Provides single chemical toxicity information for aquatic and terrestrial life which is useful for examining impacts of chemicals on the environment. Peer-reviewed literature is the primary source for the database including information on the species, chemical, test methods, and results. Another source of test results is independently compiled data files (such as the Pesticide Ecotoxicity database) provided by various United States and International government agencies. ECOTOX is a unified interface providing access to three U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) ecological effects databases: AQUIRE (all aquatic species including freshwater and marine); TERRETOX (terrestrial animal mainly wildlife); and PHYTOTOX (terrestrial plant). Ecology, Toxicology.
(EBSCO) - This resource offers a unique perspective on the positive and negative ways humans affect the environment. Drawing on the connection between the environment and disciplines such as agriculture, education, law, health and technology, GreenFILE serves as an informative resource for anyone concerned about the issues facing our planet. GreenFILE indexes scholarly and general interest titles, as well as government documents and reports. It contains nearly 300,000 records, full text for selected titles and searchable cited references for more than 200 titles.
Author: Ecological Society of America
Data Papers are compilations and syntheses of data sets and associated metadata deemed to be of significant interest to the ESA membership and the scholarly community. Data papers are peer reviewed and are announced in abstract form in the appropriate print journal as a Data Paper. Data papers differ from review or synthesis papers published in other ESA journals in that data papers normally will not test or refine ecological theory.
Data Papers can facilitate the rapid advancement of ecological knowledge and theory at the same time that they disseminate information. In addition, Ecological Archives provides a reward mechanism (in the form of peer-reviewed, citable objects) for the substantial effort required to compile and adequately document large data sets of ecological interest.
•Data Papers Instructions -- ESA
"Dryad is an international repository of data underlying peer-reviewed articles in the basic and applied biosciences. Dryad enables scientists to validate published findings, explore new analysis methodologies, repurpose data for research questions unanticipated by the original authors, and perform synthetic studies." Dryad started with "an initiative among a group of leading journals and scientific societies in evolutionary biology and ecology to adopt a joint data archiving policy (JDAP) for their publications, and the recognition that easy-to-use, sustainable, community-governed data infrastructure was needed to support such a policy."
•JDAP (Joint Data Archiving Policy) (http://datadryad.org/pages/jdap)
NEON collects "data across the United States on the impacts of climate change, land use change and invasive species on natural resources and biodiversity. NEON is a project of the U.S. National Science Foundation, with many other U.S. agencies and NGOs cooperating."
NEON is "the first observatory network of its kind designed to detect and enable forecasting of ecological change at continental scales over multiple decades." The data NEON collects is freely and openly available to all.
DataONE serves "as a distributed framework and sustainable cyberinfrastructure that meets the needs of science and society for open, persistent, robust, and secure access to well-described and easily discovered Earth observational data."
Supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation, DataONE ensures "the preservation and access to multi-scale, multi-discipline, and multi-national science data." DataONE transcends "domain boundaries and makes biological data available from the genome to the ecosystem; makes environmental data available from atmospheric, ecological, hydrological, and oceanographic sources; provides secure and long-term preservation and access; and engages scientists, land-managers, policy makers, students, educators, and the public through logical access and intuitive visualizations."
The Access Initiative is an online collection of information regarding the environmental, social, and economic trends that shape our world. Committed to the principle that accurate information drives responsible decisions by governments and individuals, TAI offers the public a large breadth of statistical, graphic, and analytical data in easily accessible formats. TAI is the "world’s largest network of civil society organizations dedicated to ensuring that local communities have the rights and abilities to gain access to information and to participate in decisions that affect their lives and their environment."
Formerly, EarthTrends: The Environmental Information Portal.
The Census of Marine Life (CoML) is a research program that seeks to assess the diversity, distribution and abundance of ocean life and to explain how it changes over time. The portal provides access to a global network of researchers in more than 45 nations engaged in this ten-year marine life initiative. Includes three major projects: Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS), the History of Marine Animal Populations project (HMAP), and the Future of Marine Animal Populations project (FMAP). Seven studies have been initiated to collect data for these projects: Biogeography of Deep-Water Chemosynthetic Ecosystems (ChEss); Census of Diversity of Abyssal Marine Life (CeDAMaR); Gulf of Maine Program (GoM); Mid-Atlantic Ridge Ecosystems Project (MAR-ECO); Natural Geography in Shore Areas (NaGISA); Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking Program (POST); and Tagging of Pacific Pelagics (TOPP).
Free online digital media library from US F&WS. Wide assortment of selected images, publications (including historic documents, oral histories and more), video and audio clips, and maps that are in the public domain.
Author: National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration
This digital photo collection includes "the work, observations, and studies that are carried on by the scientists, engineers, commissioned officers, and administrative personnel that make up" NOAA.
