AP Environmental Midterm Review Guide
These are the main ideas of the chapters we have discussed. Study these ideas along with the vocabulary.
About 50% of your test will be over chapters 3, 4 and 17. Both Multiple choice and essay will be on the test.
Best of Luck!
Chapter 1: Introducing Environmental Science and Sustainability
I. Human Impacts on the Environment
A. Increasing human numbers
i. Human activities, such as overpopulation, deforestation, pollution and species eradication are
disrupting global systems
B. The gap between rich and poor countries
i. highly developed countries and Less developed countries.
II. Population, Resources, and the Environment
A. Types of resources
i. Nonrenewable resources and Renewable resources
B. Resource consumption
C. People overpopulation and consumption overpopulation
D. The IPAT model Environmental Sustainability
D. Sustainability and the Tragedy of the Commons
III. Environmental Science
A. Environmental science encompasses the many interconnected issues involving human population,
Earth’s natural resources, and environmental pollution
B. Earth systems and environmental science
1. dynamic equilibrium: negative feedback mechanism and positive feedback mechanism
C. Science as a process
IV. Addressing Environmental Problems
A. scientific assessment, risk analysis, public education and involvement, political action, evaluation
Chapter 2: Environmental Laws, Economics, and Ethics
I. A Brief Environmental History of the United States
A. frontier attitude
B. Protecting forests
i. Influential people: John James Audubon, Henry David Thoreau, George Perkins Marsh,
Theodore Roosevelt
ii. Utilitarian conservationists
C. Establishing and protecting national parks and monuments
D. Conservation in the mid-20th century
i. Rachel Carson
E. The environmental movement of the late 20th century
II. U.S. Environmental Legislation
A. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was formed in 1970
B. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was also signed into law in 1970
i. NEPA requires the federal government to consider the environmental impact of any proposed
federal action
1. NEPA provides the basis for developing detailed environmental impact statements
(EIS’s)
2. NEPA established the Council on Environmental Quality to monitor the required
EISs and report directly to the president
ii. NEPA revolutionized environmental protection in the United States
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C. Environmental policy since 1970
III. Economics and the Environment
A. Economics is the study of how people use their limited resources to try and satisfy unlimited wants
B. Strategies for pollution control
i. Historically, many environmental regulations have been command and control solutions
ii. Preference among economists is for incentive-based or cost-benefit-based regulation such as
environmental taxes, tradable permits, and emission charges
C. Critiques of environmental economics
D. Natural resources, the environment, and the national income accounts
i. National income accounts represent the total income of a nation for a given year
