Learn Extracted exam questions AP Environmental Science 2019 Free Response
2019 Free Response
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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.
SPRING PIPING PLOVER NESTING SITES ON ASSATEAGUE ISLAND, VIRGINIA
[Two side-by-side maps of the barrier island Assateague Island, Virginia, labelled "1999" and "2009", each showing the shoreline with symbols marking piping plover nest locations. A small inset locator map at left shows Maryland and Virginia with Chincoteague Bay, the Atlantic Ocean, and a compass rose (N, S, E, W), with a box indicating the zoomed-in region of Assateague Island. Legend: hatched/dotted pattern = Unvegetated sand; light gray = Sparsely vegetated sand; dark gray = Densely vegetated sand; open circle (o) = Piping plover nest. The 1999 map shows nests scattered mainly in the unvegetated/sparsely vegetated (lighter) areas along the shoreline, with relatively little densely vegetated (dark gray) area. The 2009 map shows a similar shoreline but with a much larger area of densely vegetated (dark gray) sand covering the interior of the island, and nests still concentrated in the narrower band of unvegetated/sparsely vegetated sand along the coast.]
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.
Use the maps provided to answer the following questions.
Identify the preferred nesting habitat for piping plovers.
Describe the change in the number of piping plover nests on Assateague Island between 1999 and 2009.
Describe one likely reason for the change in the number of piping plover nests between 1999 and 2009.
Coastal species are affected by more than just natural events.
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.
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.
Identify one human action that directly threatens coastal habitats and describe one impact on species, other than the piping plover, that use the habitat.
Identify one economic impact on coastal communities that has resulted from rising sea levels.
Describe TWO methods that may be used locally to protect coastal communities from rising sea levels.
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.
Identify one ecological benefit, other than providing habitat, that is provided by forests.
Identify one economic benefit that is provided by forests.
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.
Assuming the above extraction rate, calculate how many days will be needed to extract the recoverable volume of bitumen from the oil sands.
Calculate how many years will be needed to fully extract the recoverable volume of bitumen from the oil sands.
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.
The graph shows measurements of atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide $(\text{CO}_2)$ at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii, and the measurements of pH levels in the ocean nearby at Station ALOHA. Measurements of pH began in 1992.
ATMOSPHERIC CARBON DIOXIDE AT MAUNA LOA AND OCEANIC pH AT STATION ALOHA, HAWAII
[Dual-axis line graph, x-axis "Year" from 1965 to 2015. Left y-axis "$\text{CO}_2$ (ppm)" from 275 to 400 in steps of 25 (275, 300, 325, 350, 375, 400). Right y-axis "pH" from 8.00 to 8.37 in steps of 0.07 (8.00, 8.08, 8.16, 8.23, 8.30, 8.37). Solid line = Mauna Loa Atmospheric $\text{CO}_2$ (ppm): a steadily rising, seasonally oscillating (sawtooth) curve starting at about 315 ppm in the early 1960s and rising to about 400 ppm by 2015. Dashed line = Station ALOHA Ocean pH: begins around 1992 near pH 8.11, oscillates with high-frequency noise, and shows an overall gradual downward trend to about pH 8.07 by 2015 (with a fitted trend line sloping downward from left to right over that span).]
Use the graph above to answer the following questions.
Determine the concentration of $\text{CO}_2$ (in ppm) recorded at Mauna Loa in 2005.
Determine the pH recorded at Station ALOHA in 2005.
Changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide affect Earth's oceans.
Predict the effect of increased concentration of atmospheric $\text{CO}_2$ on the concentration of $\text{CO}_2$ in the ocean.
Based on the data, identify the relationship between the concentration of atmospheric $\text{CO}_2$ and the pH of ocean water.
Provide the complete chemical equation that represents the reaction between oceanic carbon dioxide $(\text{CO}_2)$ and water $(\text{H}_2\text{O})$.
Identify the specific environmental problem that directly results from the decrease in pH of Earth's oceans.
Changes in pH in the world's oceans pose a risk to many marine organisms.
Explain why certain organisms, in particular those with calcium carbonate shells or exoskeletons, are threatened by the decreasing pH levels measured in seawater.
Other than threats posed by decreasing pH, identify an additional anthropogenic threat to the world's coral reef ecosystems and describe how the threat damages the coral reefs and coral reef ecosystems.
One reason that people visit national parks is to view the scenery. Visibility at the four parks in the graph has been reduced over time so that by 2015 the visibility was an average of 70 miles less than the historical visibility. Regional air pollutant sources are commonly located over 100 miles away from national parks.
NATIONAL PARK VISIBILITY CHANGES
[Bar graph, x-axis "National Park" with four parks: Sequoia, Big Bend, Great Smoky Mountains, Yellowstone. y-axis "Visibility in Miles" from 0 to 200 in steps of 20. Two bars per park: hatched bar = Historical visibility; solid dark gray bar = 2015 average visibility. Approximate values - Sequoia: historical ~112, 2015 ~25; Big Bend: historical ~120, 2015 ~46; Great Smoky Mountains: historical ~113, 2015 ~46; Yellowstone: historical ~128, 2015 ~76.]
Based on the data provided in the graph, identify the national park that had the greatest loss of visibility as of 2015 when compared with the historical natural visibility.
Visibility in national parks can be affected by many different air pollutants.
Identify a primary air pollutant.
Describe how a primary air pollutant becomes part of the atmosphere.
Identify a secondary air pollutant.
Describe how a secondary air pollutant is formed within the atmosphere.
In 1990 Great Smoky Mountains National Park had a visibility of 25 miles. Visibility data for 2015 can be determined from the graph above.
Calculate the percentage increase in visibility from 1990 to 2015.
Discuss TWO specific actions that the state or federal government could take or encourage to further improve the visibility in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Excluding air pollution, discuss TWO additional ways national park ecosystems are being degraded by high levels of visitor use.