Summary

Environmental science emerged from the fields of natural history and medicine during the Enlightenment. Today, it provides an integrated, quantitative, and interdisciplinary approach to the study of environmental systems. Environmental studies are incorporating more of the social sciences in order to understand human relationships, perceptions and policies towards the environment. This entry collection features information about design and technology for improving environmental quality in every aspect.

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Topic Review
Factors Affecting Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning
The high levels of biodiversity found in natural ecosystems have positive effects on ecosystem functions (EFs), though the intensity and direction of such effects can vary. This is associated with the impacts of other EF-driving factors.
  • 1.5K
  • 27 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Innovation-Driven Strategy on High-Quality Economic Development
The positive role of innovation-driven strategy is mainly realized through high-tech markets in China. Therefore, R&D investment should focus on high-tech industries or fields related to the national economic lifeline or strategic industries, such as environmental protection, microchips, and high-end instruments industries in China. 
  • 1.6K
  • 26 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Conversion of Carbon Dioxide into Methanol
As an energy source, methanol presents the advantage of being liquid at environmental temperature, which makes it easier to transport and store.
  • 932
  • 21 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Modelling Energy Transition in Germany
The expression energy transition indicates a long-term structural change in energy systems. It is not a new phenomenon: man has made several energy transitions in his short history on Earth. One of the most significant was shifting to an energy system based on fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas) from one essentially based on wood; however, since the 1980s, it has been realized that fossil fuels are at the root of climate change due to carbon emissions into the atmosphere.
  • 536
  • 20 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Interactions of Gibberellins with Phytohormones
Gibberellins are amongst the main plant growth regulators. Discovered over a century ago, the interest in gibberellins research is growing due to their current and potential applications in crop production and their role in the responses to environmental stresses. The complex interrelations between gibberellins and other plant growth regulators are described, providing an intricate network of interactions that ultimately drives towards precise and specific gene expression. Thus, genes and proteins identified as being involved in gibberellin responses in model and non-model species are highlighted. Furthermore, the molecular mechanisms governing the gibberellins’ relation to stress responses are also depicted.
  • 699
  • 21 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Rehabilitation of Salt-Affected Land
Soil salinity is a major threat to the sustainability of agricultural production systems and has defeated civilisations whenever the cost of remediation exceeded the benefits. Among the reasons for this is the complexity of the plant-water-soil nexus and that the causes of salinity are often separated from the damage in time and space. a more concerted effort, perhaps initiated by a philanthropist, is needed to show merchants and agencies how a range of payments for ecosystem services can be turned into true markets in an aggregate way so the ‘knowledge of what can be done can be transformed into benefit’.
  • 559
  • 20 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Fungicides Elimination in Agriculture
Fungicides is a class of pesticides that target fungi that is commonly used in conventional farming. The benefits of pesticides are the consequences of their effects: increased productivity, protection of crop losses, vector disease control, and quality of food. Europe’s Farm to Fork strategy aims to boost the development of its organic farming area to 25% of total farmland by 2030. The environmental impacts of fungicides due to their production and application are analyzed, and expected benefits to human health and ecosystem quality due to their elimination are calculated here.
  • 559
  • 20 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Synthetic Progestins in Waste and Surface Waters
Synthetic progestins (PGs) are a large family of hormones used in continuously growing amounts in human and animal contraception and medicinal therapies. Because wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are unable to eradicate PGs after excretion, they are discharged into aquatic systems, where they can also be regenerated from conjugated PG metabolites. The PGs were considered of particular interest due to their wide use, activity, and hormonal derivation (from testosterone, progesterone, and spirolactone). It is concluded that PGs had been analysed in WWTPs influents and effluents and, to a lesser extent, in other matrices, including surface waters, where their concentrations range from ng/L to a few µg/L. Because of their high affinity for cell hormone receptors, PGs are endocrine disruptor compounds that may alter the reproductive fitness and development of biota.
  • 580
  • 21 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Smart Libraries
With the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet-of-Things (IoT), thousands of smart devices can be interconnected with each other. A series of innovative concepts have emerged and penetrated into all aspects of human life, e.g., “Smarter Planet”, “Smart City”, “Smart Community”, and “Smart Campus”. As a key and indispensable field, librarianship has become a convenient scenario aided by AI and IoT. Distinctive advanced AI-based approaches applied in libraries include, but are not limited to, natural language processing (NLP), deep learning (DL), recommender systems, machine vision, and smart acquisition.
  • 2.4K
  • 19 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Diazotrophs Makes Corals More Resistant to Heat Stress
During bleaching, corals expel millions of their symbionts, depriving the host from its main food source. One mechanism used by corals to resist bleaching consists in exploiting food sources other than autotrophy. Among the food sources available in the reefs, dinitrogen (N2)-fixing prokaryotes or planktonic diazotrophs (hereafter called ‘PD’) have the particularity to reduce atmospheric dinitrogen (N2) and release part of this nitrogen (diazotroph-derived nitrogen or DDN) in bioavailable form. The supply of PD allowed corals to maintain minimal chlorophyll concentration and symbiont density, sustaining photosynthetic efficiency and stimulating coral growth of up to 48% compared to unfed ones. By providing an alternative source of bioavailable nitrogen and carbon, this specific planktonic diazotroph feeding may have a profound potential for coral bleaching recovery. 
  • 405
  • 21 Apr 2022
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