PLEASE NOTE: This AP ES e-book is a work in progress. As you will see there are many links to Encyclopedia articles, but there are some topics for which articles are not yet available.

We welcome and encourage the participation of educators and scientists interested in further developing this e-book. If you would like more information, or are interested in contributing, please contact us at eoe@eoearth.org.

Advanced Placement (AP) courses are offered by the College Board through participating U.S. high schools. AP courses are college-level courses that students take while still in high school. A sufficiently high score on the AP exam in a subject will earn the student credit, placement, or both at colleges and Universities in the U.S. and more than 40 other countries.

The AP Environmental Science course is designed to be the equivalent of a one semester, introductory college course in environmental science. The goal of the AP Environmental Science course is to provide students with the scientific principles, concepts and methodologies required to understand the inter-relationships of the natural world, to identify and analyze environmental problems both natural and human-made, to evaluate the relative risks associated with these problems, and to examine alternative solutions to resolving or preventing them.

The topic outline below was developed by the AP Environmental Science Development Committee to describe the scope of the course and exam. The order of the topics holds no special significance. The percentage after each major topic reflects its approximate representation on the AP exam.

Our Editors have identified specific articles in the EoE that will serve as valuable resources for teachers and students. Teachers will find the articles to be useful supplements to lectures, discussion sections, and assigned readings. Students will find them to be valuable study aids.

AP Environmental Science Topic Outline

1. Earth systems and resources
1. Earth science concepts
1. Geologic time scale
   
• Geologic time
2. Plate tectonics
   
• Plate tectonics
3. Earthquakes
   
• Earthquake
  
4. Volcanism
   
• Volcano
  
5. Seasons
• Earth-Sun geometry
  
6. Solar intensity and latitude
• Earth-Sun relationships and insolation
• Solar radiation
2. The Atmosphere
1. Composition
• Atmospheric composition
• Atmospheric composition and structure
  
2. Structure
• Atmosphere layers
  
3. Weather and climate
• Tropical weather and hurricanes
  
4. Atmospheric circulation and Coriolis Effect
• Global-scale circulation of the atmosphere
  
5. Atmosphere-ocean interactions
• Global coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation models
6. El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)
• El Niño, La Niña and the southern oscillation
• El Nino and bacillary dysentery
3. Global water resources and use
1. Freshwater
• Surface runoff of water
• Groundwater
• Freshwater biomes
• River
• Stream
• Aquifer
2. Saltwater
• Seawater
  
3. Ocean circulation
• Ocean circulation
4. Agriculture, industrial, and domestic use
5. Surface and groundwater issues
• Surface water management
• Surface runoff of water
• Groundwater
• Aquifer depletion
• TCE contamination of groundwater
• Effect of climate change and land use change on saltwater intrusion
6. Global problems
• Water
• Water resources
• Water governance
  
• Governance of water resources in Africa
• Society and water resources
• Water profile articles, for example Water profile of Kuwait
7. Conservation
• Transborder conservation
4. Soil and soil dynamics
1. Rock cycle
• Rock cycle
2. Formation
• Formation of the Earth's crust
• Soil forming factors
3. Composition
• Composition of rocks
4. Physical and chemical properties
5. Main soil types
6. Erosion and other soil problems
• Soil erosion and deposition
7. Soil conservation
   
2. The Living World
1. Ecosystem structure
1. Biological populations and communities
2. Ecological niche
3. Interactions among species
4. Keystone species
5. Species diversity and edge effects
• Biological diversity
• Species diversity
6. Major terrestrial and aquatic biomes
• Biome
• Terrestrial biome
• Freshwater biomes
• Marine biomes
• Tundra biome
• Grassland biome
• Desert biome
• Forest biome
2. Energy flow
1. Photosynthesis and cellular respiration
• Photosynthesis
2. Food webs and tropic levels
3. Ecological pyramids
3. Ecosystem diversity
1. Biodiversity
• Biodiversity
2. Natural selection
• Natural selection
3. Evolution
   