1. Gross domestic product (GDP) and net domestic product (NDP) provide estimates of
national economic performance used to make important policy decisions
IV. Environmental Ethics, Values, and Worldviews
A. Ethics is the branch of philosophy that is derived through the logical application of human values
i. Values and Environmental ethics
B. Human-centered and life-centered worldviews
i. Environmental worldviews
Chapter 3: Ecosystems and Energy
I. What is Ecology?
A. Ernst Haeckel developed the concept of ecology in the 19th century; “the study of one’s house”;
B. Ecologists are most interested in the levels of biological organization that include or are above the
level of the individual organism
i. Species, population, community, ecosystem, landscape, bioshpere
C. Ecologists who study the biosphere examine global interrelationships among Earth’s atmosphere,
land, water, and organisms
i. Biosphere: Atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere
II. The Energy of Life
A. Energy is the capacity or ability to do work
i. Open and Closed system
ii. The first law of thermodynamics and second law of thermodynamics
C. Photosynthesis and cellular respiration
D. Chemosynthesis is the process by which energy produced from inorganic raw materials such as
enzymes, hydrogen sulfide and oxygen; water and sulfur/sulfate are additional byproducts
III. The Flow of Energy Through Ecosystems
A. Energy flow is the passage of energy in a one-way direction through an ecosystem
B. Producers, consumers, and decomposers
C. The path of energy flow: who eats whom in ecosystems
D. Ecological pyramids: Biomass, Numbers, Energy
E. Ecosystem productivity: gross primary productivity and Net primary productivity
Chapter 4: Ecosystems and Living Organisms
I. Evolution: How Populations Change Over Time
A. Natural selection
i. Darwin proposed the theory of evolution by natural selection in 1859
ii. Natural selection
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iii. Evolution
B. Evolution of biological diversity: the domains and kingdoms of life
i. Biologists use a three domain/six kingdom system of classification to arrange living
organisms
ii. Prokaryotic organisms fall into two domains/kingdoms
1. Domain Archaea: Kingdom Archaea - frequently live in oxygen-deficient
environments; often adapted to harsh conditions (hot springs, salt ponds,
hydrothermal vents in ocean floor)
2. Domain Bacteria: Kingdom Bacteria – all other prokaryotes – thousands of species;
most are decomposers, some are parasites; some cause disease; some are
photosynthetic; important in biogeochemical cycles
iii. Eukaryotic organisms fall into one domain/four kingdoms
II. Biological Communities
A. A biological community and its abiotc environment comprise an ecosystem
B. Succession: how communities change over time
i. Primary Succession and secondary succession
A. Symbiosis : Mutualism, commensalism, parasitism
B. Predation
C. Competition: Intraspecific competition and Interspecific competition
III. The Ecological Niche
A. Limiting resources
B. Competitive exclusion and resource partitioning
IV. Keystone Species
V. Species Richness
Chapter 5: Ecosystems and the Physical Environment
I. Biogeochemical cycles
A. The carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, hydrologic Cycle
II. Solar Radiation
III. The Atmosphere
A. Differences in temperature caused by variations in the amount of solar energy reaching different
locations on Earth drive the circulation of the atmosphere
B. Surface winds
IV. The Global Ocean
V. Weather and Climate: Precipitation, rain shadows, tornadoes, cyclones
VI. Internal Planetary Processes
A. Plate tectonics , earthquakes, volcanoes
Chapter 6: Major Ecosystems of the World
I. Earth’s Major Biomes
A. A biome is a large, relatively distinct terrestrial region with a similar climate, soil, plants, and
animals
i. It encompasses many interacting ecosystems
ii. It is considered the next level of ecological organization above those of community,
ecosystem, and landscape
B. Tundra, Coniferous Forest, Rain forest, Deciduous forest, Chaparral, Deserts, Savanna
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II. Aquatic Ecosystems
A. Determinants of species composition in aquatic ecosystems include salinity, dissolved oxygen, light,
temperature, pH, and presences or absence of waves and currents
B. Freshwater ecosystems (occupy only about 2% of Earth’s surface)
i. Rivers and streams, Lakes and ponds, Marshes and swamps, Estuaries
ii. Thermal stratification and turnover in temperate lakes
C. Marine ecosystems
i. The intertidal zone is the area of shore line between low and high tides
ii. The benthic environment: seagrass beds, kelp forests, and coral reefs
1. Deeper parts of the benthic environment are divided into three zones
a. Bathyal benthic, Abyssal benthic, Hadal benthic zone
iii. The pelagic environment: the vast marine system
Chapter 7: Human Health and Environmental Toxicology
I. Human Health
A. Two indicators of human health in a given country are life expectancy (how long people are expected
to live) and infant mortality (how many infants die before the age of one)
B. Health issues in highly developed countries
C. Health issues in developing nations
D. Emerging and reemerging diseases
II. Environmental Pollution and Disease
A. Persistence, bioaccumulation, and biological magnification of environmental contaminants
B. Endocrine disrupters
III. Determining Health Effects of Environmental Pollution
i.
