Research by Subject: Environmental Studies

Dictionaries
Encyclopedias
Government Information

Handbooks & Guides
Images
Journals/Magazines

Books: Use the Library Catalog

Journals/Magazines

ProQuest Social Science Journals Campus Faculty, Staff and Students only Some full text available
Full-text periodicals covering the social sciences, including addiction studies, urban studies, family studies, international relations and much more.

Academic Search Premier Campus Faculty, Staff and Students only Some full text available
Multi-disciplinary database which Includes a large collection of peer-reviewed journals in many areas of academic study including: archaeology, area studies, astronomy, biology, chemistry, ethnic & multicultural studies, law, mathematics, music, physics, psychology, religion & theology, women's studies, and other fields. Coverage varies, but begins in the 1990s for most journals.

AGRICOLA Unrestricted Resource
Agricola is the catalog for the National Agricultural Library. The article search can be used to find citations for resources in agricultural literature and allied disciplines, 1970- present. Includes material relevant to landscape architecture, agricultural economics, animal science, food science, forestry, horticulture, natural resources, plant ecology, and plant pathology.

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.

GEOBASE Campus Faculty, Staff and Students only
Abstracts for worldwide literature on geography, geology, ecology and related disciplines published since 1980. Includes all references published in Geographical Abstracts journals. Indexes more than 5000 journals; as well as books, conference proceedings and reports.

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. The content is delivered as page images.

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.

The Wiley encyclopedia of energy and the environment
Call Number: TJ163.235 .W55 1997 Unrestricted Resource Some full text available
Signed articles with references on topics relating to energy technologies and their ecological consequences.

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.

Global Change Master Directory Unrestricted Resource Some full text available
Clearinghouse of US Government earth science data sets

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.

Science.gov Unrestricted Resource Some full text available
Research portal that allows searching across 38 scientific databases from the US government.

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
Searchable website of government resources relating to biology, geography, geology, geospatial information, and water.

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, nonpartisan reports of political and social issues on topics in health, international affairs, education, the environment, technology, the U.S. economy, etc. Each report provides original, comprehensive reporting on issues, along with tools to study how issues have changed over time.

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.

Statistics/Data

ACToR Unrestricted Resource
ACToR (Aggregated Computational Toxicology Resource) is a collection of databases from the EPA. More than 200 sources of publicly available data on environmental chemicals have been brought together and made searchable by chemical name and other identifiers, and by chemical structure. Data includes chemical structure, physico-chemical values, in vitro assay data and in vivo toxicology data.

2008 World Population Data Sheet Unrestricted Resource Some full text available
Statistical report on world population trends.

UNdata Unrestricted Resource Some full text available
UNdata pools major UN databases and those of several international organizations - browse, search and download data from a large number of statistical databases. Data categories include: agriculture, education, employment, energy, environment, health, human development, industry, information and communication technology, national accounts, population, refugees, trade, and tourism.

Key to Icons show/hide

Subject Liaison

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

Help Guides

Browse Journals

Ecology

News Feeds

This blog's moving home!
After more than two years and many posts, the environment blog is moving home. We're merging with Short Sharp Science, a blog for everything New Scientist covers in the world of science, technology and ideas.You can view that new, super-blog here, and see only the environment posts at this link.For those of you viewing in RSS, please update your readers to subscribe to this new feed.Catherine Brahic, environment reporter
How Galveston weathered the storm
Every hurricane is different, and a key difference between this year's Ike and Katrina three years ago was in the area it hit. With large areas below sea level and weak levees, New Orleans was far more vulnerable to damage from Katrina than Houston and Galveston were to Ike.Galveston is among the US coastal cities best-prepared to face a hurricane. It learned the hard way in 1900 when a hurricane hit the low-lying island without warning, killing more than 8000 people.The city rebuilt, raising land level as much as 5 metres and armouring the coast with a five-metre seawall that now stretches along the eastern 16 kilometers of the island.Houston is flat and vulnerable to flooding in heavy rains, but only the edge of the city lies on Galveston Bay, which means the heart of the city is protected from storm surges.Ike's storm surge failed to reach the 6 to 7.5 metres predicted, saving much of Galveston. But coastal areas lacking seawalls, including the western part of Galveston and the Bolivar Peninsula to the east, were devastated, with many houses demolished. Ike was a huge storm, nearly 1000 kilometers across, so its flooding reached east into western Louisiana.Reports are spotty from the damaged area, most of which remains without power. Many people cannot return to their homes, and people who weathered the storm on Galveston are being evacuated. There are reports of problems in delivering emergency supplies.Although the New York Times had one chilling on-the-scene report from post-storm Galveston, it is now focusing on the weekend's financial meltdown.NOLA.com (New Orleans Times-Picayune) reports that parts of Galveston are "all a memory now", while the Houston Chronicle says the return to Galveston could take weeks.Meanwhile the Port Arthur Texas News had a macabre report of caskets from grave sites being floated by Ike's floodwaters. The Galveston County News site is down at the moment, presumably because of damage.Jeff Hecht, New Scientist correspondent
Palin and McCain: At odds over the environment
Someone, please, clarify something for me: what happens when a president and his vice-president "agree to disagree"?At least the George W Bush administration was consistent within itself. But with the new Republican ticket, we are faced with the prospect of a US president who is against drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge paired to a VP who staunchly supports it, and says the two will just have to "agree to disagree".What does that mean? And will she be equally conciliatory about their opposite views regarding the causes of climate change? It's difficult to follow McCain's mercurial views, but he backs the scientific consensus that industrial activities are causing climate change and has supported cap and trade. Palin, on the other hand acknowledges that global warming is happening, but is "not one who would attribute it to being man-made".When couples agree to disagree, it's generally a way of closing a discussion, shelving it, putting it away, forgetting about it entirely. But this is crunch-time for the climate. In Copenhagen in 2009, world leaders will have to make arguably the most important environmental decision of their respective terms in office.For the new US government, it will be their first great foray into international climate negotiations. After years of supreme isolationism, finally broken by the Bush administration's astonishing performance at UN climate talks last December, the world will be looking to the US. What - what - will happen if the country's leaders have "agreed to disagree"?"When it comes to environmental issues, the only difference between George W Bush and Sarah Palin is lipstick," said Kate Troll, executive director of Alaska Conservation Voters, a local green group.I disagree. Bush may have had his arm twisted, but he did concede that humans are causing climate change. It may have taken many a sleepless night in Bali, but his representatives did agree to draw up a post-Kyoto treaty by 2009. It may have caused him to shun UN discussions on climate change, but his world's biggest emitters committee did create a forum for China and the US to meet and discuss their positions on climate at the highest possible level.The difference between Bush and Palin is not lipstick. It's much more than that. Palin makes Bush look like a forward-thinking tree-hugger. To elect her would be to take four steps back after it took Bush eight years to take two steps forward.Yes, in the short term, the world is going to have to burn more fossil fuels. But we desperately need leaders - not just US leaders, mind - who can look beyond the short-term, and far beyond their terms in office. Climate agreements span decades. The leaders who sign them are working on long-term legacy, not short-term glory.The vacancy at the White House requires someone who can deal with short-term crises and has the ideals to form a realistic long-term vision. With all due respect, Palin does not fit the bill. "Agreeing to disagree" probably makes her a very pleasant person to spend time with. It does not make her a vice-president.Catherine Brahic, environment reporter

Source: New Scientist Environment Blog