Ecology Review Ecology Review

PopulationsResources

BiodiversityWaste

PopulationsResources

BiodiversityWaste

1. Exponential Growth

• A. Remains constant• B. Starts out slowly and remains

slow• C. Starts out slowly then becomes

very rapid• D. Starts rapidly and remains rapid

2. Earth’s capital includes all of the following except:

• A. Wildlife• B. Sunlight• C. Water• D. Soil

3. A sustainable society

• A. lives off of income without depleting its earth capital

• B. meets the needs of its people without jeopardizing the needs of future generations

• C. Manages its economy and population size without exceeding the carrying capacity of the environment

• D. all of these answers

4. Most of the environmental problems we

face are

• A. increasing linearly • B. decreasing linearly• C. increasing exponentially• D. decreasing exponentially

5. Approximately how long as the species Homo sapiens lived on Earth?

• A. 4,000 • B. 12,000• C. 60,000• D. 100,000

6. Domestication of wild plants and animals

occurred about ____ years ago.

• A. 5,000• B. 10,000 • C. 15,000• D. 20,000

7. The industrial revolution began about ___ years ago.

• 100• 175• 200• 275

8. Which of the following characterize cultural

revolutions?

• A. Decreased food supplies• B. Increased resource consumption

and pollution• C. Worsening living standards• D. Shorter life spans

9. Which of the following statements about

developing countries is true?

• A. They are highly industrialized. • B. They have high average GNPs per person• C. The US, Canada, Japan and western

European countries are developing countries

• D. They use about twelve percent of the world’s resources

10. About ___% of the world’s human population lives in the developing countries.

• A. 49• B. 59• C. 69• D. 79

11. More than ___% of the projected increase in world population is expected to take place in developing

countries.

• A. 65• B. 75• C. 85• D. 95

12. Since 1960, the gap between rich and poor, as

measured by GNP per capita, has

• A. decreased, then increased since 1980

• B. increased, then substantially decreased since 1980

• C. increased, then substantially increased since 1980

• D. decreased, then substantially decreased since 1980

13.For something to be classified as a resource, it

must

• A. satisfy a human need• B. Be steadily renewed or

replenished• C. be a form of matter• D. exist in abundance

14. All of the following are potentially renewable

resources except

• A. groundwater• B. trees in a rainforest• C. fertile soil• D. oil

15. Use of a natural resource based on a sustainable yield

applies to

• A. renewable resources • B. nonrenewable resources• C. perpetual resources• D. amenity resources

16. Which of the following best describes the concept

of environmental degradation?

• A. using solar power at a rapid rate• B. using oil• C. cutting trees for wood products• D. letting agricultural runoff cause

oxygen depletion and fish kills downstream

17. Resources that are called nonrenewable

• A. are also called perpetual resources

• B. are only resources that are alive• C. are capable of economic

depletion• D. are derived from solar capital

18. All nonrenewable resources can be

• A. converted to nonmetallic minerals

• B. converted to renewable ones• C. exhausted or depleted• D. recycled or reused

19. Which of the following statements best illustrates

the tragedy of the commons?

• A. A factory pollutes a river as much as the law allows.

• B. Some levels of pollution are life threatening.

• C. Some activities harm the environment, but others do not

• D. Irrigated cropland can be ruined by salinization

20. On the outskirts of a municipality lies a forest on public property. A person

applying the precautionary approach

• A. Clear-cutting the forest to provide taxes for the town

• B. Converting the natural woods to tree farms• C. harvesting trees at their estimated

sustainable yield• D. Harvesting trees below their estimated

sustainable yield

21. New efforts to prevent the tragedy of the commons

include

• A. using common-property resources at or above their sustainable yields

• B. converting land from private to more public ownership

• C. moving from a taxpayers pay approach to a users pay approach

• D. deregulation of industries that use common-property resources

22. Which of the following is an example of recycling?

• A. Collecting and remelting beer cans

• B. cleaning and refilling soft drink bottles

• C. selling used clothing at a garage sale

• D. saving leftovers in a peanut butter jar

23. We can extend use of nonrenewable resources by

• A. reducing direct consumption of the resource

• B. reusing the same form of a particular resource many times

• C. recycling a resource into new products

• D. all of these answers

24. When a resource is economically depleted, we

can

• A. Recycle or reuse existing supplies

• B. waste less• C. develop substitutes• D. all of these answers

25. Pollution includes

• A. dumping detergents into streams, causing fish kills

• B. Spraying with DDT, lowering the eagle population

• C. releasing gases from coal combustion, causing acid rain

• D. all of these answers

26. Effects of pollution might include

• A. being unable to see the top of skyscrapers because of smog

• B. acid rain-induced destruction of a statue in your city park

• C. spread of disease from an open dump

• D. all of these answers

27. Point sources of pollution include all of the following

except

• A. an automobile tailpipe• B. a factory smokestack• C. a drainpipe from a power plant• D. runoff from cropland

28. Nonpoint sources of pollution include all of the

following except

• A. pesticides dispersed by airplane and wind onto a crop

• B. runoff from a stockyard• C. a smokestack from a power

plant• D. Fertilizer runoff from lawns.

29. Which of the following is not important in determining

the damage caused by a pollutant?

• A. concentration• B. persistence• C. origin• D. chemical nature

30. Persistent pollutants include

• A. grass clippings• B. most plastics• C. paper cups• D. food waste

31. Nondegradable pollutants include

• A. tin cans• B. human sewage• C. lead• D. detergent

33. You generally buy and eat microwave dinners. After dinner, cardboard tops and plastic trays remain. The

least effective way to deal with this solid waste is to

• A. store leftovers in the plastic trays• B. put all of the solid waste in household

trash to be taken to the landfill• C. donate the plastic trays to the local

nursery schools to use with preschoolers• D. recycle the components

34. Pollution cleanup approaches

• A. may be overwhelmed by continuing population growth

• B. often transfer pollutants between different parts of the ecosystem

• C. May be very costly once pollutants are dispersed in the environment

• D. all of these answers

35. Pollution prevention receives about ____% of the US environmental pollution

budget

• A. 1• B. 10• C. 20• D. 30

36. Of the following major environmental problems, the one with the least effect on

food supply is

• A. groundwater depletion• B. overgrazing• C. outdoor air pollutants• D. soil erosion

37. Underlying root causes of unsustainable resource use include all of the following

except

• A. poverty• B. overpopulation• C. overreliance on renewable energy

resources• D. prices that do not include

environmental and social costs of products

39. Exponentially growing depletion and degradation of

earth capital cause

• A. soil erosion• B. loss of biodiversity• C. deforestation• D. all of these answers

39. A very simple model of environmental degradation and pollution would include all of the following except

• A. number of people• B. the climate in which the people live• C. average number of units of

resources each person uses• D. amount of environmental

degradation and pollution generated when each unit of resource is produced

40. Of the following behaviors, the one that runs counter to the way the Earth

works is

• A. Recycling of materials• B. Controlling population growth• C. producing and consuming

anything people are willing to buy• D. making sacrifices now for future

generations

41. Of the following actions, the only one that does the

least to sustain the Earth is

• A. protecting Earth’s biodiversity• B. controlling human population

growth• C. utilizing renewable resources

whenever possible• D. increasing our dependence on

nonrenewable resources