Research by Subject: Ecology

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Journals/Magazines

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Journals/Magazines

Academic Search Premier Campus Faculty, Staff and Students only Some full text available
Multi-disciplinary academic database. Some 1975-current.

AGRICOLA Unrestricted Resource
Citations to resources in agricultural literature and allied disciplines. 15th century - current. Also includes articles and books relevant to landscape architecture.

American Chemical Society Journal Archive Campus Faculty, Staff and Students only Some full text available
Full text of the most cited chemistry research in all titles published by ACS. 1879 - our current ACS Web Editions subscription.

American Chemical Society Journals Campus Faculty, Staff and Students only Some full text available
American Chemical Society journals and magazines. Full-text of titles to which Ithaca College subscribes, and to all other titles 5 years old and older.
Note: aka ACS Web Editions

Biological abstracts Campus Faculty, Staff and Students only Some full text available
Provides abstracts and bibliographic references to journal items focusing on vital biological and medical research findings, pharmacological studies, and discoveries of new organisms. Includes some linked full text.

Columbia Earthscape Campus Faculty, Staff and Students only Some full text available
Comprehensive aggregation of resources in the Earth and Environmental Sciences.

Directory of Open Access Journals DOAJ Unrestricted Resource Some full text available
Free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals on all subjects in many languages.

General Science Collection Campus Faculty, Staff and Students only Some full text available
All aspects of the scientific world; full-text incl. Archaeology, Astronomy, International Wildlife, Popular Science, Science News, Scientific American, etc.

GEOBASE Campus Faculty, Staff and Students only
Worldwide literature on geography, geology, ecology and related disciplines in books and journals. 1980-present

Google Scholar Unrestricted Resource Some full text available
Peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from broad areas of research. Supports cited reference searching. Includes recent or unpublished work that hasn't been indexed in other databases.

GreenFILE Unrestricted Resource
An index drawing on the connection between the environment and disciplines such as agriculture, education, law, health and technology. GreenFILE provides a unique perspective on the positive and negative ways humans affect the environment. Nearly 300,000 records (full text for selected titles) from scholarly and general interest titles, as well as government documents and reports.

HighWire press Unrestricted Resource Some full text available
Free access to full-text science, technology and medicine journals, except for the most recent issues (usually six months or a year).

JSTOR Campus Faculty, Staff and Students only Some full text available
Complete backfiles of core scholarly journals, searchable by journal (1 or more), keywords, author, title etc. Files do not include the latest 3-5 years.

Nature Campus Faculty, Staff and Students only Some full text available
Access to the weekly journal Nature from 1869 to the present. Nature contains original research, science news, review articles, job postings, and book reviews. Links to several other journals from Nature Publishing Group.

PLoS: Public Library of Science Unrestricted Resource Some full text available
Open access journals published by a nonprofit organization of scientists and physicians. PLoS journal cover biology, medicine, computational biology, genetics, pathogenes, clinical trials, and tropical diseases.

Science Campus Faculty, Staff and Students only Some full text available
Science Magazine Online, aka Science Online, the official journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Access back to 1997 is available through this site; see JSTOR for older issues.

ScienceDirect Campus Faculty, Staff and Students only Some full text available
Full-text scientific, technological, medical journals; subjects covered include biology, biochemistry, business management and accounting, chemistry, computer science, economics, finance, environmental science, mathematics, medicine, neuroscience, nursing, physics, psychology, education, and communication. Includes access to selected full-text reference books. Indexing/Abstracts to additional titles.

Sustainability: Science, Practice, & Policy (SSPP) Unrestricted Resource Some full text available
A peer-reviewed, open access journal that provides a platform for the dissemination of new practices and for dialogue emerging out of the field of sustainability.

Web Sites

CSRwire.com Unrestricted Resource
The leading source of corporate responsibility and sustainability, press releases, reports and news.

Eldis Unrestricted Resource Some full text available
A portal to information on development issues, providing access to wide range of online resources,including documents, organizations, email bulletins and newsfeeds.

Dictionaries

Dictionary of Ecology
Call Number: REF QH 540.4 .C65 1998 Unrestricted Resource Some full text available
concise dictionary of ecological terms

Oxford Dictionary of Ecology Campus Faculty, Staff and Students only
Dictionary of terminology in the environmental sciences

Encyclopedias

Beacham's Guide to the Endangered Species of North America
Call Number: REF QH 77 .N56 B43 2001 Unrestricted Resource Some full text available
Six-volume with detailed articles on endangered plants and animals of North America. Most entries include an illustration and references.

Encyclopedia of Environmental Biology
Call Number: REF QH 540.4 .E52 1995 Unrestricted Resource Some full text available
Three-volume encyclopedia featuring detailed articles on environmental topics. Articles are signed and include bibliographies.

Encyclopedia of Evolution
Call Number: REF QH 360.2 .E54 2002 Unrestricted Resource Some full text available
Signed articles by leading researchers on all things related to evolution. Also includes a number of introductory essays on special topics.

Government Information

FedStats Unrestricted Resource Some full text available
Links to over 100 various agencies which provide statistics, covering areas as wide reaching as crime, demographics, economics, energy, environment, health, and natural resources.

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) Unrestricted Resource Some full text available
The USGS reexamined the geology of the ANWR 1002 area and has prepared this petroleum resource assessment.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Unrestricted Resource Some full text available
The US EPA provides information on major environmental topics, including laws and regulations.

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Unrestricted Resource
Gateway to environmental information for New York State. Includes information on pollution, wildlife, and natural areas.

Toxnet Unrestricted Resource Some full text available
Toxicology data network from the National Library of Medicine. Databases on toxicology, hazardous chemicals, environmental health, and toxic releases.

