AP Environmental Science: Chapter 1-6 – Flashcards

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Which of the following is not a goal of environmental science?
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Learn how to persuade politicians to enact sustainability legislation
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A key component of environmental science is
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Ecology
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Natural capital includes all of the following except
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Solar Energy
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Using normally renewable resources faster than nature can renew them is called
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Degrading natural capital
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Solar energy is known as
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Perpetual resource
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The annual market value of all goods and services produced by all businesses, foreign and domestic, operating within a country is called:
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GDP
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What is the primary difference between renewable resources and nonrenewable resources?
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The length of time it takes for them to be replenished
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The highest rate at which a renewable resource can be used indefinitely without reducing its available supply is called
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Sustainable yield
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Which of the following would not be considered a nonrenewable resource?
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Fresh air
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Which of the following is not a renewable resource?
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Oil
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All non-renewable resources can theoretically be
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Exhausted or depleted
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Which of the following is an example of reuse?
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Using plastic butter tubs to store leftovers
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Use of a natural resource based on sustainable yields applies to
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Renewable Resources
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Which of the following is not a solution suggested by the author to the problem of the degradation of a shared common resource?
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Remove it from use by anyone.
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If everyone on earth consumed at the same current level as the average U.S. citizens, we would need
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Five more earths
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According to the author, three of the following are major cultural changes (revolutions) that have occurred in human history, and one is not. Choose the one that is not.
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Transportation
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Pollution includes
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All of these
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Pollutants can have which of the following unwanted effects?
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All of these
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Which of the following would not be a type of nondegradable pollutant?
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Human sewage
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Nonpoint sources of pollution include all of the following except
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A smokestack from a power plant
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Scientists have identified several problems with relying primarily on pollution cleanup. Which of the following is not one of those problems?
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Elimination of pollution at the time of production is expensive.
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Which of the following is one of the root causes of environmental problems?
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Rapid population growth
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Which of the following is not normally an effect of poverty?
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Heart disease and diabetes from obesity
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The real prices of goods and services do not include
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The environmental costs of resource use
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The set of assumptions and values reflecting how you think the world works and what you think your role in the world should be is called
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Environmental worldview
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The idea that we should be responsible, caring managers of the earth is
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The stewardship worldview
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Which of the following would be representative of an environmental wisdom worldview?
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Learning how life sustains itself and do the same
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An irreversible shift in the behavior of a natural system is called a(n)
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Ecological tipping point
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All of the following statements can be concluded from the law of conservation of matter except
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Eventually we will run out of matter if we keep consuming it.
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Scientists classify energy as either
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Potential or kinetic
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Which of the following does not represent kinetic energy?
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A car at the top of a hill
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Which of the following is an example of low-quality energy?
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Heat in the ocean
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What percentage of the energy used to produce food for living organisms, and to heat the earth, comes from the sun?
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99
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Which of the following statements is false?
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Energy and matter can generally be converted into each other.
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Which of the following statements does not apply to the second law of energy?
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Energy is neither created nor destroyed.
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The matter and energy laws tell us that we can recycle
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Matter but not energy
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The energy "lost" by a system is
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Converted to lower-quality energy
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Which of the following is not a key component of a system?
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All are key components.
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Which of the following is a property of a system?
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Functions in a regular and predictable manner
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A positive feedback loop is illustrated by all of the following except
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A thermostat maintaining a certain temperature in your house
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Which of the following is not an example of an environmental threshold having been crossed?
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Water pollution levels in developed countries have decreased.
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Two or more processes interacting such that the combined effect is greater than the sum of the individual effects is called
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A synergistic interaction
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Which of the following does not represent a synergistic interaction?
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Bartender who doesn't smoke gets lung cancer from secondary smoke.
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Which of the following best illustrates an abiotic component of the environment affecting a biotic component of the environment?
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Low phosphorous content in the soil limits the growth of vegetation.
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The net annual primary productivity of a particular wetland ecosystem is found to be 8,000 kcal/m2 per year. If cellular respiration by the aquatic producers is 12,000 kcal/m2 per year, what is the gross annual primary productivity for this ecosystem in kcal/m2 per year?
