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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Entries
Topic Review
Pesticides Risks in Africa
On the African continent, ongoing agriculture intensification is accompanied by the increasing use of pesticides, associated with environmental and public health concerns. Agriculture production systems are at the same time under pressure due to climate change, the need to produce about double the amount of food by 2050, and to achieve some of the sustainable development goals (SDGs).
  • 428
  • 16 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Fish Pond Water Quality
The spread of disease caused by the presence of bacteria, algae, protozoa, and fungi in a fish pond can cause biological pollution and reduce fish product production. Water can quickly lose its ability to support life, reproduction, waste excretion, growth, and feed the fish in fish ponds. The needs of the fish, the water quality, and factors for managing the water quality should be understood by those wishing to be successful fish farmers.
  • 2.4K
  • 30 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Traffic-Related PM Accumulation by Vegetation of Urban Forests
In terms of the process of air purification, a lot of attention has been devoted to trees and shrubs. Little attention has been paid to herbaceous vegetation from the lower forest layers. Urban forests are often located on the outskirts of cities and surround exit roads where there is heavy traffic, generating particulate matter (PM) pollution. 
  • 419
  • 14 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Plant Secondary Metabolites as Defense Tools against Herbivores
Plants have evolved several adaptive strategies through physiological changes in response to herbivore attacks. Plant secondary metabolites (PSMs) are synthesized to provide defensive functions and regulate defense signaling pathways to safeguard plants against herbivores. Herbivore injury initiates complex reactions which ultimately lead to synthesis and accumulation of PSMs. The biosynthesis of these metabolites is regulated by the interplay of signaling molecules comprising phytohormones. Plant volatile metabolites are released upon herbivore attack and are capable of directly inducing or priming hormonal defense signaling pathways. Secondary metabolites enable plants to quickly detect herbivore attacks and respond in a timely way in a rapidly changing scenario of pest and environment.Several studies have suggested that the potential for adaptation and/or resistance by insect herbivores to secondary metabolites is limited. These metabolites cause direct toxicity to insect pests, stimulate antixenosis mechanisms in plants to insect herbivores, and, by recruiting herbivore natural enemies, indirectly protect the plants. Herbivores adapt to secondary metabolites by the up/down regulation of sensory genes, and sequestration or detoxification of toxic metabolites. PSMs modulate multi-trophic interactions involving host plants, herbivores, natural enemies and pollinators. Although the role of secondary metabolites in plant-pollinator interplay has been little explored, several reports suggest that both plants and pollinators are mutually benefited. Molecular insights into the regulatory proteins and genes involved in the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites will pave the way for the metabolic engineering of biosynthetic pathway intermediates for improving plant tolerance to herbivores. 
  • 630
  • 14 Mar 2022
Topic Review
RXynSOS
A GH10 β-1,4-endoxylanase (XynSOS), from the ascomycetous fungus Talaromyces amestolkiae, has been heterologously produced in Pichia pastoris, purified, and characterized. rXynSOS is a highly glycosylated monomeric enzyme of 53 kDa that contains a functional CBM1 domain and shows its optimal activity on azurine cross-linked (AZCL)–beechwood xylan at 70 °C and pH 5. rXynSOS was capable of transglycosylating phenolic compounds, although with low efficiencies.
  • 266
  • 14 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Multiscapes on an Urbanising Planet
The two most significant signatures of the Anthropocene—agriculture and urbanisation— have yet to be studied synoptically. The term periurban is used to describe territory where the urbanising trend of the planet extends into multiscapes. A periurban praxis is required that spatially reconciles urbanisation and agriculture, simultaneously permitting urban growth and the enhance- ment of critical ecosystem services provided by agricultural hinterlands.
  • 717
  • 18 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Innovations and Emerging Cooling Technologies for Greenhouses
The climate control inside the greenhouse constitutes an efficient methodology for maintaining a satisfactory environment that fulfills the requirements of high-yield crops and reduced energy and water resource consumption. In hot climates, the cooling systems, which are assisted by an effective control technique, constitute a suitable path for maintaining an appropriate climate inside the greenhouse, where the required temperature and humidity distribution is maintained.
  • 1.3K
  • 11 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Graph Metrics for Deepening Landscape Characterization
Graph metrics allow the description of landscape heterogeneity in the same way as classical metrics, and they consider compositional, configurational, and topological characteristics. Some graph metrics that consider topology provide new information owing to the application of topological relationships that are not necessarily based on a Euclidian space. A graph analytical perspective enables the incorporation of new biophysical information related to ecological processes beyond the conventional LULC categories applied in classical landscape analysis. Consequently, more complex ecological questions can be addressed, for example, relationships between ecological processes at the level of topology or topological relationships between processes beyond the traditional dimensions.
  • 508
  • 11 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Digitalization for Energy Saving and Emission Reduction
Digital technologies find a wide use on the energy market both on the energy supply and demand side. Many digital technologies such as smart home systems reduce the production of the energy necessary to produce goods and services in all aspects of our lives.
  • 917
  • 18 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Plant Cytogenetics in the Micronuclei Investigation
Cytogenetics is the branch of genetics, cytology, and cell biology that analyses the nuclear genomes at the chromosome level. Cytogenetics makes the chromosome a substantial target in elementary plant cell biology and other fields such as mutagenesis and genotoxicity studies. Standard cytogenetic methods were, and are still, commonly used. Modern cytogenetic technologies involving advanced microscopy and imaging methods, that progress in the analyses on epigenetic DNA and histone modifications as well as DNA damage by using fluorescent antibodies benefit plant genome structure, dynamics, and evolution. They have also served the comprehensive evaluation of the effects of various mutagens on the plant genome that are observed as chromosome aberrations, including micronuclei (MN).
  • 528
  • 10 Mar 2022
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