LibGuides: Natural Resource Sciences: Home

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About This Guide

Welcome to the WSU Natural Resources resource guide. The Owen library contains many resources for students and faculty interested in Natural Resources. If you have any questions not answered on the WSU Libraries website or would like to request a book or journal on any subject related to Natural Resources, please contact the subject librarian.

Need general help in finding WSU library resources?

Answers to common WSU library questions

For more information on primary and secondary sources, see:

Finding Primary Sources

For broader resources on the biological and life sciences, see:

Biology Research Guide

General Resources

Many broad academic databases cover the sciences. If you are new to a topic or field of study, they may be a good place to start your search.

If full-text of references found in the databases listed below is not readily available, use the Find It button. The Find It @ WSU service will provide you with a menu of options to retrieve articles, such as downloading articles online and interlibrary loans.

Academic Search Complete
Academic Search Complete includes full text for 1800 publications as well as images, for nearly every academic field of study.
Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics)
Includes Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences and Science Citation indexes, Journal Citation Reports, BIOSIS Previews, BIOSIS Citation Index, Derwent Innovations patent searching, MEDLINE, and Zoological Record. Updated weekly.

Guides and tutorials for Web of Science

Google Scholar
Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Google Scholar helps you find relevant work across the world of scholarly research.

Off-campus access to articles in Google Scholar
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
PLOS was founded as a nonprofit Open Access publisher, innovator and advocacy organization with a mission to advance progress in science and medicine by leading a transformation in research communication.

Natural Resources Databases

AGRICOLA (EBSCO)
AGRICOLA contains bibliographic records from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Library.
Biodiversity Heritage Library
The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is a consortium of natural history and botanical libraries that cooperate to digitize the legacy literature of biodiversity held in their collections and to make that literature available for open access and responsible use as a part of a global Òbiodiversity commons.Ó The BHL consortium works with the international taxonomic community, rights holders, and other interested parties to ensure that this biodiversity heritage is made available to a global audience through open access principles. The BHL has digitized millions of pages of taxonomic literature, representing nearly 100,000 titles and over 160,000 volumes.
BioOne Complete
Access to the full text of over 50 research journal published by scientific societies. A collection of high impact journals focused on the biological, ecological and environmental sciences.
CAB Direct
CAB Direct helps you to find the most relevant, up-to-date and reliable information in the applied life sciences. Incorporating the leading bibliographic databases, CAB Abstracts and Global Health, CAB Direct provides access to these key resources directly from CABI Publishing.
GeoRef (EBSCO)
Produced by the American Geological Institute, GeoRef is a comprehensive geoscience database containing over 2.2 million bibliographic records from more than 3,000 journals and other sources. GeoRef provides coverage in subject areas such as mineralogy and crystallography, general mineralogy, mineralogy of silicates, and mineralogy of non-silicates.
GreenFILE (EBSCO)
GreenFILE covers all aspects of human impact to the environment. It includes content on global warming, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, recycling, and more. The database provides indexing and abstracts for approximately 295,000 records, as well as Open Access full text for more than 4,600 records.
Soil Surveys (USDA) This link opens in a new window
A subject gateway to soil surveys, soil geography, major land resource areas (MLRA) and ecological regions (CER), and a soil geochemistry spatial database.
Washington State Geospatial Open Data
Government geospatial data resources

Online Resources

American Water Resources Association
Forest Service Geodata Clearinghouse
Pacific Northwest Forests (Washington and Oregon) and other Regional Program Areas with GIS data currently or planned to be online.
Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
GBIF is an international network and research infrastructure funded by the world’s governments and aimed at providing open access data regarding life on earth.
National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC)
NIFC helps coordinate responses to wildfires and hosts InciWeb, a portal to geographic information about prescribed and unintentional wildfires.
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information Data Access
TreeSearch
"Treesearch is an online system for sharing free, full text publications by Research and Development scientists in the US Forest Service. Included in Treesearch are scholarly works published by the agency as well as those published by others, including papers appearing in journals, conference proceedings, or books. All publications appearing in Treesearch are based on peer reviewed research to make sure they provide the best scientific information possible.".
US Forest Service
Washington State Department of Natural Resources
Washington Water Service
Water Resources (USGS)

Books & Encyclopedias

Many Natural resource science resources at the Owen Science and Engineering Library can be found in our Reference collection on the first floor. You can also browse topics related to natural resources in Owen Science and Engineering Library, under the following call number headings:

GC - Oceanography
GE - Environmental sciences
GF - Human ecology, Anthropogeography
QH - Natural history - Biology
QK - Botany
QL - Zoology
SB - Plant culture
SD - Forestry
SF - Animal culture
SH - Aquaculture, Fisheries, Angling