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20,000
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Also known as mineralization, this process is carried out by decomposers (bacteria and fungi) to break down organic nitrogen in organic residue (dead plants/animals or wastes) into ammonia (NH3) and ammonium (NH4+).
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Ammonification
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The process that can release nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere.
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Denitrification
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Plants converting inorganic nitrogen compounds into organic compounds, such as amino acids and proteins.
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Assimilation
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Specialized soil bacteria convert ammonia or ammonium ions in the soil into nitrate ions.
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Nitrification
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Lightning breaks up inert atmospheric nitrogen, allowing nitrogen atoms to combine with oxygen to form nitrogen oxide, which then reaches the soil during rain.
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Nitrogen fixation
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The process of the hydrological cycle in which water vapor is released from leaves into the atmosphere is called
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Transpiration
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Losses of usable energy between successive trophic levels in an ecosystem are best accounted for by which of the following?
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The second law of thermodynamics
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Which of the following best describes the first law of thermodynamics?
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In a closed system of constant mass, the energy involved in any physical or chemical change is neither created nor destroyed, but merely changed from one form to another.
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Which of the following is true of carbon as it cycles through nature?
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Carbon sinks include forests and oceans
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Sweating when hot is an example of:
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Negative feedback loop
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The process of introducing energy throughout living systems and the environment starts with:
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Photosynthesis
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Earth is considered a:
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Open system of energy because the ultimate source of energy on Earth is from an external source
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This cycle does not include the atmosphere, and is a slow cycle driven by the slow erosion of rocks; this nutrient is required by organisms to create nucleic acids and energy transfer molecules such as ATP and ADP.
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Phosphorous Cycle
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This cycle occurs more rapidly near the equator due to powerful solar rays striking plants causing transpiration.
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Hydrological Cycle
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This nutrient is often stored underground in rocks, minerals and salts then released during volcanic activity; can also be released during forest fires and seaspray; the nutrient is used as an essential component of many proteins.
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Sulfur Cycle
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This cycle includes exchange of a nutrient through photosynthesis and cellular respiration.
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Carbon Cycle
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Nutrient cycle that relies on soil bacteria to convert an inert atmospheric nutrient into useable forms for producer; this nutrient is a vital component of proteins and nucleic acids.
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Nitrogen Cycle
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A country in stage I (Pre-industrial) of demographic transition would be characterized
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High birth rates and high death rates
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If a population of 100,000 experiences 2,000 births 1,600 deaths, 200 immigrants, and 100 emigrants in the course of one year, what is its net annual percentage growth rate? (HINT: number of births and deaths ARE NOT presented as crude rates. You must use basic math skills to arrive at the answer.)
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0.5% *(Birth + Immigration) - (Death + Emmigration)/population
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If the annual growth rate of the U.S. population is 1.0% and it continues to grow at this rate for one year, approximately how many people would be added?
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3 x 10⁶
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Replacement-level fertility in a developed nation is likely to be nearest
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2.1
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To determine the number of individuals that will be added to a population in a specified time, one would multiply the growth rate as a decimal by
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Original Population Size
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If a country's age structure diagram looks like an inverted pyramid, the population
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Is shrinking
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Which best describes the reason for the very rapid growth of the human population since the industrial revolution?
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Technology has allowed the species to overcome some environmental resistance
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What is the first significant change that occurs in a country undergoing demographic transition?
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Death rates decline as a result of improved food production and medical care
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A country with an age structure diagram that is narrow at the top and middle, and flares out widely toward the bottom will likely experience what in the future?
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Resource depletion and decreased quality of life
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If a population doubles in the course of 30 years, its growth rate would be close to ______%.
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2.3
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The world population growth rate is currently close to ______%
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1.1
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Declining death rate due to increased food production and improved medical care, with birth rates that remain high, is a characteristic of the _______________ stage of demographic transition.
