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.

Expand All
Entries
Topic Review
Precision Agroecology
Precision agroecology provides a unique opportunity to synthesize traditional knowledge and novel technology to transform food systems. Merging precision agriculture technology and agroecological principles offers a unique array of agricultural solutions driven by data collection, experimentation, and decision support tools. Precision agroecology can offer solutions to agriculture’s biggest challenges in achieving sustainability such as pollution, biodiversity loss, and climate change, as well as broader societal issues of rural depopulation and corporate consolidation of the agricultural sector.
  • 630
  • 14 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Electrodialysis Bipolar Membrane for Reverse-Osmosis Concentrate Recovery
Electrochemical processes such as electrodialysis (ED) and electrodialysis bipolar membrane (EDBM) can contribute to soft-water production and the evaluation of waste fluxes. EDBM is a new technology that combines the separation function of electrodialysis with water separation at the bipolar membrane interface, which can convert salts into corresponding acids and bases without adding external components. In this system, anions and cations are separated from wastewater separately and combined with H+ and OH− ions via bipolar membranes to form acidic and alkaline solutions.
  • 950
  • 14 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Extremely Acidic Eukaryotic (Micro) Organisms
Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) results from sulfide oxidation, which incorporates hydrogen ions, sulfate, and metals/metalloids into the aquatic environment, allowing fixation, bioaccumulation and biomagnification of pollutants in the aquatic food chain. Acidic leachates from waste rock dams from pyritic and (to a lesser extent) coal mining are the main foci of Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) production. 
  • 596
  • 14 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Urban Wetlands
Wetlands are a critical part of natural environments that offer a wide range of ecosystem services. In urban areas, wetlands contribute to the livability of cities through improving the water quality, carbon sequestration, providing habitats for wildlife species, reducing the effects of urban heat islands, and creating recreation opportunities. 
  • 2.0K
  • 13 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Unlocking the Potential of Fish to Improve Food
Approximately one-third of the global population suffering from chronic hunger are in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). In addition to high prevalence of chronic hunger, millions of people suffer from micronutrient deficiencies. Meanwhile, there is growing consensus across scientific disciplines concurring that fish plays a crucial role in improving food and nutrition security.
  • 432
  • 13 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Rumen Microbiota in Early Weaned Lambs
Weaning affects the development of ruminal bacteria in lambs during early life. However, the temporal dynamics of rumen microbiota in early weaned lambs is unknown compared to conventionally weaned lambs. Early weaning led to a significant decrease in rumen microbiota richness and diversity in the short term. The changes in rumen microbiota are associated with the persistence of weaning stress. 
  • 437
  • 13 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Integration of Environmental Justice and Sustainability in Practice
The environmental justice (EJ) movement has been a key factor in the United States’ struggle to provide a healthy environment for all to thrive. The origins of the movement date as far back as the 1960’s, led primarily by people of color and low economic status communities living in America’s most polluted environments. More recently, the just sustainability movement calls for the inclusion of EJ considerations, including social justice, equity, and human rights, into sustainability science and initiatives.
  • 817
  • 13 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Surface Coating-Modulated Phytotoxic Responses of Silver Nanoparticles
Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have been implemented in a wide range of commercial products, resulting in their unregulated release into aquatic as well as terrestrial systems.Once released into the environment, they are prone to various transformation processes that modify their reactivity. In order to increase AgNP stability, different stabilizing coatings are applied during their synthesis. However, coating agents determine particle size and shape and influence their solubility, reactivity, and overall stability as well as their behavior and transformations in the biological medium. The employment of different stabilizing coatings can modulate AgNP-induced phytotoxicity with respect to growth, physiology, and gene and protein expression in terrestrial and aquatic plants and freshwater algae.
  • 449
  • 13 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Aeromonas spp. in Cultured Red Hybrid Tilapia
The genus Aeromonas has been recognised as an important pathogenic species in aquaculture that causes motile Aeromonas septicaemia (MAS) or less severe, chronic infections. This study compares the pathogenicity of the different Aeromonas spp. that were previously isolated from freshwater fish with signs of MAS. A total of 124 isolates of Aeromonas spp. were initially screened for the ability to grow on M9 agar with myo-inositol as a sole carbon source, which is a discriminatory phenotype for the hypervirulent A. hydrophila (vAh) pathotype. Subsequently, LD50 of six selected Aeromonas spp. were determined by intraperitoneal injection of bacterial suspension containing 10^3, 10^5, and 10^7 CFU/mL of the respective Aeromonas sp. to red hybrid tilapias. The kidneys, livers and spleens of infected moribund fish were examined for histopathological changes. The screening revealed that only A. dhakensis 1P11S3 was able to grow using myo-inositol as a sole carbon source, and no vAh strains were identified. The LD50–240h of A. dhakensis 1P11S3 was 10^7 CFU/mL, while the non-myo-inositol utilizing A. dhakensis 4PS2 and A. hydrophila 8TK3 was lower at 10^5 CFU/mL. Similarly, tilapia challenged with the myo-inositol A. dhakensis 1P11S3 showed significantly (p < 0.05) less severe signs, gross and histopathological lesions, and a lower mortality rate than the non-myo-inositol A. dhakensis 4PS2 and A. hydrophila 8TK3. These findings suggested that myo-inositol utilizing A. dhakensis 1P11S3 was not a hypervirulent Aeromonas sp. under current experimental disease challenge conditions, and that diverse Aeromonas spp. are of concern in aquaculture farmed freshwater fish. Therefore, future study is warranted on genomic level to further elucidate the influence of myo-inositol utilizing ability on the pathogenesis of Aeromonas spp., since this ability correlates with hypervirulence in A. hydrophila strains.
  • 829
  • 12 Jan 2022
Topic Review Video
Plastic Waste Governance in Bangladesh
Plastic, an offer of modernity, is presenting a massive threat in altered forms, to our health and environment. Plastic does not only pollute the surface environment, fresh water, and marine ecosystems, but toxic elements released from plastics also percolate down the surface and contaminate groundwater, which we often use as ‘safe’ drinking water. This probable future risk is deeply rooted in the entire governance infrastructure of plastic waste which could potentially lead to contamination of groundwater. A recent study finds 81% of tap water samples collected worldwide contained plastic pollutants, which means that annually we may be ingesting between 3000 and 4000 microparticles of plastic from tap water.
  • 3.1K
  • 04 Mar 2022
  • Page
  • of
  • 105

Featured Entry Collections

>>