1 Foundations of Environmental Science Online Quiz Questions

It studies only how organisms interact with one another.

It connects natural processes with human activities, impacts, and decisions.

It is another name for the study of populations alone.

It studies only the economic costs of environmental change.

Chemistry can help explain how a pollutant changes as it moves through water.

Economics can help explain how incentives shape land or energy choices.

Environmental science excludes social sciences because they do not study nature.

Ecology can help explain how organisms respond to changing habitat conditions.

The pumping rate is the stock; groundwater stored underground is a flow.

Recharge and pumping are both stocks because they occur over time.

Groundwater stored in the aquifer is the stock; recharge and pumping are flows.

The aquifer boundary is the stock; rainfall is a flow that removes groundwater.

A counteracting feedback, because erosion restores fertile soil and speeds plant recovery.

An amplifying feedback, because erosion makes plant recovery harder and can prolong vegetation loss.

A stock, because vegetation loss is an amount stored in the soil.

A system boundary, because erosion separates plants from the landscape.

The system is resilient because every disturbed system inevitably returns to its exact prior state.

The system is resilient only if no part of it changes during a disturbance.

The system may be resilient while maintaining important functions, but sustained pressure could shift it into a different condition.

A system is not resilient whenever a disturbance affects any of its parts.

Removing tree cover could increase runoff or erosion and affect downstream water conditions.

The watershed should be studied only as a physical system, because land use and community needs are unrelated to water.

Fertilizer washed from farms could affect nutrient levels downstream and create consequences for water management.

Changes in water quality could affect community needs and decisions as well as ecological conditions.

Algal growth may increase after excess nutrients enter the lake.

Fish populations must increase because algae provide more food.

Oxygen levels may decline as the consequences of increased algal growth unfold.

Fish populations may be harmed as oxygen declines.

Tracking a seasonal cycle and tracking change across generations address different time scales.

Studying a neighborhood and studying a continent address different spatial scales.

A process studied at a watershed scale cannot also affect a community.

A local environmental change can be considered alongside broader regional or global processes.

Improve water-use efficiency while maintaining access to water for current residents.

Meet current demand by pumping groundwater without considering whether future recharge can replace it.

Protect land and water functions while planning for both current and future community needs.

Compare the immediate benefits of a project with its possible effects on future resource availability.

Plants can capture sunlight, and energy can then be transferred through food webs.

Water, carbon, and nutrients can cycle between organisms and the physical environment.

Matter and energy both move only in one direction and never cycle or transfer among system parts.

A change in one part of an ecosystem can affect other parts.

Environmental science

Ecology

Economics

Geology

Laws governing land use

Technologies used in production

Cultural practices

Economic incentives

The assumption that human choices cannot influence environmental effects

The town is physically disconnected from the watershed because it lies outside the study boundary.

The boundary is valid for every question about the watershed, since boundaries never affect conclusions.

The boundary is a study limit chosen for a particular question; it may be inadequate for studying the full drinking-water system.

The boundary shows that water-treatment facilities are natural rather than human system components.

Groundwater stored in the aquifer is a flow, while recharge and pumping are stocks.

Groundwater stored in the aquifer is a stock, recharge is an inflow, and pumping is an outflow.

Recharge and pumping are both stocks because they affect the amount of groundwater.

The aquifer's groundwater is a stock only when pumping and recharge are equal.

Plants capture sunlight, and that energy can be transferred through food webs.

Matter such as water and nutrients is used once and then leaves environmental systems permanently.

Matter such as water, carbon, and nutrients cycles among organisms and the physical environment.

Energy and matter follow identical pathways because both are exchanged in ecosystems.

A change in one part of an environmental system can affect other parts.

A balancing feedback: erosion restores fertile soil and speeds vegetation recovery.

A one-way chain with no effect on the original vegetation loss.

A reinforcing feedback: vegetation loss increases erosion, which makes vegetation recovery harder.

A change in scale, because erosion occurs across a larger area than vegetation loss.

Biodiversity can support ecosystem processes.

Biodiversity guarantees that an ecosystem cannot be harmed by disturbance.

Biodiversity can benefit people through food, water regulation, and recreation.

Biodiversity refers only to benefits people receive and not to variety of life.

The wetland is resilient only if it experiences no disturbance.

Maintaining important functions through disturbance or adjustment indicates resilience; a persistent pressure can still shift the system into a different condition.

A change in wetland condition always means that the system has lost all resilience.

Resilience means returning to exactly the same state after every disturbance.

Human activities can change habitats, consume resources, or release pollution.

Environmental change affects ecosystems but cannot affect human livelihoods or health.

Environmental changes can affect infrastructure and people's choices about where and how to live.

Human societies rely on environmental systems for resources and benefits.

Scientists should choose the community's priorities because evidence resolves value conflicts.

Evidence can clarify likely consequences and trade-offs, but the community must still decide which values or outcomes to prioritize.

Scientific evidence is irrelevant whenever a decision has economic or social consequences.

The option with the fewest environmental effects is automatically the choice every society must make.

It studies organisms and their environment but excludes human decisions.

It connects ecological processes with human health, technology, economies, institutions, and decisions.

It studies only the economic consequences of resource use.

It focuses on relationships between organisms but excludes nonliving conditions.

Recharge is a stock, and the aquifer is a flow.

The amount pumped is a stock, and groundwater stored is a flow.

Groundwater stored in the aquifer is a stock; recharge and pumping are flows.

The aquifer and its recharge are both flows because water moves through the system.

The watershed boundary is unsuitable because a system boundary must be a physical wall.

The watershed boundary proves that processes outside it cannot affect water quality.

The boundary can be a useful limit for studying connected processes, even though it is not a physical wall and does not prove outside influences are irrelevant.

