AP Environmental Science — Ecosystems and Populations flashcards
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Units 1–5 of the AP Environmental Science course: biomes, nutrient cycles and energy flow, biodiversity and succession, population strategies and growth, plate tectonics, soil, atmosphere and climate, and farming, water, forestry and fishing.
Learn deck · part of AP Environmental Science · written against: College Board AP Environmental Science Course and Exam Description (nine units). Updated 2026-10-10.
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How do mutualism, commensalism and parasitism differ in who benefits and who is harmed?In mutualism both species benefit (bees and the flowers they pollinate); in commensalism one benefits and the other is unaffected (orchids growing on tree branches); in parasitism one benefits at the host's expense (ticks on a deer).Ecosystems › Interactions and Biomes
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Several warbler species feed in the same spruce trees without one excluding the others. How?Resource partitioning: each species feeds mostly in a different part of the tree, so they use the shared resource differently and reduce direct competition.Ecosystems › Interactions and Biomes
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What are the three levels at which biodiversity is measured?Genetic diversity (variation within a species), species diversity (the number and evenness of species in an area) and ecosystem diversity (the variety of habitats in a region).Biodiversity
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Why does high genetic diversity make a population more resilient?With more variation, some individuals are more likely to carry traits that let them survive a new disease or environmental change, so the population can recover and adapt.Biodiversity
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Is a specialist or a generalist species more vulnerable when its environment changes? Give an example.A specialist, because it depends on a narrow range of food or habitat.Populations
Example: the giant panda relies almost entirely on bamboo, while a generalist such as the raccoon eats almost anything. -
How do r-selected and K-selected species differ?r-selected species mature quickly and produce many offspring with little parental care (insects, mice). K-selected species mature slowly and have few offspring with much care, keeping populations near carrying capacity (elephants, whales).Populations
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What happens at a divergent plate boundary in the ocean?Plates move apart and magma rises to form new crust, building a mid-ocean ridge through seafloor spreading.Earth Systems and Resources › Geology and Soil
Example: the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. -
What forms where an oceanic plate converges with a continental plate?The denser oceanic plate subducts, creating a deep-ocean trench and a chain of volcanoes on the continent, along with earthquakes.Earth Systems and Resources › Geology and Soil
Example: the Andes and the Cascades. -
What is slash-and-burn agriculture, and why does it become unsustainable as population grows?Forest is cut and burned so the ash briefly fertilizes the soil; after a few harvests the soil is exhausted and farmers move on. It works only with long fallow periods, which shrink as more people need land.Land and Water Use › Agriculture
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Why does heavy, repeated pesticide use often make pest problems worse over time?The few pests with resistance survive and reproduce, so the population evolves pesticide resistance; spraying can also kill the pests' natural predators.Land and Water Use › Agriculture
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About these cards
Review status: Second-reader reviewed, with corrections applied.
Checked against:
- Topic outline follows the College Board AP Environmental Science Course and Exam Description (effective Fall 2026), Units 1–5 (outline only; no course or exam text reproduced).
- OpenStax Biology 2e, consulted as a reference; no text copied.
- Carbon-cycle, atmosphere, Earth-orbit, fishery and population facts checked against NASA Earth Observatory's The Carbon Cycle and the NASA NSSDCA Earth Fact Sheet (U.S. government works; public domain), IPCC AR6 Working Group I, Chapter 5 (2021; CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), Fisheries and Oceans Canada news releases of 26 June 2024 and 12 June 2026, and the Statistics Bureau of Japan's population estimates as of 1 October 2024 (Public Data License 1.0) (reference only; no text copied).
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