APES STUDY GUIDE EXAM QUESTIONS
AND ANSWERS
Ecological Footprint - Answer-Amount of biologically productive land and water needed
to supply a population with the renewable resources it uses and to absorb or dispose of
the wastes from such resource use. It is a measure of the average environmental
impact of populations in different countries and areas
Ecological Tipping Point - Answer-Threshold level at which an environmental problem
causes a fundamental and irreversible shift in the behavior of a system.
Ecology - Answer-Biological science that studies the relationships between living
organisms and their environment; study of the structure and functions of nature.
Natural Capital - Answer-Natural resources and natural services that keep us and other
species alive and support our economies.
Per Capita - Answer-Annual gross domestic product (GDP) of a country divided by its
total population at midyear. It gives the average slice of the economic (or
environmental) pie per person.
Ecosystem Services - Answer-Natural services or natural capital that support life on the
earth and are essential to the quality of human life and the functioning of the world's
economies.
Perpetual Resource - Answer-has a never-ending supply. Some examples of perpetual
resources include solar energy, tidal energy, and wind energy
Environmental Wisdom Worldview - Answer-Set of assumptions and beliefs about how
people think the world works, what they think their role in the world should be, and what
they believe is right and wrong environmental behavior (environmental ethics).
Planetary Management Worldview - Answer-Worldview holding that humans are
separate from nature, that nature exists mainly to meet our needs and increasing wants,
and that we can use our ingenuity and technology to manage the earth's life-support
systems, mostly for our benefit. It assumes that economic growth is unlimited.
Stewardship Worldview - Answer-Worldview holding that we can manage the earth for
our benefit but that we have an ethical responsibility to be caring and responsible
managers, or stewards, of the earth. It calls for encouraging environmentally beneficial
forms of economic growth and discouraging environmentally harmful forms.
,Sustainability - Answer-Ability of earth's various systems, including human cultural
systems and economies, to survive and adapt to changing environmental conditions
indefinitely.
scientific principles of sustainability - Answer-To live more sustainably we need to rely
on solar energy, preserve biodiversity, and recycle the chemicals that we use. These
three principles of sustainability are scientific lessons from nature based on observing
how life on the earth has survived and thrived for 3.5 billion years
First Law of Thermodynamics - Answer-Whenever energy is converted from one form to
another in a physical or chemical change, no energy is created or destroyed, but energy
can be changed from one form to another; you cannot get more energy out of
something than you put in; in terms of energy quantity, you cannot get something for
nothing. This law does not apply to nuclear changes, in which large amounts of energy
can be produced from small amounts of matter.
Second Law of Thermodynamics - Answer-Whenever energy is converted from one
form to another in a physical or chemical change, no energy is created or destroyed, but
energy can be changed from one form to another; you cannot get more energy out of
something than you put in; in terms of energy quantity, you cannot get something for
nothing. This law does not apply to nuclear changes, in which large amounts of energy
can be produced from small amounts of matter. It asserts that a natural process runs
only in one sense, and is not reversible.
Negative Feedback Loop - Answer-Feedback loop that causes a system to change in
the opposite direction from which is it moving.
Positive Feedback Loop - Answer-Feedback loop that causes a system to change
further in the same direction
Law of Conservation of Matter - Answer-In any physical or chemical change, matter is
neither created nor destroyed but merely changed from one form to another; in physical
and chemical changes, existing atoms are rearranged into different spatial patterns
(physical changes) or different combinations (chemical changes).
Electromagnetic Radiation - Answer-Forms of kinetic energy traveling as
electromagnetic waves. Examples include radio waves, TV waves, microwaves, infrared
radiation, visible light, ultraviolet radiation, X-rays, and gamma rays.
Ph - Answer-Numeric value that indicates the relative acidity or alkalinity of a substance
on a scale of 0 to 14, with the neutral point at 7. Acid solutions have pH values lower
than 7; basic or alkaline solutions have pH values greater than 7.