U.S. Geological Survey Unrestricted Resource Some full text available
An unbiased, multi-disciplinary science organization that focuses on biology, geography, geology, geospatial information, and water, dedicated to the timely, relevant, and impartial study of the landscape, natural resources, and natural hazards.

Handbooks & Guides

Climate change: A guide to the information and disinformation Unrestricted Resource Some full text available
Annotated links to (mostly) online resources, from basic science to government agencies and organizations, to research institutions, and environmental groups. Sponsored by the Society of Environmental Journalists.

CQ Researcher Campus Faculty, Staff and Students only Some full text available
In-depth, non-biased reports of political and social issues on topics in health, international affairs, education, the environment, technology, the U.S. economy, etc.

Sax's Dangerous Properties of Industrial Materials
Call Number: REF T 55.3 .H3 L494 2004 Unrestricted Resource Some full text available
Three volume handbook of toxicological data of common chemicals

Images

NBII Digital Image Library Unrestricted Resource Some full text available
The National Biological Information Infrastructure's Digital Image Library includes images related to nature and the environment. Collections contain images associated with plant and animal species, scenic landscapes, environmental issues, wildlife management, and biological study/fieldwork.

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Subject Liaison

Ron Gilmour
Natural Sciences Librarian
Tel: (607) 274- 3889

Help Guides

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Ecology

News Feeds

Just how thin is the North Pole ice?
Last spring we broke the news that the North Pole could be ice-free this summer. Now we've got some numbers that show just how thin the ice at the North Pole has become over the past 17 years, and they suggest that Santa isn't sitting very pretty.Christian Haas of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany and colleagues estimated the thickness of late summer ice at the North Pole in 2001, 2004 and 2007. They found that the ice was on average 1.3 metres thick at the end of the summer in 2007. By contrast, it was 2.3 metres thick in 2001 and 2.6 metres thick in 2004.Measuring polar ice thickness has always presented a bit of a challenge, particularly in remote areas like the North Pole. Haas and colleagues flew a helicopter equipped with a device that detects ice thickness remotely by measuring its conductivity.Previously, glaciologists had gone to the same region and measured ice thickness by placing instruments directly on the ice. Records from 1991 show that the summer ice that year was 3.1 m thick.Exactly how the ice is thinning is still something of a mystery. What is clear is that the ice at the North Pole used to be thick "old" ice, but is now first year ice - ice that has grown in a single winter and is therefore much thinner. The North Pole is right on the course of the "transpolar drift", a current that carries ice from the Siberian coast, across the Arctic Ocean, and out into the Atlantic along Greenland's coast. This could be shifting thicker ice away from the North Pole, leaving much thinner first year ice behind.And because thin ice is likely to drift faster, the team conclude that the North Pole could indeed soon be ice-free in summer. Whether or not that happens this year remains to be seen. Watch this space.Catherine Brahic, online environment reporter
Lonesome no longer?
Lonesome George, the rarest living creature, could soon have some company.The Charles Darwin Foundation, which coordinates scientific research on the Galapagos islands, says that George - a giant tortoise from Pinta island thought to be the last of his kind - has been "acting differently" recently.Then wardens noticed that one of the females that George shares his pen with had dug a nest and laid 9 eggs.Before we get carried away, this does not necessarily mean that George has had sex with her, says Henry Nicholls, author of a book about George."There are rumours that eggs have been laid before," he says. "Tortoises sometimes lay unfertilised eggs without having had sex, like chickens."It is unclear whether George has had sex with the females in his pen, says Nicholls. He's been seen to half-heartedly mount the females, but penetration has not been observed.Judging by this video, however, penetration by a giant tortoise would be pretty hard to miss.Even if the eggs are fertilised - and it will take some 120 days to confirm this - any hatchling tortoises will not be "pure" Pinta tortoises, like George, as the females are from nearby Isabela island.Nevertheless, nesting behaviour and the laying of a proper clutch of 9 eggs, 3 of which have been removed into an incubator, is exciting news. George is a conservation icon, all hopes of saving the species rest with him."Maybe George has read my book and realises the significance of the role he has to play," says Nicholls.Rowan Hooper, online news editor
Why it won't be a green Olympics
Neither rain, nor smog - nor algae - shall interfere with these games.Chinese officials announced last week that the green gook that invaded the Olympic sailing venue in Qingdao has been eradicated.Tourists bound for the northeast China vacation destination known for its public beaches and fresh seafood arrived at the beginning of July to find the port town's waters choked with algae. The green stuff was so thick that Olympic sailing teams training in the area were literally mired in the stuff.Within days more than 10,000 soldiers and volunteers were conscripted onto boats and barges to haul away the algae. To keep further invasions from spoiling the games, they also erected barriers some 22 km long that cordoned off Olympic sailing course.It never ceases to amaze me how so much manpower can so quickly be assembled for public works projects here in China. The slime - more than 1 million tones - has been sent to the countryside where it was buried under lime and dirt and may yet be rehabilitated for use as fertiliser.Each summer Qingdao gets hit by algae and Chinese officials maintain that this year's inundation was an unfortunate natural phenomenon. Others speculate that increasing levels of pollution and fertiliser runoff may be to blame for this year's spike.With 22 days to go, all but the last vestiges of algae are gone and the games, at least, are set to proceed as scheduled. However it seems the city's annual beer festival (Qingdao was once a German concession and its citizens still know how to craft a tasty brew) has been postponed from August 12 to September 19. Perhaps the thousands of soldiers and volunteers drained local supplies after all that hard work.Phil McKenna, Beijing

Source: New Scientist Environment Blog