2019年AP环境科学简答题真题+答案+PDF下载
1. The piping plover is a globally threatened species, with perhaps as few as 2,000 nesting pairs remaining in the Atlantic population of these migratory shorebirds. Plovers were nearly hunted to extinction in the nineteenth century.
Plovers prefer to nest and search for food on open sandy beaches between sparsely vegetated sand dunes. Washovers, where sand is washed up from the beach and buries vegetated areas during big storms, are also important to plovers because they provide moist and undisturbed habitat for plover adults and their chicks. Ecologists with the Elliott Oceanographic Institute mapped the distribution of plover nests during two seasonal surveys of nesting sites over a ten-year period on Assateague Island. This is a barrier island, a long, narrow island running parallel to the Atlantic coast of Virginia.
(a) Use the maps provided to answer the following questions.
(i) Identify the preferred nesting habitat for piping plovers.
(ii) Describe the change in the number of piping plover nests on Assateague Island between 1999 and 2009.
(iii) Describe one likely reason for the change in the number of piping plover nests between 1999 and 2009.
(b) Coastal species are affected by more than just natural events.
(i) Special beach restrictions can help piping plovers during nesting season. Describe one restriction that could reasonably be implemented to help prevent the destruction of plover nests by human actions.
(ii) In addition to providing habitat for piping plovers, barrier islands (and closely related landforms) are important for other reasons. Explain one way that these features help to preserve and protect the environment in coastal regions.
(iii) Identify one human action that directly threatens coastal habitats and describe one impact on species, other than the piping plover, that use the habitat.
Approximately 40% of the United States population resides in coastal areas, such as areas near Assateague Island, where sea level rise and shoreline erosion is occurring.
(c) Identify one economic impact on coastal communities that has resulted from rising sea levels.
(d) Describe TWO methods that may be used locally to protect coastal communities from rising sea levels.
2. As conventional sources of crude oil are depleted, unconventional sources such as oil sands (also known as tar sands) are being utilized. Oils sands contain bitumen, which can be processed into a synthetic crude oil. A region of boreal forest in Alberta, Canada, that covers a deposit of oil sands will be cut and removed during the process of bitumen extraction. It is estimated that the deposit contains 73 billion barrels of recoverable bitumen. The rate of extraction from the deposit will be approximately 1 million barrels of bitumen per day.
(a) Identify one ecological benefit, other than providing habitat, that is provided by forests.
(b) Identify one economic benefit that is provided by forests.
(c) Describe TWO environmental consequences, other than those related to the loss of boreal forest habitat, that result from the extraction of bitumen or the transportation of synthetic oil to customers.
(d) Assuming the above extraction rate, calculate how many days will be needed to extract the recoverable volume of bitumen from the oil sands.
(e) Calculate how many years will be needed to fully extract the recoverable volume of bitumen from the oil sands.
(f) Monthly production of synthetic crude oil is 30 million barrels. Producing one barrel of synthetic crude oil uses two barrels of heated freshwater. Calculate the number of barrels of freshwater needed each year to supply this demand.
2019年AP环境科学简答题真题余下省略！
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