4. Ecosystem services
• Biodiversity and ecosystem services
  
4. Natural ecosystem change
1. Climate shifts
• Earth's climatic history
  
2. Species movement
3. Ecological succession
5. Natural biogeochemical cycles
1. Carbon
• Carbon cycle
  
2. Nitrogen
• Nitrogen cycle
  
3. Phosphorus
4. Sulfur
5. Water
• Hydrologic cycle
6. Conservation of matter
3. Population
1. Population biology concepts
1. Population ecology
2. Carrying capacity
• Carrying capacity
3. Reproductive strategies
4. Survivorship
2. Human population
1. Human population dynamics
1. Historical population sizes
• Human population explosion
2. Distribution
3. Fertility rates
4. Growth rates and doubling times
• Population growth rate
5. Demographic transition
6. Age-structure diagrams
2. Population size
1. Strategies for sustainability
2. Case studies
3. National policies
3. Impacts of population growth
1. Hunger
2. Disease
3. Economic effects
4. Resource use
5. Habitat destruction
• Ecological footprint
• Land-use and land-cover change
  
4. Land and water use
1. Agriculture
• Agriculture
  
1. Feeding a growing population
1. Human nutritional requirements
2. Types of agriculture
3. Green Revolution
4. Genetic engineering and crop production
5. Deforestation
• Deforestation in Amazonia
6. Irrigation
7. Sustainable agriculture
2. Controlling pests
1. Types of pesticides
• Pesticide
2. Costs and benefits of pesticide use
• Agricultural pesticide contamination
3. Integrated pest management
4. Relevant laws
• Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, United States
2. Forestry
1. Tree plantations
2. Old growth forests
3. Forest fires
• Monitoring forest fire danger with remote sensing
• Fire in America
4. Forest management
• Forestry
  
5. National forests
3. Rangelands
1. Overgrazing
2. Deforestation
• Deforestation in Amazonia
  
3. Desertification
4. Rangeland management
5. Federal rangelands
4. Other land use
1. Urban land development
1. Planned development
   
2. Suburban sprawl
3. Urbanization
• Urbanization
  
2. Transportation infrastructure
1. Federal highway system
• Roads and highways in the United States
  
2. Canals and channels
3. Roadless areas
4. Ecosystem impacts
• Road ecology
3. Public and federal lands
1. Management
2. Wilderness areas
3. National parks
4. Wildlife refuges
5. Forests
6. Wetlands
• Wetland
4. Land conservation options
1. Preservation remediation
2. Mitigation
3. Restoration
5. Sustainable land-use strategies
5. Mining
1. Mineral formation
2. Extraction
3. Global reserves
4. Relevant laws and treaties
• Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, United States
• Mining Law of 1872, United States
• Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977, United States
6. Fishing
1. Fishing techniques
• Marine fisheries
2. Overfishing
3. Aquaculture
• Fisheries and Aquaculture
• Fisheries and aquaculture in the Northeast Atlantic (Barents and Norwegian Seas)
4. Relevant laws and treaties
• Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management Act, United States
• Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, United States
• Interjurisdictional Fisheries Act of 1986, United States
• Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, United States
7. Global economics
1. Globalization
• Global economy
• Globalization and environmental politics
2. World Bank
3. Tragedy of the commons
• Tragedy of the Commons (historical)
  
4. Relevant laws and treaties
5. Energy resources and consumption -> for overview see [1]
1. Energy concepts
1. Energy forms
2. Power
3. Units
• International System of Units (SI)
• Joule
• Watt
  
4. Conversions
5. Law of Thermodynamics
• Thermodynamics
2. Energy consumption
1. History
1. Industrial Revolution
• Industrial Revolution
  
2. Exponential growth
3. Energy crisis
2. Present global energy use
3. Future energy needs
3. Fossil fuel resources and use
1. Formation of coal, oil and natural gas
• Coal
  
2. Extraction/purification methods
3. World reserves and global demand
4. Synfuels
5. Environmental advantages/disadvantages of sources
4. Nuclear energy
1. Nuclear fission process
2. Nuclear fuel
• Nuclear fuel cycle
3. Electricity production
4. Nuclear reactor types
• Nuclear power reactor
• Fast neutron reactors (FBR)
• Generation IV nuclear reactors
• Advanced nuclear power reactors
• Small nuclear power reactors
• Research reactors
• Nuclear reactors for space
• Light water graphite reactor (RBMK)
5. Environmental advantages/disadvantages
6. Safety issues
• Safety of nuclear power reactors
7. Radiation and human health
• Health effects of ionizing radiation
8. Radioactive waste
• Nuclear waste management
9. Nuclear fusion
• Nuclear fusion power
  