Toxicology and epidemiology are the two most common methods for determining whether a
chemical causes cancer
ii. Chemical mixtures : Additivity, synergistic, antagonistic
IV. Ecotoxicology: Toxicant Effects on Communities and Ecosystems
A. Risk management
Chapter 14: Water: A Limited Resource
I. The Importance of Water
A. Water helps shape the continents, it moderates the climate, and allows organisms to survive
B. Properties of Water
C. The hydrologic cycle and our supply of fresh water
II. Water Use and Resource Problems
III. Water Problems in the United States and Canada: surface water and ground water
IV. Global Water Problems
A. Variation in annual water supply
B. Water and climate change
C. Population growth and water problems
D. Sharing water resources among countries
V. Water Management
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A. Because rivers usually flow through more than one governmental jurisdiction, all affected parties
must develop agreements about the management of a river or other shared water resource
(transboundary cooperation)
B. Groundwater management is more complicated because the extent of local groundwater supplies is
not known
C. Providing a sustainable water supply
VI. Water Conservation
A. Reducing agricultural water waste
B. Reducing water waste in industry
C. Reducing municipal water waste
Chapter 17: Preserving Earth’s Biological Diversity
I. Biological Diversity
A. Biodiversity takes into account genetic diversity and ecosystem diversity; it is much more than
species richness
B. Why we need organisms
i. Ecosystem services and species richness, Genetic reserves
ii. Scientific importance of genetic diversity
iii. Medicinal, agricultural, and industrial importance of organisms
iv. Aesthetic, ethical, and spiritual value of organisms
II. Endangered and Extinct Species
A. Extinction : Background and Mass
B. Endangered and threatened species
C. Human causes of species endangerment
i. In 2001, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment gathered scientific information about
ecosystem changes and the effects these changes have on human well-being; it found that
biological diversity is declining due to several direct and indirect factors
ii. Land use change - most species facing extinction today are endangered because of the
destruction, fragmentation, or degradation of habitats by human activities
iii. Invasive species
III. Conservation Biology
A. Conservation biology
B. Protecting habitats
C. Restoring damaged or destroyed habitats
D. Zoos, aquaria, botanical gardens, and seed banks
E. Conservation organizations
IV. Conservation Policies and Laws
A. The Endangered Species Act (1973) protects endangered and threatened species in the U.S. and
abroad
B. Habitat conservation plans (HCPs)
C. International conservation policies and laws
i. The World Conservation Strategy (1980)
ii. The Convention on Biological Diversity (1992)
iii. CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna)
V. Wildlife Management
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Chapter 22: Water Pollution
I. Types of Water Pollution
A. Sewage
B. Disease-causing agents
C. Sediment pollution
D. Inorganic plant and algal nutrients
E. Organic compounds
F. Inorganic chemicals
G. Radioactive substances
H. Thermal pollution
II. Water Quality Today
A. Water Point source pollution and Nonpoint source pollution
B. Water pollution from agriculture
C. Municipal water pollution
D. Industrial wastes in water
E. Groundwater pollution
F. Water pollution in other countries
III. Improving Water Quality
A. Water quality is improved by removing contaminants from the water supply before and after it is
used
B. Purification of drinking water
C. Municipal sewage treatment: Primary treatment, Secondary treatment, Tertiary treatments
IV. Laws Controlling Water Pollution
A. Safe Drinking Water Act (1974)
B. Clean Water Act (1977)
Chapter 24: Solid and Hazardous Wastes
I. Solid Waste
a. Municipal solid waste and Nonmunicipal solid waste
b. Disposal of solid waste: Dump it, Bury it, Compost it
II. Waste Prevention
a. source reduction
i. The Pollution Prevention Act (1990)
b. Reusing products
c. Recycling materials: aluminum, plastic, glass, tires
d. Integrated waste management uses a combination of the best waste management techniques to deal
effectively with solid waste
III. Hazardous Waste
a. Management of hazardous waste
i. Bioremediation and Phytoremediation
IV. Environmental Justice
a. Environmental justice and ethical issues
V. Meeting the Challenge: Municipal Solid Waste Composting
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