All AP Environmental Science Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #11 : Food Webs And Pyramids
You receive a summer internship to study a rare organism of which is little is known. Through visual observation, you note that the organism is an herbivore because it only eats autotrophs. What type of consumer is this organism?
The organism is not a consumer
Secondary consumer
Primary consumer
Tertiary consumer
Quanternary consumer
Primary consumer
The correct response is primary consumer. The primary consumer is any organism that eats autotrophs (photosynthetic organisms). A secondary consumer feeds on the primary consumer, and so on and so forth.
Example Question #12 : Food Webs And Pyramids
Ecosystem ecologists do research to understand energy flows within ecosystems. They create food webs for interactions between producers and consumers. If an ecologist visually observes an organism that eats dead animals or fallen leaves, which type of organism are they observing?
Secondary consumer
Tertiary consumer
Carnivore
Detritivore
Primary consumer
Detritivore
The correct response is detritivore. Organisms classified as detritivores break down organic matter from dead animals and leaves. Primary consumers feed on autotrophs, and secondary consumers feed on primary consumers. Carnivores primarily eat meat. While detritus does contain animal matter, it also contains plant and microbial matter that carnivores tend not to eat.
Example Question #13 : Food Webs And Pyramids
Between each trophic level of a food web (for example, from producer to primary consumer), what percentage of energy is lost?
50%
10%
33%
25%
90%
90%
From one trophic level to the next, only 10% of energy is transferred. The other 90% is lost through metabolic processes, like heat. This means that for every 10,000 kcal produced by producers, a tertiary consumer (three trophic levels above) will only receive 10 kcal.
Example Question #1 : Change Due To Natural Events
Which type of erosion is caused by steady, fast flow of running water?
Rill erosion
Sheet erosion
Gully erosion
Splash erosion
Gully erosion
All of these are caused by water in some way, however, gully erosion is due to steady and fast-flowing streams; the Grand Canyon is an excellent example of the effect of gully erosion. Splash erosion is the first step in erosion from water, and involves the breakage of soil via the impact between soil and a raindrop. It is often a precursor for other types of erosion since it loosens soil. Sheet erosion involves evenly removing a certain number of layers of material due to regular water patterns. Rill erosion is a result of small, well-defined paths of water known as rills, that flow downhill after rainfall.
Example Question #2 : Ecological Change
Climatologists work to understand what factors affect climate throughout geological time. Scientists have proposed many theories to explain complex climatic events. Which of the following theories explains how shift’s in Earth’s orbit every 100,000 years can trigger ice ages?
Milankovitch cycles
La Nina cycles
Hadley cells
El Nino cycles
Milankovitch cycles
The correct response is Milankovitch cycles. This theory describes how the orbit, tilt, and axis of the Earth operate on a 100,000 year cycle that cause the Earth to be further from the sun. As the Earth gets farther from the sun, it can trigger an ice age. The theory is aptly named after the man who discovered it. The El Nino and La Nina events occur on a much shorter time scale and have nothing to do with ice ages.
Example Question #2 : Change Due To Natural Events
In the past 500 million years, there have been __________ mass extinctions.
2
5
50
10
5
Today, 99.9% of all species that have ever existed on Earth are extinct. We are currently in the middle of the 6th mass extinction. The dinosaurs went extinct during the 5th, the Cretaceous, about 65 million years ago.
Example Question #1 : Ecological Change
The Wallace Line is generally cited as evidence of which of the following?
Speciation
Plate tectonics
Change in sea levels
Natural Selection
Asteroid impact
Change in sea levels
The Wallace Line, named for Alfred Russel Wallace, is a boundary that separates Asia and Australia. Wallace noticed that the some of the islands in this region contained species common to Australia and some contained species common to Asia, none of which would have crossed the open water in between the continents. Wallace correctly reasoned that this meant that sea levels were once much lower, an artifact of the last glacial maximum.
Example Question #1 : Evolution
The streamlined shape found in the body plans of both sharks and dolphins is an example of:
coevolution
none of these
sympatry
divergent evolution
convergent evolution
convergent evolution
Sharks and dolphins are not closely related and evolved their streamlined shapes separately from one another. This is an example of convergent evolution, in which two species that are not closely related evolve similar characteristics. Divergent evolution is the opposite.
Example Question #2 : Evolution
What type of organisms were the first to develop?
Fungi
Eukaryotes
Prokaryotes
Primates
Plants
Prokaryotes
Prokaryotes are simple, single-celled organisms which lack membrane bound nuclei. They developed before any of the other listed answer choices, as all of the other listed answer choices are multi-celled organisms that developed from prokaryotes.
Example Question #2 : Evolution
Which of the following terms is defined as any change in the proportions of different genotypes in a population from one generation to the next?
Variability
Differential reproduction
Evolution
Adaptation
Gene flow
Evolution
Evolution is a process of orderly and gradual change or development. The theory that all living species have developed as a result of changes in their genetic material over time. Evolution is a change in the proportions of different genotypes in a population from one generation to the next. The characteristic of an organism that helps it survive and reproduce in a particular environment is adaptation. Variability is the range of alterations present in a genome, such as the number of diverse alleles of a specific gene. The differences in reproductive output among individuals of a population, normally as a result of genetic differences is differential reporduction. Gene flow is the movement of alleles from one population to another owing to the migration of individual organisms.
Certified Tutor
Certified Tutor
All AP Environmental Science Resources
