Terrestrial
What is the term for a species that has a significant impact on its ecosystem, often shaping the environment for other species?
Keystone species
What percentage of the Earth’s water is freshwater?
3%
What is the most abundant greenhouse gas in Earth’s atmosphere?
Water vapor
Which U.S. president established the National Park Service in 1916?
Woodrow Wilson
Which type of energy is NOT considered renewable?
Nuclear energy
An anoxic environment wouldn’t be great for humans, but certain organisms thrive in them. Anoxic means that which element needed by most life to survive is absent?
Oxygen
Unlike swamps, what kind of wetland habitat has primarily herbaceous vegetation?
Marsh
What is the process by which plants absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen?
Photosynthesis
The Clean Air Act, one of the most significant environmental laws in U.S. history, was passed in which year?
1970
Which material takes the longest to decompose in a landfill?
Plastic bottle (takes hundreds of years)
What type of bacteria, often found living under rocks in deserts, can perform photosynthesis and has existed for over 3.5 billion years?
Cyanobacteria
What single river is responsible for about 20% of the World’s river flow?
The Amazon
What is the point inside the Earth where an earthquake originates called?
Focus
Which environmental disaster in 1969 helped spark the modern environmental movement and led to the creation of the EPA?
The Cuyahoga River Fire
Which extinction event is considered the most severe in Earth's history, wiping out about 96% of marine species?
Permian-Triassic Extinction
What T-word describes a biome where tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons?
Tundra
Lake Baikal, the world’s largest freshwater lake and the world’s deepest lake, is found in which country? The primary outflow of Lake Baikal is the Angara river.
Russia
What is the most abundant mineral in Earth's crust?
Feldspar
Which Indigenous group successfully fought against the Dakota Access Pipeline to protect their water and sacred land?
Lakota Sioux
What technique that quantifies a product's environmental impact from the time its components are sourced and for as long as the product lasts, is known as "LCA" for short?
Life Cycle Analysis
What process is used to create biochar, a substance with high carbon density that can improve soil and capture carbon for decades?
Pyrolysis
Which ecosystem is considered the most biologically diverse on Earth, containing the highest number of species per square meter?
Coral reefs
Environmental regulations ensure refineries remove certain pollutants. What element, a large contributor to 'acid rain', is removed in the refining process?
Sulfur
Which major environmental disaster occurred in Ukraine in 1986, causing widespread radioactive contamination?
Chernobyl
Green biotechnology refers to biotechnology used in the environmental sector, whereas what color is used to describe biotechnology used in the medical and pharma field?
Red