5. Hydroelcetrc power
1. Dams
2. Flood control
3. Salmon
4. Silting
5. Other impacts
6. Energy Conservation
1. Energy efficiency
2. CAFE standards
3. Hybrid electric vehicles
4. Mass transit
7. Renewable Energy
1. Solar energy
• Solar energy
  
2. Solar electricity
3. Hydrogen fuel cell
• Fuel cells
  
4. Biomass
5. Wind energy
• Wind farm
6. Small-scale hydroelectric
7. Ocean waves and tidal energy
8. Geothermal
9. Environmental advantages/disadvantages
6. Pollution
1. Pollution types
1. Air pollution
• Air pollution emissions
• Impacts of air pollution on local to global scale
• Air quality index
  
2. Sources: primary and secondary
3. Major air pollutants
4. Measurement units
5. Smog
• Smog
  
6. Acid deposition: causes and effects
• Acid rain
  
7. Heat island and temperature inversions
• Heat island
8. Indoor air pollution
• Indoor air quality (IAQ)
  
9. Remediation and reduction strategies
10. Clean Air Act and other relevant laws
• Clean Air Act, United States
  
11. Noise pollution
1. Sources
2. Effects
3. Control measures
12. Water pollution
1. Types
• Eutrophication
2. Sources, causes, and effects
3. Cultural eutrophication
• Impact and abatement of acid deposition and eutrophication
4. Groundwater pollution
• groundwater
• see also articles such as TCE contamination of groundwater
5. Maintaining water quality
• Clean Water Act, United States
6. Water purification
7. Sewage treatment/septic systems
8. Clean Water Act and other relevant laws
• Clean Water Act, United States
13. Soil waste
1. Types
2. Disposal
3. Reduction
2. Impacts on the environment and human health
1. Hazards to human health
• Toxicology
• also see selected articles on specific toxicants, for example Health effects of Polychlorinated biphenyls
1. Environmental risk analysis
• Risk Assessment
  
2. Acute and chronic effects
• see acute and chronic sections of Toxicity
3. Dose-response relationships
• Dose-response relationship
  
4. Air pollutants
• Impact of local air pollution
  
5. Smoking and other risks
2. Hazardous chemicals in the environment
• see selected articles on specific toxicants, for example Health effects of Polychlorinated biphenyls
1. Types of hazardous waste
2. Treatment/disposal of hazardous waste
• Transboundary dumping of hazardous waste
3. Cleanup of contaminated sites
4. Biomagnification
5. Relevant laws
• Regulation of toxic chemicals
• CERCLA
• SARA
3. Economic impacts
1. Cost-benefit analysis
• Cost-benefit analysis and economic assessment
  
2. Externalities
• Externality
  
3. Marginal costs
4. Sustainability
• Sustainability
  
7. Global change
1. Stratospheric ozone
• Ozone
• for more in depth see Stratospheric Ozone Depletion by Chlorofluorocarbons (Nobel Lecture)
1. Formation of stratospheric ozone
2. Ultraviolet radiation
• Solar radiation
• Electromagnetic radiation
  
3. Causes of ozone depletion
   
4. Effects of ozone depletion
• Impact of ozone on climate change
• Impact of ozone on health and vegetation
5. Strategies for reducing ozone depletion
   
6. Relevant laws and treaties
• Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer
2. Global warming --> Global warming
   
1. Greenhouse gases and the greenhouse effect
• Greenhouse gas
• Greenhouse effect
• Carbon dioxide
• Methane
• Nitrous oxide
2. Impacts and consequences of global warming
• Global warming impacts
  
3. Reducing climate change
• Greenhouse gas mitigation in agriculture
• Carbon capture and storage
  
4. Relevant laws and treaties
• Kyoto Protocol
• Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (full text)
• United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (full text)
• United States federal laws and policies related to greenhouse gas reductions
3. Loss of biodiversity
• for more detail see [2]
  
1. Habitat loss
1. Oveuse
2. Pollution
3. Introduced species
• Marine invasive species
  
4. Endangered and extinct species
2. Maintenance through conservation
3. Relevant laws and treaties
• Endangered Species Act, United States