a forest
Competition
Exemplified by starlings displacing bluebirds from nesting sites
Parasitism
Exemplified by ticks feeding on deer
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
Urban growth problems for environment
Fragmentation, increase pavement, erosion, transportation, heat islands, disposing of waste, carbon sequestration, increase electricity use
Which of the following have been sources of lead in our country?
Gasoline, Paint, and Tailing piles (A,B, and C)
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 (heritage species)
Which of the following can be used to access the biological diversity of an area?
Genetic variation within each species and number of species present
In the geological history of this area, which of the following choices would give the best list of events in order of how they occurred?
Granite and basalt, shallow sea, metamorphism, Pangaea forms, sea floor spreading, anticlines eroding while synclines fill
A scientist measured the circumference of acorns in a population of oak trees and discovers the most common circumference is 2 cm. What would you expect the most common circumference to be after 10 generations of disruptive selection?
Greater than 2 cm and less than 2 cm
Which of the following types of timber harvesting does small patches of clear cutting to represent a natural disturbance?
Group selection
The r in r-selected stands for _______ and the K in k-selected stands _______.
Growth rate and carrying capacity
Advantages of Crop Rotation
Improve soil fertility, decrease erosion, and decrease pest infection
Which method reduces the volume of waste but could release toxic emissions into the atmosphere?
Incineration
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 results in hazardous waste being produced
Rachel Carson's contributions to the environmental movement include which of the following?
Increasing public awareness of the risks of using pesticides
The process in the hydro logic cycle in which water on the ground surface enters the soil
Infiltration
How can karst topography affect pollution of aquifers?
Karst topography increases water pollution by bypassing the natural filtration of soil
Which of the following invasive species decimated the fish populations of the Great Lakes?
Lamprey
Of the following, which is the most serious immediate problem associated with sanitary landfills?
Leachate contamination of groundwater
Which of the following is a biotic factor of the environment?
Leaf growth
The use of which of the following to control agriculture insect pests is most likely to have a negative and persistent impact on an ecosystem?
Lindane, a chlorinated hydrocarbon
____________ growth increases by a change in population over time as it relates to the growth rate and the carrying capacity, whereas ___________ growth increases by a change in population over time with only growth rate and no carrying capacity.
Logistic and exponential
What could be changed in the US to reduce the amount of waste in landfills by the greatest percentage?
Make recycling part of the waste process before the landfill
The burning of rubber can release a poisonous gas that is lethal within seconds. What is the gas?
Mercury and PCB's (A & B)
Which method could use bio-composite materials smaller than a human cell to make our bones and tendons super strong?
Nanotechnology
You find a rock with angular pieces within the matrix, which of the following would be your most likely location?
Near a steep hillside
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
The major cause for the decline in the worldwide catch of fish since 1990 is
Overfishing
There are various stages in the formation of coal as heat and pressure are increased and moisture content is decreased. These stages from least amount of heat and pressure to most, in order, are:
Peat, lignite, bituminous, anthracite
The water-holding capacity of soil is LEAST likely to be affected by the addition of which of the following?
Pesticide
Most volcanism in the world is associated with:
Plate boundaries
The greatest amount of fresh water is found in which of the following?
Polar ice caps and glaciers
All of the following are considered toxic except
Potassium
Geological eras in correct sequence from oldest to youngest
Precambrian---Paleozoic---Mesozoic---Cenozoic
Photosynthesis
Process by which glucose is synthesized
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.
Regulations that deal directly with the disposal of hazardous materials in the US and keeping records of the hazardous material from cradle to grave include which one of the following?
RCRA
Which of the following correctly orders the methods of solid-waste management in terms of energy required from most energy to least energy used?
Recycle, Reuse, Reduce
Fragmenting one large park or preserve into many small parks with human habitation in between them is most likely to lead to which of the following?
Reduction in species diversity
Of the following, which is the best example of reclamation of disturbed lands?
Restoring vegetation to an area that has been mined
You find a rock in Augusta County that does not react to HCl test. It is a rock that was seen at St. Mary's and on the farm on Old Greenville Road. What kind of rock is it?
Sandstone
Which method is used most frequently in the US today?
Sanitary landfill
In a kelp bed ecosystem off the coast of California one species seems to be the most important in maintaining the normal status of the ecosystem. What organism is it and what is the term for this kind of species in an ecosystem?
Sea otter, keystone species
In what type of rock do rock fossils usually form?
Sedimentary
Which of the following types of minerals make up 95% of the Earth's crust?
Silicates
A mining company is interested in using a method of subsurface mining to obtain salt. Which of the following methods would be best?
Solution mining
Of the following countries, which has the largest proven reserves of strategic metals such as manganese, chromium, and platinum?
South Africa
If you wanted to find out if there are any hazardous wastes being stored near your home or business, which law makes this possible?
Superfund Act
If a waste if hazardous, what are your options for disposal?
Surface impoundment
Which of the following describers a fundamental characteristic of the green revolution in food resources?
The application of higher levels of organic fertilizers to increase rice production
Which of the following is most likely to occur in a forested region that has recently been clear-cut?
The concentration of nitrates in streams running through the region will increase
It has been observed that when a pesticide is repeatedly used over a period of several years it gradually loses its effectiveness in killing pest species. What is the best explanation for this?
The genetically resistance members of the pest species survive and reproduce a population that is more resistant to the pesticide.
In a cost-benefit analysis of the risks associated with an environmental hazard involving human health and safety, which of the following concerns is NOT typically taken into account?
The long term value and peace of mind to society resulting from a cleaner, healthier environment
Denitrification
The process by which a soil nutrient is reduced and released to the atmosphere as a gas
Decomposition
The rapid rate of this process in tropical forests by fungi and bacteria results in low nutrient soils
If you are walking in a mountainous area and find a lot of granite, what does that tell you about the area?
The rocks formed intrusively by volcanoes
Which of the following is the force responsible for driving the hydro-logic cycle?
The sun
Why do introduced species often become pests?
They displace native species
Which of the following best explains why the maximum sustainable yield for ocean fisheries has been exceeded?
Too many fish of reproductive age are harvested
The process in the hydro logic cycle in which water vapor is released from leaves into the atmosphere is called
Transpiration
At the overhanging ledge waterfall on our field trip, there was crystalline form of limestone that is also used for tile and forms the top of the falls. It bubbled for a test during the rock lab. What is the name of the rock?
Travertine
Which of the following biomes would have poor nutrients in the soil, very high biodiversity, and lots of saprophytes?
Tropical rain forest
Which of the following is a measure of the amount suspend material in water?
Turbidity
Which of the following metals is considered an energy source?
Uranium
All of the following are components of integrated waste management EXCEPT
Using disposable diapers instead of cloth diapers
First generation pesticides refer to:
Various inorganic chemicals, such as sulfur, cyanide, and arsenic
Which of the following is not an environmental effect caused by mining?
Weathering of surface rocks
The US General Mining Law was enacted in the late 1800's to encourage what?
Western expansion
The population increases when...
birth rates are higher than death rates and immigration
Which of the following would encourage recycling?
decreasing taxes on recycled material
nitrogen fixation
nitrogen gas to ammonia