AP Environmental Science: 300 Terms with Real Cases
The free-response marks go to the mechanism and the example, not to the definition alone.
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Showing a 30-card sample of 300.
| Front | Back |
|---|---|
| Ecosystem — what is it? | A community of organisms together with the physical environment they interact with. It is the unit at which energy flow and nutrient cycling are studied. |
| Ecological succession — what is it? | The gradual change in the species composition of a community over time. It explains how ecosystems recover after disturbance. |
| Population — what is it? | A group of individuals of one species living in the same area. It is the level at which growth, density and limits are measured. |
| Exponential growth — what is it? | Growth in which population increases by a constant proportion each interval. It produces a J-shaped curve and cannot continue indefinitely. |
| Density-dependent factor — what is it? | A limiting factor whose effect strengthens as density rises. It stabilises populations near carrying capacity. |
| r-selected species — what is it? | A species with many offspring, little parental care and a short life. These species colonise disturbed areas quickly. |
| Ecological footprint — what is it? | The area of productive land and water needed to support a person or population. It compares consumption against what the planet can regenerate. |
| Layers of the atmosphere — what is it? | The vertical divisions of the atmosphere by temperature behaviour. Each layer has distinct effects on weather, ozone and radiation. |
| Upwelling — what is it? | The rise of deep, nutrient-rich water toward the surface. It supports some of the world's most productive fisheries. |
| Renewable resource — what is it? | A resource replenished on a human timescale. It remains available only if used no faster than it regenerates. |
| Soil salinisation — what is it? | The accumulation of salts in soil, usually from irrigation. It reduces yields and can make land unusable. |
| Overfishing — what is it? | Harvesting fish faster than the population can reproduce. It reduces catches over time and can collapse a fishery entirely. |
| Clear-cutting — what is it? | Removing all trees from an area at once. It is cheap but causes erosion, habitat loss and stream warming. |
| Surface mining — what is it? | Extracting minerals by removing the overlying soil and rock. It is cheaper than underground mining but destroys the surface entirely. |
| Urban sprawl — what is it? | Low-density expansion of a city into surrounding land. It consumes farmland, increases driving and raises infrastructure costs. |
| Ecological reserve — what is it? | An area set aside primarily to protect ecosystems and species. Reserve size and connectivity determine how much biodiversity survives. |
| Cogeneration — what is it? | Using the waste heat from electricity generation for heating. It raises the overall efficiency of a fuel far above electricity alone. |
| Nuclear fission — what is it? | The splitting of heavy atomic nuclei to release energy. It generates large amounts of electricity with almost no carbon dioxide. |
| Hydroelectric power — what is it? | Electricity generated from flowing or falling water. It provides reliable low-carbon power but alters river ecosystems. |
| Solar photovoltaic — what is it? | Technology that converts sunlight directly into electricity. It has no emissions in operation and can be installed at any scale. |
| Wind power — what is it? | Electricity generated by turbines driven by moving air. It has low operating emissions and land beneath turbines stays usable. |
| Geothermal energy — what is it? | Energy drawn from heat within the Earth. It provides steady output but is limited to areas with accessible heat. |
| Biomass energy — what is it? | Energy from burning or processing organic material. It can be near carbon neutral if the material is regrown. |
| Hydrogen fuel — what is it? | A fuel that releases only water when burned or used in a fuel cell. Its emissions depend entirely on how the hydrogen was produced. |
| Point source pollution — what is it? | Pollution entering the environment from a single identifiable place. It is easier to regulate because the source can be measured directly. |
| Acid deposition — what is it? | The fall of acidic compounds from the atmosphere as rain, snow or dry particles. It acidifies lakes and soils and damages forests and buildings. |
| Indoor air pollution — what is it? | Contamination of the air inside buildings. People spend most of their time indoors, so exposure can exceed outdoor levels. |
| Primary wastewater treatment — what is it? | The physical removal of solids from sewage. Screening and settling remove large material and suspended solids. |
| Dose-response relationship — what is it? | The relationship between the amount of a substance and the effect observed. It underlies every risk assessment and exposure limit. |
| Ozone depletion — what is it? | The thinning of the stratospheric ozone layer. It allows more ultraviolet radiation to reach the surface. |
About this deck
Defining eutrophication earns nothing on its own. The point comes from saying that nutrient enrichment drives an algal bloom, that decomposing algae consume the oxygen, and that fish die in the resulting low-oxygen zone. Environmental science is a vocabulary course only on the surface. What it actually tests is whether you can name a cause, trace it to an effect, and attach a real case. This deck is 300 cards, one term per card, with the back giving the definition and, where it applies, a line on why it matters: what the term causes, prevents or explains. The sections follow the course: ecosystems and biodiversity, populations, earth systems and resources, land and water use, energy, and pollution and global change. No country's current statistic appears. Emissions figures and renewable shares change every year and a memorised number goes stale without warning, while the mechanism behind it does not. Once the deck is on a spaced-repetition schedule, the terms you can already explain stop coming back and the ones whose mechanism you keep reversing return until they stop being guesswork.
Frequently asked
- What is in each section of the deck?
- Ecosystems and biodiversity has 55 cards, populations 40, earth systems and resources 50, land and water use 55, energy 45, and pollution and global change 55, for 300 in total. Every card carries section and subtopic tags, so you can drill only the energy unit or only the pollution unit.
- Why are there no current statistics on the cards?
- Because they go out of date faster than the deck does, and a wrong number is worse than no number. Emissions totals, energy shares and population figures all shift yearly. What does not shift is why a thermal inversion traps pollutants or why a dead zone forms, and that is what the cards carry.
- Does it cover the maths on the exam?
- It covers the concepts the calculations are built on, such as what a doubling time means or how energy is lost between trophic levels, but not the arithmetic itself. The exam's calculations are simple once the setup is right, and getting the setup right is what these cards support.
- Can I import the whole deck on the free plan?
- Yes. Importing a saved deck runs no new AI generation and does not use your AI allowance, so the free plan imports all 300 cards. You can study, edit and delete them afterwards.
- Will importing it twice create duplicates?
- No. Cards you already have are skipped and only cards added in a revision come through. Including re-imports after deleting it, one official deck can be imported three times per account.
- Can I use it on the web and in the mobile app?
- Yes. The deck is added to your account rather than to a device, so the same cards and the same progress are there on the web, on iOS and on Android.
- Can I edit the cards after importing?
- Yes. Imported cards are yours: you can edit both sides, delete cards you do not need, change tags, and move cards to another deck.
No official exam questions are reproduced. Every card was written for this deck.Advanced Placement is a trademark of College Board. This deck is not produced, endorsed or approved by College Board.Editorial reference date 2026-08-31.