High-Quality energy - Answer-energy that is concentrated and has great ability to
perform useful work; e.g. heat and energy in electricity, coal, oil, gasoline, sunlight,
nuclei of uranium-235
, low quality energy - Answer-energy that is dispersed and has little ability to do useful
work; e.g. low-temperature heat
Ions - Answer-Atom or group of atoms with one or more positive (+) or negative (−)
electrical charges. Examples are Na+ and Cl-.
Isotopes - Answer-Two or more forms of a chemical element that have the same
number of protons but different mass numbers because they have different numbers of
neutrons in their nuclei.
Species - Answer-Group of similar organisms, and for sexually reproducing organisms,
they are a set of individuals that can mate and produce fertile offspring. Every organism
is a member of a certain species.
Population - Answer-Group of individual organisms of the same species living in a
particular area.
Community - Answer-Populations of all species living and interacting in an area at a
particular time.
Ecosystems - Answer-One or more communities of different species interacting with
one another and with the chemical and physical factors making up their nonliving
environment.
Biosphere - Answer-Zone of the earth where life is found. It consists of parts of the
atmosphere (the troposphere), hydrosphere (mostly surface water and groundwater),
and lithosphere (mostly soil and surface rocks and sediments on the bottoms of oceans
and other bodies of water) where life is found.
Atmosphere - Answer-Whole mass of air surrounding the earth.
Troposphere - Answer-Innermost layer of the atmosphere. It contains about 75% of the
mass of earth's air and extends about 17 kilometers (11 miles) above sea level.
Stratosphere - Answer-Second layer of the atmosphere, extending about 17-48
kilometers (11-30 miles) above the earth's surface. It contains small amounts of
gaseous ozone , which filters out about 95% of the incoming harmful ultraviolet radiation
emitted by the sun.
Hydrosphere - Answer-Earth's liquid water (oceans, lakes, other bodies of surface
water, and underground water), frozen water (polar ice caps, floating ice caps, and ice
in soil, known as permafrost), and water vapor in the atmosphere. See also hydrologic
cycle.
Abiotic - Answer-Nonliving
AND ANSWERS
Ecological Footprint - Answer-Amount of biologically productive land and water needed
to supply a population with the renewable resources it uses and to absorb or dispose of
the wastes from such resource use. It is a measure of the average environmental
impact of populations in different countries and areas
Ecological Tipping Point - Answer-Threshold level at which an environmental problem
causes a fundamental and irreversible shift in the behavior of a system.
Ecology - Answer-Biological science that studies the relationships between living
organisms and their environment; study of the structure and functions of nature.
Natural Capital - Answer-Natural resources and natural services that keep us and other
species alive and support our economies.
Per Capita - Answer-Annual gross domestic product (GDP) of a country divided by its
total population at midyear. It gives the average slice of the economic (or
environmental) pie per person.
Ecosystem Services - Answer-Natural services or natural capital that support life on the
earth and are essential to the quality of human life and the functioning of the world's
economies.
Perpetual Resource - Answer-has a never-ending supply. Some examples of perpetual
resources include solar energy, tidal energy, and wind energy
Environmental Wisdom Worldview - Answer-Set of assumptions and beliefs about how
people think the world works, what they think their role in the world should be, and what
they believe is right and wrong environmental behavior (environmental ethics).
Planetary Management Worldview - Answer-Worldview holding that humans are
separate from nature, that nature exists mainly to meet our needs and increasing wants,
and that we can use our ingenuity and technology to manage the earth's life-support
systems, mostly for our benefit. It assumes that economic growth is unlimited.
Stewardship Worldview - Answer-Worldview holding that we can manage the earth for
our benefit but that we have an ethical responsibility to be caring and responsible
managers, or stewards, of the earth. It calls for encouraging environmentally beneficial
forms of economic growth and discouraging environmentally harmful forms.
