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Environmental Studies: Science Resources

Environmental Studies consists of the systematic study of the interaction between human activities and global, local and micro ecosystems. It employs the disciplines of biology, geology, physics, chemistry and engineering, as well as politics, economics, sociology and psychology. This research guide provides an overview of environmental studies with an emphasis on general environmental science topics and resources.

See also Environmental Toxicology and Environmental Studies: Laws, Regulations, and Policies

Background Info || Journal Articles || Core Journals || Books || Web Sites || Statistics || Style Guides

Find Background Information

Save yourself time and frustration by browsing through an encyclopedia, dictionary, handbook or atlas to get an overview of the subject and determine the best way to approach your topic. The library maintains many more sources than those listed here, so it is important to browse the shelves around the call number to locate other relevant resources.

Environmental Sciences || Climatology & Geology || Ecology || Environmental Technology & Pollution

Environmental Sciences - General Information

CQ Researcher — Explores current issues in depth. Topics range from social and political issues to environment, health, education, and science and technology. Reports are full-text with charts, graphs, and sidebar articles, a pro-con feature, a chronology, bibliographies and a list of contacts. Excellent source for finding a topic.

Practical Handbook of Estuarine and Marine Pollution S&E Ref GC1085.K46 1997 — Examines in detail anthropogenic effects on estuarine and marine ecosystems from local, regional, and global perspectives.

Encyclopedia of Environmental Issues (3 vols.) S&E Ref GE10.E52 2000 — 475 articles by experts covering topics including air pollution, national parks, environmental legislation, oil spills, solar power, sick-building syndrome, smog, and urban planning. Also includes several appendices: time line of environmental legislation, directory of environmental organizations, directory of U.S. national parks, and an extensive bibliography.

Macmillan Encyclopedia of the Environment (6 vols.) S&E Ref GE10.M33 1997 — Provides basic information on topics including minerals, energy resources, pollution, soils and erosion, wildlife and extinction, agriculture, the ocean, wilderness, hazardous wastes, population, environmental laws, ecology, and evolution. Environmental events and legislation chronology at an elementary level.

Encyclopedia of Global Environmental Change (5 vols.) S&E Ref GE149.E443 2002 — Physical and chemical dimensions, biological and ecological dimensions, causes, consequences, responses, social and economic issues.

Dictionary of Environment and Sustainable Development  McH Ref HC79.E5G518 1996 — Includes list of key terms and concepts, definitions of environmental terms and concepts from an international perspective. Includes some diagrams and chronologies.

Climatology & Geology 

Encyclopedia of Climate and Weather (2 vols.) S&E Ref QC854.E523 1996 — Covers topics from acid rain to zonal circulation; comprehensive reference work on the past, present, and future of the global environment, authored by scholars and including recent advances in computing, physics, mathematics, the environmental sciences, and space technology. Special attention is given to pollution, the ozone hole, climate change, global warming, desertification, etc.

Macmillan Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences (2 vols.) S&E Ref QE5.E5137 1996 — Includes hazardous-waste disposal, land degradation, coal mining, etc.


Ecology

Beacham's Guide to the Endangered Species of North America (6 vols.) S&E Ref  QH77.N56 B43 2001

Encyclopedia of the Biosphere (11 vols.) S&E Ref QH343.4.B5613 2000 — Provides a history of the biosphere, environmental factors, plant and animal ecology, human influence and uses, management conflicts, human problems and protected areas.
 
Encyclopedia of Environmental Studies S&E Ref QH540.4.A84 2001 — Covers terms used by federal agencies in technical documents plus slang and jargon used by agency personnel, scientists and others. Most entries about one paragraph in length; includes some illustrations.
 
Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia (2002) S&E Ref QL3.G7813 2003 
Comprehensive compilation of animal life. Includes physical characteristics, conservation status, and maps, photos and illustrations.

Beacham's Guide to International Endangered Species (2 vols.) S&E Ref QL82.B435 1998 — Provides a description of species behavior, habitat, distribution, threats, conservation and recovery efforts.

Encyclopedia of Environmental Microbiology - S&E Ref QR100 .B58 2002 (and online at www.mrw.interscience.wiley.com/eem) —
A six volume set which covers all aspects and fields of environmental microbiology from aquatic microbiology, biofilms, biodegradation and environmental biotechnology, to public health and water-treatment microbiology.

Environmental Technology & Pollution

Encyclopedia of Environmental Science and Engineering (4th ed.; 2 vols.) S&E Ref TD9.E5 1998 — Written by experts, these articles cover specific topics in environmental science and engineering at a technical level and include additional references.
 
