Some challenging issues in environmental statistics

In recent years there has been an increase in the employment of statistical methods to help resolve environmental problems, as can be seen by the increasing number of conferences dedicated to this subject, by the growing importance of specialized statistical journals, by the number of essays on this matter featured in multipurpose statistical journals, and by the interest shown by scientific societies. Statistics is of relevance to a great number of environmental topics, and produces results which differ from those of other quantitative methods employed in environmental studies. The contribution of statistics to environmental studies in the past has been closely associated with specific studies rather than the adoption of any concerted common approach, and as such has often been situated within the context of specific, isolated projects. At present, and probably in the near future, statistical methods may be used as a pivotal bond between interdisciplinary environmental studies, while statisticians provide a link between researchers with a variety of different skills. The most recent developments seem to favor scientific communication among subjects rather than specialization, particularly within the field of environmental analysis.