Search Results

Natural and artificial substances in the atmosphere that affect human health or well-being, or the well-being of any other organisms in the environment. Air pollution also applies to situations in which contaminants affect structures and artifacts…

Microplastics are raining down on national parks and other protected areas in the western United States at the rate of about 132 pieces of microplastic per square meter every day, according to a report in the journal Science (June 2020).…

A white, crystalline compound, 1-aspartyl-1-phenylalanine methyl ester (APM), used as an artificial sweetener. Aspartame is composed of two amino acids: aspartic acid and phenylalanine [structure (1)]. Amino acid Artificial sweetener Aspartame…

Construction of a mathematical model of the climate system of the Earth capable of simulating its behavior under present and altered conditions. The Earth's climate is continually changing over time scales ranging from hundreds of years to a few…

The scientific study of climate. Climate is the expected mean and variability of the weather conditions for a particular location, season, and time of day. The climate is often described in terms of the mean values of meteorological variables such…

Keeping perishable products at low temperatures to extend shelf life. Cold storage vastly retards the natural deterioration of perishable products at higher temperatures. Time and temperature are the key factors that determine how well foods (see…

The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 that emerged in central China in late 2019 and subsequently spread across the world in 2020 led to the COVID-19 pandemic. The emergence of a previously unknown pathogen—such as the novel coronavirus—that could affect…

The response of corals to environmental stress in which they eject the single-cell algae that live within the transparent coral tissue, making the white coral skeleton visible. Corals (Fig. 1) are animals that live in a partnership (symbiosis) with…

Pathological conditions affecting the health of coral and causing its physiological dysfunction. Broadly defined, coral disease (Fig. 1) is any impairment to coral health resulting in physiological disturbance and breakdown. It usually involves…

A measure of the three-dimensional structure of live coral communities on reefs. Coral reef structural complexity is an intrinsic element of coral reef ecosystems and quantitates the surface area of coral in relation to its linear area. The…

A vortex in which the sense of rotation of the wind about the local vertical is the same as that of the Earth's rotation. Thus, a cyclone rotates clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere and counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere. In meteorology…