Library of Congress science call numbers

General Reference

Encyclopedia of Environmental Issues, Third Edition by Salem Press Editors (Editor)
ISBN: 9781642650549
Publication Date: 2019-03-01
The third edition contains nearly 800 alphabetically arranged articles. They cover a wide variety of topics, including endangered animal species, air pollution, national parks, environmental legislation, oil spills, alternative energy sources, and global climate change. In recognition of the fact that people spend an overwhelming proportion of their time in human-made environments, essays also cover such topics as sick building syndrome, noise pollution, smog, and urban planning.
Environmental Resource Handbook, 2019/20 by Laura Mars (Editor)
ISBN: 9781642652680
Publication Date: 2019-07-01
This edition is the most up-to-date and comprehensive source for Environmental Resources and Statistics. Section I: Resources, provides detailed contact information for thousands of information sources, including Associations & Organizations, Awards & Honors, Conferences, Foundations & Grants, Environmental Health, Government Agencies, National Parks & Wildlife Refuges, Publications, Research Centers, Educational Programs, Green Product Catalogs, Consultants and much more. Section II: Statistics, provides statistics on hundreds of important topics, including Children's Environmental Index, Municipal Finances, Toxic Chemicals, Recycling, Climate, Air & Water Quality and more. This kind of up-to-date environmental data, all in one place, is not available anywhere else on the market place today. This new edition is a must-have for all public and academic libraries as well as any organization with a primary focus on the environment.

Ecology

Ecology Basics
ISBN: 1587651742
Publication Date: 2003-08-01
This guide covers the fundamental scientific concepts of ecology as taught in biology and environmental science courses. It offers essays on the levels of individual organisms and their interactions with the environment, and the levels of ecosystems and global ecology, for example.
Conflicts over Natural Resources by Jacqueline Vaughn
ISBN: 9781598840155
Publication Date: 2007-01-08
This work is an overview of the critical natural resource conflicts facing the United States and the world, and current attempts to resolve them peacefully. Conflicts over natural resources are not new. But they are now worldwide, enduring, increasingly contentious, and in some cases, intractable. In this new book, political scientist Jacqueline Vaughn explores conflicts over natural resources--both renewable and nonrenewable--in the United States and from a worldwide perspective. Conflicts over Natural Resources focuses on four major controversies: minerals, oil, and natural gas drilling; protected areas policy; range land management; and timber and forests. On the global level, the work also explores issues surrounding diamonds and precious metals, forest destruction, and water scarcity. For students, professionals, and lay readers alike, this book offers a thorough and balanced grounding in both the problems surrounding resource management and the successful strategies for resolution. Provides an overview of the six major periods in U.S. history that defined natural resource issues and conflicts Includes a chronology of renewable natural resource issues in the United States from the colonial period to the present
Environmental Resource Handbook, 2019/20 by Laura Mars (Editor)
ISBN: 9781642652680
Publication Date: 2019-10-30
This edition is the most up-to-date and comprehensive source for Environmental Resources and Statistics. Section I: Resources, provides detailed contact information for thousands of information sources, including Associations & Organizations, Awards & Honors, Conferences, Foundations & Grants, Environmental Health, Government Agencies, National Parks & Wildlife Refuges, Publications, Research Centers, Educational Programs, Green Product Catalogs, Consultants and much more. Section II: Statistics, provides statistics on hundreds of important topics, including Children's Environmental Index, Municipal Finances, Toxic Chemicals, Recycling, Climate, Air & Water Quality and more. This kind of up-to-date environmental data, all in one place, is not available anywhere else on the market place today. This new edition is a must-have for all public and academic libraries as well as any organization with a primary focus on the environment.
Green Volunteers by Fabio Ausenda
ISBN: 9788889060148
Publication Date: 2009-03-31
Green Volunteers lists over 200 projects worldwide for those who want to experience active conservation work as a volunteer. Projects are in a variety of habitats and countries, lasting from one week to one year or more. Projects involve volunteer work in wildlife rehabilitation centers, national parks, and protected areas, and general conservation work with a variety of animal species. The guide has 3 indexes set up by geographical area, animal species, and project cost, all to help prospective volunteers choose their favorite conservation project. Almost all the projects are open to anyone without previous conservation experience, and most projects do not have language requirements. Green Volunteers guide is a one-time purchase. Anyone who purchases the guide can receive free updates via the internet, plus an extended annotated list of useful websites that allow the reader to find hundreds of additional projects.
Water Encyclopedia, Set by Jay H. Lehr (Editor-In-Chief); Jack Keeley (Editor)
ISBN: 0471441643
Publication Date: 2005-06-13
The Water Encyclopedia offers a comprehensive depository of all information relating to the scientific and technological aspects of the world's most important natural resource -- water. The role of water in science, engineering and society requires a one-stop location to find whatever information is available on the cutting edge of the 21st century. This book is a resource for useful public domain data. Its focus is expert narrative on all water-related subjects.