,Sustainability - Answer-Ability of earth's various systems, including human cultural
systems and economies, to survive and adapt to changing environmental conditions
indefinitely.
scientific principles of sustainability - Answer-To live more sustainably we need to rely
on solar energy, preserve biodiversity, and recycle the chemicals that we use. These
three principles of sustainability are scientific lessons from nature based on observing
how life on the earth has survived and thrived for 3.5 billion years
First Law of Thermodynamics - Answer-Whenever energy is converted from one form to
another in a physical or chemical change, no energy is created or destroyed, but energy
can be changed from one form to another; you cannot get more energy out of
something than you put in; in terms of energy quantity, you cannot get something for
nothing. This law does not apply to nuclear changes, in which large amounts of energy
can be produced from small amounts of matter.
Second Law of Thermodynamics - Answer-Whenever energy is converted from one
form to another in a physical or chemical change, no energy is created or destroyed, but
energy can be changed from one form to another; you cannot get more energy out of
something than you put in; in terms of energy quantity, you cannot get something for
nothing. This law does not apply to nuclear changes, in which large amounts of energy
can be produced from small amounts of matter. It asserts that a natural process runs
only in one sense, and is not reversible.
Negative Feedback Loop - Answer-Feedback loop that causes a system to change in
the opposite direction from which is it moving.
Positive Feedback Loop - Answer-Feedback loop that causes a system to change
further in the same direction
Law of Conservation of Matter - Answer-In any physical or chemical change, matter is
neither created nor destroyed but merely changed from one form to another; in physical
and chemical changes, existing atoms are rearranged into different spatial patterns
(physical changes) or different combinations (chemical changes).
Electromagnetic Radiation - Answer-Forms of kinetic energy traveling as
electromagnetic waves. Examples include radio waves, TV waves, microwaves, infrared
radiation, visible light, ultraviolet radiation, X-rays, and gamma rays.
Ph - Answer-Numeric value that indicates the relative acidity or alkalinity of a substance
on a scale of 0 to 14, with the neutral point at 7. Acid solutions have pH values lower
than 7; basic or alkaline solutions have pH values greater than 7.
High-Quality energy - Answer-energy that is concentrated and has great ability to
perform useful work; e.g. heat and energy in electricity, coal, oil, gasoline, sunlight,
nuclei of uranium-235
, low quality energy - Answer-energy that is dispersed and has little ability to do useful
work; e.g. low-temperature heat
Ions - Answer-Atom or group of atoms with one or more positive (+) or negative (−)
electrical charges. Examples are Na+ and Cl-.
Isotopes - Answer-Two or more forms of a chemical element that have the same
number of protons but different mass numbers because they have different numbers of
neutrons in their nuclei.
Species - Answer-Group of similar organisms, and for sexually reproducing organisms,
they are a set of individuals that can mate and produce fertile offspring. Every organism
is a member of a certain species.
Population - Answer-Group of individual organisms of the same species living in a
particular area.
Community - Answer-Populations of all species living and interacting in an area at a
particular time.
Ecosystems - Answer-One or more communities of different species interacting with
one another and with the chemical and physical factors making up their nonliving
environment.
Biosphere - Answer-Zone of the earth where life is found. It consists of parts of the
atmosphere (the troposphere), hydrosphere (mostly surface water and groundwater),
and lithosphere (mostly soil and surface rocks and sediments on the bottoms of oceans
and other bodies of water) where life is found.
Atmosphere - Answer-Whole mass of air surrounding the earth.
Troposphere - Answer-Innermost layer of the atmosphere. It contains about 75% of the
mass of earth's air and extends about 17 kilometers (11 miles) above sea level.
Stratosphere - Answer-Second layer of the atmosphere, extending about 17-48
kilometers (11-30 miles) above the earth's surface. It contains small amounts of
gaseous ozone , which filters out about 95% of the incoming harmful ultraviolet radiation
emitted by the sun.
Hydrosphere - Answer-Earth's liquid water (oceans, lakes, other bodies of surface
water, and underground water), frozen water (polar ice caps, floating ice caps, and ice
in soil, known as permafrost), and water vapor in the atmosphere. See also hydrologic
cycle.
Abiotic - Answer-Nonliving
