Environmental Science Quiz
Questions: 16 · 10 minutes
1. A newly introduced invasive plant is confirmed in one small, localized area. Which response offers the best chance of preventing widespread establishment?
Verify its extent and rapidly remove or contain it while the population is small
Monitor it until clear harm to native species has already occurred
Import one of its predators from its native range without further assessment
Apply broad treatment across the entire region before mapping the population
2. A city wants to reduce the urban heat-island effect during summer. Which plan would most directly help?
Use more dark roofing while making buildings more compact
Expand tree cover and install lighter, more reflective roofs
Replace parks with parking structures that provide indoor shade
Increase air-conditioner use without changing outdoor surfaces
3. A highway divides one continuous forest into two isolated patches. How could a well-designed wildlife corridor most directly help affected populations?
By removing the need for organisms to find food or shelter
By supporting movement and gene flow between the forest patches
By preventing all human activity throughout the larger region
By ensuring that every species reaches the same population size
4. In population ecology, what is carrying capacity?
The smallest population needed to eliminate competition for resources
The number of offspring every individual can produce in one season
The largest population an environment can sustain over time under given conditions
The total number of species that have ever occupied an ecosystem
5. A town preserves a wetland upstream rather than building on it. Which ecosystem service can most directly reduce downstream flood damage?
Generating oxygen that prevents storms from forming
Increasing the speed at which runoff enters the river
Preventing all evaporation from the watershed
Temporarily storing and slowing stormwater
6. Which set represents the three commonly recognized levels of biodiversity?
Individual, population, and community diversity
Genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity
Habitat, climate, and nutrient diversity
Producer, consumer, and decomposer diversity
7. One unusually cold day occurs during a 30-year period in which a region's average temperature rises. Which interpretation is most accurate?
The cold day proves that the long-term temperature record is incorrect
Weather and climate are identical, so only that day should be considered
The regional trend must be caused entirely by changes in the day's wind direction
A cold weather event can occur within a long-term warming climate trend
8. Which pair of air pollutants contributes most directly to acid deposition?
Ground-level ozone and chlorofluorocarbons
Carbon dioxide and methane
Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides
Nitrogen gas and oxygen gas
9. Which energy source is generally considered renewable on a human timescale?
Uranium fuel
Geothermal energy
Natural gas
Peat burned as fuel
10. What term describes the increase in a persistent pollutant's concentration at successively higher trophic levels of a food chain?
Biomagnification
Ecological succession
Bioaccumulation
Nitrogen fixation
11. Which human activity is the largest driver of the long-term rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide associated with recent climate change?
Releasing methane from livestock digestion
Using nitrogen fertilizer on farmland
Burning fossil fuels for energy and transportation
Producing ozone in polluted cities
12. Plants in a grassland store 10,000 kilojoules of energy. If about 10% transfers to the herbivores that eat them, approximately how much becomes available at that next trophic level?
1,000 kilojoules
100 kilojoules
9,000 kilojoules
10,000 kilojoules
13. Two streams are similar except that Stream A has a much higher biochemical oxygen demand than Stream B. What does this suggest about Stream A?
It contains fewer microorganisms capable of decomposition
It receives less organic matter that microbes can break down
Its water must contain a higher concentration of dissolved oxygen
Microbial decomposition is likely consuming more dissolved oxygen
14. After heavy rain washes phosphorus-rich fertilizer into a warm lake, which early response is most likely?
The water becomes more acidic because phosphorus forms acid rain
Fish populations immediately increase because more nutrients are always beneficial
The lake becomes clearer as aquatic plants absorb every added nutrient
Algae or cyanobacteria grow rapidly because nutrient availability has increased
15. A shopper is comparing a reusable bag with single-use bags. Which information is most important for a meaningful life-cycle comparison?
Only the weight of each bag at the store
Whether the reusable bag has an environmental slogan
Materials, production, transport, number of uses, and end-of-life handling
Only whether either type can technically be recycled
16. Predators disappear from an island, allowing a deer population to grow beyond the island's carrying capacity. What outcome is most likely if conditions do not change?
Food scarcity increases, followed by poorer survival and a population decline
Each deer receives more food because competition has been removed
The population remains permanently high because there are no predators
The carrying capacity automatically rises to match the deer population