A watershed can be a system only if it contains no human activities.

It is a reinforcing feedback: vegetation loss increases erosion, which makes vegetation recovery harder.

It is a balancing feedback: erosion restores fertile soil and accelerates plant recovery.

It is a one-way flow that cannot affect the original vegetation change.

It is evidence that vegetation and soil are separate systems with no interaction.

The system is resilient because any change in its condition means it has adapted successfully.

The system is not resilient unless it remains completely unchanged during disturbance.

The system has recovered its original condition because it now supports a different set of functions.

The system may have shifted into a different condition, so continued function does not by itself show that it retained its former important functions.

The community depends on the river, but its choices cannot change river conditions.

The river supports livelihoods, community choices affect the river, and changes in the river can affect livelihoods and later choices.

The river affects the community only after people have stopped using it.

Community decisions and river conditions are separate topics unless a law explicitly connects them.

Investigate fertilizer runoff from fields and how tree cover affects runoff and erosion.

Study household water use alone because land cover and farming are outside the watershed system.

Focus exclusively on the treatment facility because upstream processes cannot affect downstream water.

Measure only rainfall, since nutrient levels and erosion are not connected to watershed conditions.

Scientific evidence alone determines which social and economic trade-offs are acceptable.

Because values matter, scientific evidence cannot inform environmental choices.

Scientific evidence can clarify conditions, causes, consequences, and options, while society must also weigh values and priorities.

Environmental decisions should be based only on economic outcomes because ecological evidence cannot compare responses.

A plan is sustainable whenever it meets current needs, regardless of future effects.

A plan should meet present needs without undermining future generations' ability to meet theirs.

A plan is sustainable only if it prevents all environmental change.

A plan is sustainable when future generations are expected to use fewer resources than people do today.

A neighborhood measurement automatically represents conditions across a continent.

Seasonal observations are sufficient to establish whether a process has changed across generations.

Environmental processes have one fixed scale, so comparisons across locations or time spans are invalid.

The neighborhood and seasonal observations may reveal local, short-term patterns but cannot alone establish watershed-wide or generational trends.

Energy is transferred through the food web, while matter such as nutrients cycles between organisms and the physical environment.

Energy and matter both cycle among organisms in exactly the same way.

Matter is transferred only through food webs, while energy cycles between organisms and soil.

Plants capture matter from sunlight, and nutrients leave the ecosystem whenever energy moves.

Biodiversity matters only when each species provides an immediate economic product.

Biodiversity is a measure of the amount of water stored in an ecosystem.

Biodiversity can support ecosystem processes and benefits to people, including food, water regulation, and recreation.

Biodiversity is unrelated to human well-being because it describes only the number of organisms.

A study of how organisms interact with one another, excluding nonliving conditions

An investigation connecting ecological processes with human health, technology, economies, institutions, and decisions

A study limited to how pollutants move through streams

A study of how communities make land-use decisions without examining natural processes

Use only the treatment facility because it is a physical structure

Use the town boundary because all relevant processes must occur within one jurisdiction

Choose the boundary that includes the land and processes relevant to the question, even if it crosses administrative borders

Use the entire planet because a smaller boundary would be scientifically invalid

Treat aquifer water as a stock, recharge as an inflow, and pumping as an outflow

Treat recharge as the stock and aquifer water as an outflow

Treat pumping as a stock and recharge as a flow leaving the system

Treat both recharge and pumping as stocks because they change over time

Energy and matter both cycle in the same way through ecosystems.

Energy captured from sunlight by plants is transferred through food webs, while nutrients cycle between organisms and the physical environment.

Nutrients are captured from sunlight by plants, while energy cycles between organisms and the physical environment.

Energy remains permanently in plants, while nutrients move only from organisms into soil.

A balancing feedback, because erosion restores the vegetation that was lost

A reinforcing feedback, because the effects make further vegetation loss more likely

A stock-and-flow relationship only, because no change affects another change

A resilient response, because soil loss guarantees that the system will maintain its original function

Study only the town and one week, since larger scales make local evidence unusable

Study only the continent and several centuries, since local and seasonal patterns are too narrow

Examine the watershed and compare seasonal patterns with changes that may unfold across generations

Study the globe during one season, since spatial scale matters but time scale does not

The system withstands or adjusts to the disturbance while maintaining important functions

The system experiences any change at all, regardless of whether it retains its functions

The disturbance permanently increases the system’s original functions

The system returns to its exact previous condition after every disturbance

People affect ecosystems, but ecosystem changes cannot affect people’s choices or livelihoods

Environmental conditions affect people, but farming, construction, and energy use have no effects on those conditions

People and ecosystems interact only when an environmental boundary is physically crossed

People depend on environmental systems and alter them, while environmental changes can affect people’s health and livelihoods

Fertilizer on fields lowers downstream nutrients, while tree cover speeds runoff and increases erosion

Fertilizer washed from fields can raise downstream nutrient levels, while tree cover can slow runoff and reduce erosion

Roads and farms are outside the watershed system because only streams and treatment facilities affect drinking water

Household water use determines whether fertilizer enters streams, while tree cover has no effect on runoff

Only environmental conditions shape land-use effects; institutions and incentives do not matter

Economic incentives can change behavior, but laws and technologies cannot shape environmental effects

Laws, technologies, cultural practices, and incentives can shape effects, while conservation or restoration can protect or recover ecological functions

Restoration can only prevent future change and cannot help recover ecological functions

Recognize biodiversity as the variety of life, which supports ecosystem processes and benefits such as food, water regulation, and recreation

Define biodiversity only as the number of ecosystem services people purchase

Treat biodiversity as a human benefit that has no connection to ecosystem processes

Define biodiversity as the amount of water stored in a watershed