This "collection spans centuries of time and much of the natural world from the center of the Earth to the surface of the Sun" and "includes thousands of weather and space images, hundreds of images of our shores and coastal seas, and thousands of marine species images ranging from the great whales to the most minute plankton. ... The geographic range of NOAA work encompasses polar region to polar region and much of the World's oceans."
"Morphbank :: Biological Imaging is a continuously growing database of images that scientists use for international collaboration, research and education. Images deposited in Morphbank :: Biological Imaging document a wide variety of research including: specimen-based research in comparative anatomy, morphological phylogenetics, taxonomy and related fields focused on increasing our knowledge about biodiversity. The project receives its main funding from the Biological Databases and Informatics program of the National Science Foundation (Grant DBI-0446224). "
Books & eBooks
Agrarianism and the Good Society by Eric T. FreyfogleEvery society expresses its fundamental values and hopes in the ways it inhabits its landscapes. In this literate and wide-ranging exploration, Eric T. Freyfogle raises difficult questions about America's core values while illuminating the social origins of urban sprawl, dwindling wildlife habitats, and over-engineered rivers. These and other land-use crises, he contends, arise mostly because of cultural attitudes that made sense on the American frontier but now threaten the land's ecological fabric. To support and sustain healthy communities, profound adjustments will be required. Freyfogle's search leads him down unusual paths. He probes Charles Frazier's novel Cold Mountain for insights on the healing power of nature and tests the wisdom in Wendell Berry's fiction. He challenges journalists writing about environmental issues to get beyond well-worn rhetoric and explain the true choices that Americans face. In an imaginary job advertisement, he issues a call for a national environmental leader, identifying the skills and knowledge required, taking note of cultural obstacles, and looking critically at supposed allies. Examining recent federal elections, he largely blames the conservation cause and its inattention to cultural issues for the diminished status of the environment as a decisive issue. Agrarianism and the Good Society identifies the social, historical, political, and cultural obstacles to humans' harmony with nature and advocates a new orientation, one that begins with healthy land and that better reflects our utter dependence on it. In all, Agrarianism and the Good Society offers a critical yet hopeful guide for cultural change, essential for anyone interested in the benefits and creative possibilities of responsible land use.
ISBN: 9780813124391
Publication Date: 2007-03-02
Economics, Sustainability, and Natural Resources by Shashi Kant (Editor); R. Albert Berry (Editor)Forest resources are an ideal starting point for economic analysis of sustainability. In this book, leading economists discuss key aspects of sustainability and sustainable forest management including complexity, ethical issues, consumer choice theory, intergenerational equity, non-convexities, and multiple equilibria. This systematic critique of neoclassical economic approaches is followed by a companion work, Institutions, Sustainability, and Natural Resources: Institutions for Sustainable Forest Management, Volume 2 in the series.
ISBN: 9781402034657
Publication Date: 2005-08-10
Water 4. 0 by David SedlakThe little-known story of the systems that bring us our drinking water, how they were developed, the problems they are facing, and how they will be reinvented in the near future Turn on the faucet, and water pours out. Pull out the drain plug, and the dirty water disappears. Most of us give little thought to the hidden systems that bring us water and take it away when we're done with it. But these underappreciated marvels of engineering face an array of challenges that cannot be solved without a fundamental change to our relationship with water, David Sedlak explains in this enlightening book. To make informed decisions about the future, we need to understand the three revolutions in urban water systems that have occurred over the past 2,500 years and the technologies that will remake the system. The author starts by describing Water 1.0, the early Roman aqueducts, fountains, and sewers that made dense urban living feasible. He then details the development of drinking water and sewage treatment systems--the second and third revolutions in urban water. He offers an insider's look at current systems that rely on reservoirs, underground pipe networks, treatment plants, and storm sewers to provide water that is safe to drink, before addressing how these water systems will have to be reinvented. For everyone who cares about reliable, clean, abundant water, this book is essential reading.
Call Number: GB659.6 .S44 2014 (Downtown)
ISBN: 9780300212679
Publication Date: 2015-03-31
The Recycling Myth by Jack BuffingtonThis book states the harsh truth: that despite best intentions, our current environmental practices are doing more harm than good, and that the solution lies in creating supply chains of the future that design, produce, consume, and reuse materials in a manner that is balanced economically and environmentally. * Supplies an informed perspective from a leader in the consumer beverage industry at one of the world's largest producers of packaged beverages and a researcher in Sweden in the fields of environmental science and supply chain logistics * Presents a bold counterargument to the idea that recycling and sustainability programs are inherently beneficial and introduces a new system that will benefit both our environment and economy--without asking consumers to consume less * Explains why recycling and sustainability programs are ineffective because they focus solely on doing less harm rather than improving both the economy and the environment