It has become so easy to find information, organizations, and so on using web search tools that this page may be unnecessary -- but, believe me, when I first began developing this site over 10 years ago, that was not the case! Neverthelss, I provide here a short list of some Web sites revant to BI301 below. This list is, of course, not comprehensive, but will get you started. I have selected primarily government sites, or sites associated with respected scientific societies (such as AAAS, the American Association for the Advancement of Science), but some other types of sites are also listed. (Credibility of Web sites is something that always requires vigilance -- particularly when controversial topics, such as many discussed in this course, are involved!) Please let me know if you try a link and it is no longer active!
The list below includes sites of general relevance to ecology and environmental science, while sites relevant to particular topics that we will discuss this term are listed in association with those lecture notes -- click the "Contents" box at the bottom for a list of these topics.
If you visit one or more of these sites from here and then wish to return to this point, just use the "Back" key provided in your browser's tool bar.
Oregon State University:
Get connected with sustainability efforts on our own campus -- which are impressive -- and expanding as time passes!
Government Sites:
US Federal Government Agencies (an overall site, from which you can link to specifics)
US Forest Service site
NASA's Mission to Planet Earth (examines environmental changes due to human activities)
US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA ) Note, in particular, that you can retreive environmental information, collected by the EPA, about a local area of interest to you at www.epa.gov/enviro
US Geological Survey's National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII). Seeks to make significant ecological and biological information from many sources more widely availalbe, by including thousands of links to collaborators' Web sites and databases.
Scientific Societies and Centers:
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS): Welcome to "Science Online" and "Science Online ," the weekly newsmagazine of Science, the journal published by AAAS. Home page for the AAAS itself.
The web site for the Society for Conservation Biology contains information on the society, as well as on job opportunities related to conservation biology, links to educational and media resources, and much more.
Ecological Society of America (ESA)
National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (Center sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the state of California, and UC Santa Barbara to conduct, integrate, and synthesize basic and applied research on ecological problems and questions.)
Nature magazine(One of the premier, peer-reviewed scientific journals, which covers a variety of topics within science, including articles relevant to environmental science.)
Conservation Ecology is a journal published on the internet that includes original research findings on the ecological basis for conservation, ecosystem and habitat restoration, and resource management, published by the Resilience Alliance.
Forum on Science and Sustainability. Sponsored by Harvard University. This site includes information and resources on alternative energy, climate change, how to measure sustainability, the role of technology in promoting sustainability and so forth.
Jobs, Career and Graduate School Information:
"Careers in Science and Engineering: A Student Planning Guide to Graduate School and Beyond." Co-sponsored by the American Institute for Biological Science (AIBS) and the National Academy of Science.
"Sciences Next Wave " – Career information for undergraduates and graduate students, sponsored by the AAAS.
Environmental Careers Organization (Career services, notices of paid internships...)
Texas A&M University sponsors a job board (and graduate school opportunites) that is reputed to be quite good.
Environmental Agencies and Groups:
Corvallis Environmental Center (This center also manages several list serves on relevant topics, which can be subscribed to via this home page.)
The Nature Conservancy (A private group dedicated to preserving land and biota in the US and elsewhere in the world.)
Environmental Defense Fund. (One of the more influential environmental groups in the US; not unbiased!)
Natural Resources Defense Council (Again, an influential environmental group; site includes environmental news stories, a legislative watch, links to other sources, environmental glossaries, etc.)
Miscellaneous Sources of Environmental Information:
A list of web sites of interest to ecologists.
World Resources (Home page of the World Resources Institute.)
Envirolink Network (A large collection of environmental information.)
Oregon State of the Environment 2000 is a major report complied by a panel of scientists who authored the comprehensive "State of the Environment" report for Oregon. Former OSU President Paul Risser was Chair of the committee.
A related site is the Willamette Basin Alternative Futures Analysis, which wascarried out by scientists at the Corvallis Environmental Protection Agency Laboratory. It includes an atlas summarizing current conditions and projections for the future based on alternative assumptions about population growth and conservation strategies.
For a calendar of local upcoming events related to sustainability issues, you can visit OSU's Center for Water and Environmental Sustainability site.
On-line National Library for the Environment (Contains nonpartisan issue reports, information on environmental education programs and resources, information on environmental lays and population-environment linkages, a virtual library of ecology and biodiversity, and information on environmental careers and jobs.)
A site to help you figure out how to be "part of the solution" in your lifestyle choices, whether you are thinking about household cleaners or furniture is Greenliving.
Want to calculate your "ecological footprint?" Google on "ecolgical footprint calculator" and you'll find many sites that allow you to do this -- each with its own emphasis, of course.
See also the web site for the Union of Concerned Scientists, which provides their assessments on a wide range of environmental issues. By visiting their site, you can subscribe to their Greentips electronic newsletter and receive monthly emails with tips on ways to reduce the environmental impact of your every day life.
Many useful databases are available through OSU Libraries For example, the OSU library provides access to Environmental Science and Pollution Management (ESPM), which is a multidisciplinary data base produced by Cambridge Scientific Abstracts that provides comprehensive coverage of the environmental sciences. Abstracts and citations are drawn from over 5,980 serials with wide ranging coverage of environmental topics from 1981 to the present. You can answer questions such as, "Where can I find information on using biological controls for introduced (nonnative) species? " "Where can I find information related to water issues in the Klamath Basin?" and so forth. If you want to access this information from off-campus, see the instructions at the following link for using the library's proxy server (go to the library's Database of Databases web page, click on the A-Z database list button, and click on the link under E).
Green Options is a site with current environmenetal news stories and blogs.
To explore other sections of the BI301 Home Page, click the "Contents" box at the bottom of this page; to move back to the previous section of these introductory notes, click the "<<" box at the bottom of the page. (Use "Navigate" for a general reminder on how to move within and among these documents.)
This page is maintained by Patricia Muir at Oregon State University. You can address comments or questions to me here: (muirp@science.oregonstate.edu) . Page last updated Dec. 26, 2007.