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Transitional
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The exponential rate of growth of the total human population over the past 100 years resulted from
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Sharp drop in death rates
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The concept of an optimal human population level, which allows most people to live in reasonable comfort and freedom without impairing the future sustainability, is called
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Cultural carrying capacity
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The crude birth rate is the number of live births per ____ persons in a given year.
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1,000
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The total fertility rate is
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The average number of children born to women in their reproductive years
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The replacement-level fertility rate is ____ for developed countries and ____ for developing countries.
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2.1; 2.5
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Which of the following is not one of the factors currently affecting birth and fertility rates?
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Number of people 60 or older
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Which of the following is not an economic factor decreasing the likelihood of a couple having a child?
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Religious beliefs
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What would decrease the likelihood of a couple having a child?
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Women have opportunities in education and employment.
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Two indicators measuring standard of living in a country or region are
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Life expectancy and infant mortality rate
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Infant mortality rate refers to the number of children per 1,000 that die
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Before their first birthday
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All of the following reasons help explain why the United States has one of the highest infant mortality rates of developed countries, except
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Women delaying getting pregnant until later in life
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An age structure graph represents the number or percentage of
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Males and females among age groups in a population
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Country's age-structure diagram that shows zero growth
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Has little variation in pre-reproductive and reproductive age groups
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Rapidly growing countries have an age structure diagram that
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Has a broad-based pyramid
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A country with a TFR that falls below 1.5 children per couple for a prolonged period will experience all of the following except
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Increasing number of working taxpayers.
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Problems associated with rapid population decline include all of the following except
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Increased pensions and lowered retirement age
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Which of the following is not an effect of high level of AIDS in a country?
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Increase in life expectancy
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In the demographic transition model, death rates fall while birth rates remain high during
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The transitional stage
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Women tend to have fewer and healthier children for all the following reasons, except
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When they are forced into mother/wife gender roles
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By the year 2050, world population is expected to approach 10 billion. If the current population trends continue which region of the world will most likely experience the majority of growth?
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Africa and Asia
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Which of the following best exemplifies population momentum?
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Continued growth of a population after fertility drops to replacement level
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In a country has a crude birth rate of 24 and a crude death rate of 8 , the annual percent increase of its population is
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1.6%
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Which of the following is most typically associated with the transition from a rural to urbanized society?
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Reduced birth rates
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Although the fertility rate for women in the United States has declined in recent years to a value below replacement level, the United States population is still increasing because of
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Immigration
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The most populous country in the world are China, India, and
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The United States
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Factors that affect the total fertility rate of the human population include which of the following? I. Cultural traditions II. Government policies and economic incentives III. Education level and economic opportunities for females
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I, II, and III
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Five islands, A, B, C, D, and E, differ only in distance from the mainland, area, and species diversity. Which island would be predicted to have the highest species diversity?
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Island: B Distance: 50 Area: 1 x 10⁶
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If grass stores 1,000 energy units received from the sun, and the trophic levels are grass > cow > human, how many units of energy does the human receive of the original 1,000 units?
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10
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Includes vultures and jackals
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Tertiary Consumers
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Carnivores
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Secondary Consumers
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Would have the most number of individuals in an ecosystem
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Producers
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Can occupy the second and third trophic levels at the same time
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Omnivores
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Would have the least number of individuals in an ecosystem
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Tertiary Consumers
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Herbivores
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Primary Consumers
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Groups of different species living together in a particular place with a potential for interacting with one another is called a(n)
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Community
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The energy "lost" between trophic levels is
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Converted to lower-quality heat
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When a population exceeds its carrying capacity, it is called:
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Overshoot
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When a population returns back down to its carrying capacity after exceeding it,it is called:
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Die back
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When a species changes over time in response to changes in another interacting species, it is called:
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Co-evolution
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Organisms that complete the final breakdown and recycling of organic materials from the remains of all organisms are the
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Decomposers
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Each trophic level in a food chain or food web contains a certain amount of organic matter, called
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Biomass
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All of the following statements concerning characteristics of predator-prey relationships are correct except:
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The population of predators most often eliminates the population of prey
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