Wiley Encyclopedia of Environmental Pollution and Cleanup (2 vols.) S&E Ref TD173.W55 1999 — In-depth analysis and historical perspective of pollution sources and remediation: background, characteristics of remediation approaches, containment, stabilization and treatment technologies. Includes discussion of CFCs, radioactive waste, gas cleanup, Clean Air Act regulations and implementation.

Handbook of Environmental Analysis: Chemical Pollutants in Air, Water, Soil and Solid Wastes S&E Ref TD193.P38 1997 — Exhaustive treatment of the analysis of toxic pollutants in the environment, including ambient air, groundwater, surface water, industrial wastewater, and soils and sediments.

Encyclopedia of Energy Technology and the Environment (4 vols.) S&E Ref TJ163.235.E53 1997 — Entries include lengthy bibliographies in addition to background, issues, and in-depth analysis of processes (e.g. air pollution). Includes detailed charts and graphs.

Find Journal Articles

Note: All on-line resources are available by connecting to the Library Research Web page (library.ucsc.edu/research.html) and searching for the database in the Fast Find Online Resources & Databases by Title box. These databases are accessible from on-campus or off-campus via Sluglink, the library proxy server.

For more databases refer to the following guides: Environmental Toxicology and Environmental Policy, Law and Society, as well as the complete list of Science and Engineering databases (library.ucsc.edu/Zope/eresources/bysubject/SCIENG)

Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA) — Biological Sciences and Living Resources, Ocean Technology Policy and Non-Living Resources, and Aquatic Pollution and Environmental Quality. Includes citations and abstracts.
 
BioOne — Searchable database of 45 online journals in biological, environmental, and ecological science.

Biosis Previews — Citations and abstracts to journal articles in the life sciences and biology, including biochemistry, zoology, ecology, and microbiology.

Business Source Premier — Find citations, abstracts, and some full-text articles in business, management, finance, and economics journals. Also includes articles about natural resources, environmental impact, industrial wastes, pollution, pollution regulation, pollution-control costs, and recycling.
 
EIS - Digests of Environmental Impact Statements — Detailed abstracts of all environmental impact statements issued by the US government. Each entry includes a description of the project, sections on positive impact and negative consequences, and legal mandates.
 
Environmental RouteNet — Gateway to environmentally-related resources available via the Internet. Sites are searchable and screened by Cambridge Scientific Abstracts.
 
Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management — Searchable database of citations and abstracts of articles and reports on the following topics: agricultural biotechnology, air quality, bacteriology, environmental impact statements, safety science, waste management, toxicology, pollution, and environmental science.
 
Expanded Academic ASAP — Citations, many with abstracts and full text, for articles in popular magazines and scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and general sciences. Legal, business, and health journals are also included. Find general information about environmental aspects of an industry or product.  Includes articles about recycling, environmental policy, pollution and pollution control. 
 
GeoRef — Describes materials in geology and geophysics, in particular: energy sources, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, groundwater pollution, erosion, nuclear reactor sites, the structure of the earth, and geostatistics. Includes abstracts.
 
Oceanic Abstracts — Citations and abstracts of technical literature pertaining to the marine and brackish water environment.
   
Toxline — Information in all areas of toxicology, including chemicals and pharmaceuticals, pesticides, environmental 
pollutants, mutagens and teratogens. Provides bibliographic citations and abstracts from journal articles, monographs, technical reports, theses, letters, meeting abstracts, papers and reports.

Web of Science — Comprehensive database of citations. Search by subject, author, or journal title. Cited Reference Search finds articles that cite an author or article that you specify.

The UC-eLinks icon in most on-line databases will lead you to the text of journal articles. UC-eLinks will provide links to on-line text when available, the call numbers for print copies of journals, and forms for requesting items through interlibrary loan if UCSC doesn't own the journal. See the UC-eLinks Guide (http://library.ucsc.edu/ref/howto/elinks.html) for more information.

Core Journals

NOTE: This is only a partial list of Environmental Science journals. In addition to browsing these journals in print or online, the contents of these journals can also be accessed using databases like Biosis Previews (BP), Environmental Sciences & Pollution Management (ESPM), and Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA).

Find Books

Use CRUZCAT (cruzcat.ucsc.edu) UCSC's on-line library catalog to find books, periodicals, maps, atlases, and government publications located in both McHenry and the Science & Engineering libraries. Although it contains links to full-text journals do not search using article titles in CRUZCAT. Search using the title of the journal you need.

Try using the keyword search option in CRUZCAT to describe your topic until you find the material you need. Combine words using AND to increase your results. If you need help thinking of keywords, ask a Librarian for assistance or look up your topic in one of the background sources listed above. For example, try using words like these in your searches:

Air quality management	Environmental health	Pollution
Energy conservation	Global environmental change	Restoration Ecology
Environmental chemistry	Nonpoint source pollution	Sustainable Development

Be sure to look at the subjects linked in the CRUZCAT record. Clicking on relevant subjects will lead you to more material on that subject.

