Environmental laws are laws that protect the environment. Environmental law is the collection of laws, regulations, agreements and common law that governs how humans interact with their environment. This includes environmental regulations; laws governing management of natural resources, such as forests, minerals, or fisheries; and related topics such as environmental impact assessments. Environmental law is seen as the body of laws concerned with the protection of living things from the harm that human activity may immediately or eventually cause to them or their species, either directly or to the media and the habits on which they depend.
Environmental economics is a sub-field of economics concerned with environmental issues. It has become a widely studied subject due to growing environmental concerns in the twenty-first century. Environmental economics "undertakes theoretical or empirical studies of the economic effects of national or local environmental policies around the world. ... Particular issues include the costs and benefits of alternative environmental policies to deal with air pollution, water quality, toxic substances, solid waste, and global warming."
Environmental science is an interdisciplinary academic field that integrates physics, biology, and geography to the study of the environment, and the solution of environmental problems. 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 protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment by individuals, groups and governments. Its objectives are to conserve natural resources and the existing natural environment and, where it is possible, to repair damage and reverse trends.
Ecological engineering uses ecology and engineering to predict, design, construct or restore, and manage ecosystems that integrate "human society with its natural environment for the benefit of both".
A bioindicator is any species or group of species whose function, population, or status can reveal the qualitative status of the environment. The most common indicator species are animals. For example, copepods and other small water crustaceans that are present in many water bodies can be monitored for changes that may indicate a problem within their ecosystem. Bioindicators can tell us about the cumulative effects of different pollutants in the ecosystem and about how long a problem may have been present, which physical and chemical testing cannot.
Aquatic biomonitoring is the science of inferring the ecological condition of rivers, lakes, streams, and wetlands by examining the organisms that live there. While aquatic biomonitoring is the most common form of biomonitoring, any ecosystem can be studied in this manner.
Health ecology is an emerging field that studies the impact of ecosystems on human health. It examines alterations in the biological, physical, social, and economic environments to understand how these changes affect mental and physical human health. Health ecology focuses on a transdisciplinary approach to understanding all the factors which influence an individual's physiological, social, and emotional well-being.
Ecological indicators are used to communicate information about ecosystems and the impact human activity has on ecosystems to groups such as the public or government policy makers. Ecosystems are complex and ecological indicators can help describe them in simpler terms that can be understood and used by non-scientists to make management decisions. For example, the number of different beetle taxa found in a field can be used as an indicator of biodiversity.
The Ministry of Ecology and Environment is an executive-department of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, responsible for the ecological and environmental affairs. It is the 15th-ranked department in the State Council.
Austral Ecology: A Journal of Ecology in the Southern Hemisphere is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research related to the ecology of land, marine, and freshwater systems in the Southern Hemisphere. It is published by Wiley and is the official journal of the Ecological Society of Australia. The journal addresses the commonality between ecosystems in Australia and many parts of southern Africa, South America, New Zealand, and Oceania. For example, many species in the unique biotas of these regions share common Gondwana ancestors. The journal was established in 1976 as Australian Journal of Ecology, obtaining its current name in 2000. As of 2017, the editor-in-chief is Nigel Andrew.
A biosurvey, or biological survey, is a scientific study of organisms to assess the condition of an ecological resource, such as a water body.
Agricultural pollution refers to biotic and abiotic byproducts of farming practices that result in contamination or degradation of the environment and surrounding ecosystems, and/or cause injury to humans and their economic interests. The pollution may come from a variety of sources, ranging from point source water pollution to more diffuse, landscape-level causes, also known as non-point source pollution and air pollution. Once in the environment these pollutants can have both direct effects in surrounding ecosystems, i.e. killing local wildlife or contaminating drinking water, and downstream effects such as dead zones caused by agricultural runoff is concentrated in large water bodies.
Environmental Ethics is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering environmental philosophy. It was established in 1979 by Eugene Hargrove and is published by the Philosophy Documentation Center on behalf of the Center for Environmental Philosophy. The editor-in-chief is Allan A. Thompson.
The Journal of the National Cancer Institute (JNCI) is a peer-reviewed medical journal covering research in oncology that was established in August 1940. It is published monthly by Oxford University Press and is edited by Patricia A. Ganz. It was merged with Cancer Treatment Reports in January 1988. JNCI used to be the official journal of the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI); however, in 1996, the NCI and JNCI agreed to grow apart. Over the next five years, JNCI became independent of the NCI.
Molecular Microbiology is a bimonthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering all aspects of molecular microbiology. It was established in 1987 and is published by Wiley-Blackwell. The editor-in-chief is John D. Helmann.
Systematic Entomology is a scientific journal covering the field of systematic entomology, published by the Royal Entomological Society of London. Having begun in 1932 as Proceedings of the Royal Entomological Society of London, Series B: Taxonomy, the title was changed to Journal of Entomology, Series B: Taxonomy in 1971, starting with volume 40. After volume 44 in 1976, the journal became Systematic Entomology, starting again with volume 1.
The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (JRAI) is the principal journal of the oldest anthropological organization in the world, the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. Articles, at the forefront of the discipline, range across the full spectrum of anthropology, embracing all fields and areas of inquiry – from sociocultural, biological, and archaeological, to medical, material and visual. The JRAI is also acclaimed for its extensive book review section, and it publishes a bibliography of books received.
The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), also known as the Gadgil Commission after its chairman Madhav Gadgil, was an environmental research commission appointed by the Ministry of Environment and Forests of India. The commission submitted the report to the Government of India on 31 August 2011. The Expert Panel approached the project through a set of tasks, such as:
- Compilation of readily available information about Western Ghats
- Development of Geo-spatial database based on environmental sensitivity, and
- Consultation with Government bodies and Civil society groups.
Protist is a peer-reviewed scientific journal focusing on protists. It was founded as Archiv für Protistenkunde by editor Fritz Shaudinn in 1902, and originally published by Gustav Fischer and later Jena. The journal is now published by Elsevier, and is currently edited by Michael Melkonian. The journal changed its name to Protist in 1998.
