Environmental Science Managing Biological and Physical Resources

• Main Authors: Morgan, Michael D. (Author), Moran, Joseph M. (Author), Wiersma, James H. (Author)
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: Dubuque, Iowa W.C. Brown Publishers 1993
• Subjects: Environmental sciences
• Online Access: Click Here to View Status and Holdings.

 This book introduces the college nonscience major to the principles and issues of environmental science. It was written for a one-semester course, but is comprehensive enough for most two-semester courses. In it, we demonstrate how environmental issues relate to the reader's everyday life, illus trate scientific principles by building on worldwide and famil iar examples, and encourage students to become personally involved with solving environmental problems. So while we cover large-scale or global issues, we encourage students to act locally as well. Over the past twenty years, we have coauthored five text books on the environment. Each of us brings to this work the experience of teaching undergraduates for more than twenty two years and the complementary perspectives of different scientific backgrounds. One of us is an ecologist, one a meteo rologist, and the other an environmental chemist. Through team-teaching and collaboration, we have learned much from each other, giving our writing a genuine sense of interdiscipli nary instruction, a writing style nonscience students with diverse backgrounds should find appealing. The study of environmental science is dynamic, and we have attempted to keep pace with rapid advances in the field. This text reflects the continued maturation of environmental science, which is characterized by an improved scientific un derstanding of how environmental systems work and a better ability to predict the consequences of human and nonhuman disruptions of the environment. In addition, this book re sponds to the renewed public interest in environmental qual ity by providing a solid scientific basis for understanding and demonstrating how various environmental issues are linked.