Need more? The Melvyl Union Catalog (melvyl.cdlib.org) contains the library holdings of all nine UC campuses. It also has links to request items UCSC does not own, through interlibrary loan. Although it contains links to full-text journal titles, do not search using article titles in Melvyl. Search using the title of the journal you need.

Find Websites

California
Border EcoWeb (www.borderecoweb.sdsu.edu) The U.S.-Mexican Border Environmental Information Web.

California Air Resources Board (ARB) (www.arb.ca.gov/homepage.htm) — Hosts 20+ air-emission information databases all accessible from a single page. You can search for ARB publications in one database, find out what is being emitted from a specific facility in another, and look for district rules in yet another database.

California Environmental Resources Evaluation System (CERES) (ceres.ca.gov) — Natural and cultural resource information from multiple contributors; one-stop shopping for California environmental information.

Federal
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Network (EREN) (www.eere.energy.gov/) — US Department of Energy's portal to information on energy efficiency and renewable energy. Contains more than 600 links and 80,000 online documents.

Envirofacts Data Warehouse (www.epa.gov/envirofw/index) — Access to EPA core datasets on air pollution, chemical names and safety, grants, hazardous wastes, regulated facilities, safe drinking water, Superfund sites, toxic chemical releases and water discharge permits. Information can be integrated across individual databases.

National Library for the Environment (www.cnie.org/nle) — Contains reports, databases, educational resources, daily environmental and Congressional news, conference information, and continually updated full-text Congressional Research Service reports (over 1000 at last count).

TOXNET (toxnet.nlm.nih.gov) — The NLM's grouping of searchable databases on toxicology, hazardous chemicals, and related areas.

Water Resources Data of the United States (USGS) (water.usgs.gov/) — Access to water-resources data collected at approximately 1.5 million sites in all 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Topics include: Real-Time; Site Information; Surface Water; Ground Water; and Water Quality (includes temperature, specific conductance, pH, nutrients, pesticides, and volatile organic compounds). Current and historical data.

Non Governmental
EnviroLink Network (www.envirolink.org) — Non-profit organization provides links to government agencies, publications, activist organizations and internet resources.

Environmental Working Group EWG (www.ewg.org) — Non-profit organization provides investigative reports, detailed analysis, and free databases on issues including agriculture and public lands as well as toxics and pesticides in food, water, the environment and people.

RTK NET (Right-to-Know Network) (www.rtknet.org/) — Provides access to information and databases about environmental effects of specific factories and related communities. Also contains links to TRI (Toxic Release Inventory) data.

Scorecard (www.scorecard.org) — Service of the Environmental Defense Fund that uses data from the EPA's Toxic Release Inventory plus other governmental and scientific agencies.

Columbia Earthscape (www.earthscape.org) — Web portal to resources related to education and research in earth sciences and environmental policy. It is divided into four main sections: research, education, links and resources, and an online magazine, Earth Affairs. The site offers papers, conference proceedings, journal abstracts, a daily news service, and links to databases, datasets, and quality Web sites.

Not all information on the Web has been evaluated by librarians or scholars. If you are using a Web page as a possible research citation, apply the criteria in the Web Evaluation Guide (http://library.ucsc.edu/ref/howto/evaluate.html) to determine the quality of your source.

Find Statistics

Statistical Abstract of the United States
HA202 U5 (and on-line (1995-present) www.census.gov/prod/www/statistical-abstract-02.html)

RAND California [UCSC only] (ca.rand.org/) Click on "Databases" then select "Community" —
Database of statistics on the State of California and the US from the RAND think tank. Find information about air quality by California county and air basins, as well as toxic gases and toxic metals identified by various reporting stations.

Envirofacts Data Warehouse (EPA) (www.epa.gov/envirofw/index) —
Access to EPA core datasets on air pollution, chemical names and safety, grants, hazardous wastes, regulated facilities, safe drinking water, Superfund sites, toxic chemical releases and water discharge permits.

Energy Information Administration (www.eia.doe.gov/) (Department Of Energy) —
Detailed statistics of US energy production and consumption of petroleum, coal, electricity, natural gas and nuclear energy.

Style Guides

How to Use the APA Bibliographic Style (http://library.ucsc.edu/ref/howto/apa_citations.html)
Citing Government Information Sources (http://library.ucsc.edu/library/gov/webhandouts/citing.html)
Scientific Style and Format: The CBE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers [Print Only] T11 .S386 1994 
Available at Science & Engineering Reference stacks and the Government Publications Reference desk.

Created by Sheila O'Hare and Lucia Orlando, July 2004