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
Sustainable Production under Bio-Nanofertilizers of Selenium and Copper
Nanofertilizers indicates nanomaterials that include the plant nutrient itself or the plant nutrient as a carrier and macro-nutrient nanofertilizers, nano-zeolite, nano-hydroxyapatite, and nano-biofertilizers. Nanofertilizers are considered promising materials that display unique properties of nanoparticles at the nano-scale.
  • 586
  • 22 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Utilizing Mediterranean Plants to Remove Contaminants
The use of contaminated soils in food production imposes the need for the reduction in heavy metals concentrations, using various techniques, in order to eliminate the toxic effects of pollution and ensure safety in the consumption of agricultural products. Phytoremediation is a promising, effective, and publicly acceptable method to remove soils’ toxicity. The Mediterranean basin is a region of distinct climatic conditions with temporal variability and great floristic heterogeneity. Due to the high variability in landscapes paired with the warm, dry summers and cool, wet winters, the Mediterranean hosts significant plant diversity, including numerous endemic and rare plant species
  • 496
  • 21 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Climate Change Education in Finland
The climate change education (CCE) is understood as a component of environmental education and education for sustainable development. Its core concept is CC literacy, which means that students understand the scientific concepts related to CC and the relationships between them, as well as the effects of CC and their own activities on the environment. CCE is multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary. Multidisciplinarity means that knowledge of various individual sciences is needed. Interdisciplinarity, on the other hand, incorporates elements from a variety of disciplines and also integrates environmental, economic, social and political issues.
  • 1.9K
  • 30 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Salt Priming Impacts on Edible Mesembryanthemum Crystallinum L.
Mesembryanthemum crystallinum L. is a nutritious edible facultative halophyte. They were cultivated with different percentages of artificial seawater (ASW). All plants were green and healthy. However, there were reductions in shoot and root productivity, and leaf growth. The concentrations of proline, ascorbic acid (ASC), and total phenolic compounds (TPC) increased as percentages of ASW increased. The salt-primed plants switched from C3 to crassulacean acid metabolism photosynthesis and accumulated the greatest amounts of proline, ASC, and TPC. In conclusion, higher salinities and salt priming enhance nutritional quality of M. crystallinum L. but compromises productivity.
  • 679
  • 21 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Toxicological Impact of Rare Earth Elements (REEs)
Scientific evidence shows that exposure to lanthanides triggers a wide variety of toxic insults from reproductive performance to fertilization, redox metabolism, embryogenesis and regulation of embryonic gene expression. This was thoroughly demonstrated for gadolinium, the most widespread lanthanide widely used in diagnostic medicine, whose uptake in sea urchin embryos occurs in a time- and concentration-dependent manner, correlates with decreased calcium absorption and primarily affects skeletal growth, with incorrect regulation of the skeletal gene regulatory network. The results collected on sea urchin embryos demonstrate a variable sensitivity of the early life stages of different species, highlighting the importance of testing the effects of pollution in different species.
  • 452
  • 21 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Milk Production in OECD Countries
Since the beginning of the industrialization of the dairy cattle sector (1950s), driven by the need to feed the rapidly growing urban areas, this industry has experienced several improvements, evolving in management and technology. These changes have been felt above all in the terms of milking, rearing, nutrition, reproductive management, and design of facilities. Shortage of labor, emphasis on increasing farm efficiency, and quality of life of the farmers were the driving factors for these changes. To achieve it, in many areas of the world, pasture production has been abandoned, moving to indoor production, which allows for greater nutritional and reproductive control of the animals. To keep pace with this paradigm in milk production, animal health management has also been improved. Prevention and biosecurity have become essential to control and prevent pathologies that cause great economic losses. As such, veterinary herd health management programs were created, allowing the management of health of the herd as a whole, through the common work of veterinarians and farmers.
  • 634
  • 21 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Leonardite Amendments on Vineyard Calcareous Soil
Vineyard calcareous soils are usually low in organic matter, which makes them prone to physical, chemical, and biological degradation. Besides, these soils are also usually poor in various nutrients in plant-available form, e.g., iron. To make up for this lack of soil fertility, on the one hand, manures, and on the other, iron chelates are usually used. However, the soil application of these materials is not free from problems, and other amendments based on leonardites could be advantageously used as an alternative.
  • 460
  • 18 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Aquaculture Food Production in Portugal
World aquaculture food production rises every year, amounting, by 2018, to another all-time record of 82.1 million tonnes of farmed seafood, with Asia leading global production. In Europe, although coastal countries present historical fishing habits, aquaculture is in true expansion. Norway, the leading European producer, is the eighth main producer worldwide. Portugal is a traditional fishing country but has invested in the development of aquaculture for the past decade, attaining, by 2018, 13.3 tonnes produced, making Portugal the 16th main producer amongst European Union member states that year. Most Portuguese aquaculture facilities operate in coastal systems, resorting to extensive and semi-intensive rearing techniques. In Portugal, marine food production in transitional systems is particularly interesting as the practice has, worldwide, been continuously substituted by intensive methods. In fact, facilities in transitional systems have developed over time and products gained higher commercial value.
  • 2.4K
  • 18 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Mediterranean Coastal Lagoons
Coastal lagoons are shallow bodies of water, close to the sea, generally separated from it by a sandy bar that has produced the closure of an ancient marine gulf. They are mostly the result of the accumulation of sands and gravels of continental origin that are dragged to the coast by a river and whose accumulation is also due to the action of persistent currents. 
  • 967
  • 23 May 2022
Topic Review
Marine Nepheloid Layer
Marine nepheloid layer is a turbid layer containing significantly more suspended particles than the adjacent layers in oceans. The suspended particles may collide and form large falling particle aggregates known as marine snow. Although the nepheloid layer continually changes with time and space, it shows certain temporal and spatial stability. A marine nepheloid layer could last a few days to years, with a thickness ranging from meters to kilometers.
  • 1.3K
  • 16 Mar 2022
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