Back to England Environmental Science
England · AQAQ&A
Environmental ScienceQ&A by dot point
A short Q&A bank for every England Environmental Science syllabus dot point. Each question and answer is drawn directly from our worked dot-point page, so you can scan key concepts before opening the long-form answer.
3.5 Biological resources
- The methods used to increase agricultural productivity, the environmental impacts of intensive farming, the differences between intensive and extensive and organic systems, and approaches to sustainable food production.0Q&A pairs
- The exploitation of wild fish stocks, the causes and consequences of overfishing, methods of managing fisheries sustainably, and the role and impacts of aquaculture.0Q&A pairs
- The economic and ecological value of forests, the causes and consequences of deforestation, and the methods used to manage forests sustainably including selective logging and replanting.0Q&A pairs
3.3 Energy resources
- The difference between energy conservation and energy efficiency, methods of reducing energy demand in buildings, transport and industry, and the environmental and economic benefits of doing so.0Q&A pairs
- How coal, oil and natural gas form, their extraction and use, why they are non-renewable and finite, and the environmental impacts of extracting and burning fossil fuels.0Q&A pairs
- How nuclear fission is used to generate electricity, the fuel cycle, the management of radioactive waste, and the advantages and disadvantages of nuclear power including safety and decommissioning.0Q&A pairs
- The main renewable energy resources (solar, wind, hydroelectric, tidal, wave, geothermal and biomass), how each generates energy, and the advantages and limitations of each.0Q&A pairs
3.4 Pollution
- The main air pollutants and their sources, the effects of air pollution including acid rain, smog, ozone depletion and the enhanced greenhouse effect, and methods of controlling air pollution.0Q&A pairs
- The definition of pollution, the properties of pollutants that determine their impact (toxicity, persistence, bioaccumulation and biomagnification), and how pollutants are dispersed and degraded in the environment.0Q&A pairs
- Strategies for controlling pollution including prevention at source, treatment, legislation and economic instruments, the principle of the critical pathway, and the polluter pays principle.0Q&A pairs
- The sources and types of solid waste, methods of waste disposal including landfill and incineration and their impacts, and the waste hierarchy of reduce, reuse and recycle moving towards a circular economy.0Q&A pairs
- The main water pollutants and their sources, the process and consequences of eutrophication, the use of indicator species and biological oxygen demand to monitor water quality, and methods of controlling water pollution.0Q&A pairs
3.6 Sustainability and research methods
- The handling and presentation of environmental data, the use of means, ranges and standard deviation, the choice and use of statistical tests, correlation versus causation, and the evaluation of reliability and validity.0Q&A pairs
- Methods of sampling populations and habitats including quadrats, transects and capture techniques, the importance of random sampling and replication, and the abiotic and biotic factors that are monitored.0Q&A pairs
- The meaning of sustainability and sustainable development, the concepts of ecological footprint and carrying capacity, the difference between renewable and non-renewable resources, and the principles that guide sustainable resource use.0Q&A pairs
3.1 The living environment
- The meaning of biodiversity at the genetic, species and habitat levels, how species and habitat diversity are measured and estimated, and the value of biodiversity to humans and ecosystems.0Q&A pairs
- The conditions that allowed life to develop on Earth, the role of liquid water and an oxygen atmosphere, the changing of conditions by living organisms, and the Gaia hypothesis of self-regulation.0Q&A pairs
- The reasons biodiversity should be conserved, the causes of biodiversity loss, and the range of in-situ and ex-situ conservation methods used to protect species and habitats.0Q&A pairs
- The flow of energy through ecosystems via food chains and trophic levels, the inefficiency of energy transfer, productivity, and the cycling of matter that supports life in the biosphere.3Q&A pairs
- The processes that move carbon and nitrogen through the biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere, including photosynthesis, respiration, nitrogen fixation, nitrification, denitrification and decomposition.3Q&A pairs
3.2 The physical environment
- The general structure of biogeochemical cycles with their stores and fluxes, the phosphorus and sulfur cycles, the role of decomposers, and how human activity alters these cycles.3Q&A pairs
- How mineral and ore deposits form and are concentrated, methods of exploration and extraction, the concept of ore grade and reserves, and the environmental impacts of mining and ways to reduce them.3Q&A pairs
- The composition and formation of soil, soil horizons and texture, the properties that make a fertile soil, the causes and consequences of soil degradation, and methods of soil conservation.4Q&A pairs
- The composition and layered structure of the atmosphere, the natural greenhouse effect, how the atmosphere distributes heat and drives climate, and the importance of the ozone layer.3Q&A pairs
- The distribution and stores of water on Earth, the water cycle and the processes that move water between stores, the limited availability of fresh water, and the role of oceans in climate.3Q&A pairs