The role of environment in infrared surveys: from supernovae to clusters

In this thesis we investigate several aspects of galaxy evolution. We begin by giving a brief introduction to the subject of galaxy evolution in the context of the Universe as we know it today. We discuss infrared surveys of galaxies as a tool for studying galaxy evolution. Initially, we are interested in the large scale environment of galaxies and identify clusters of galaxies at high redshift. We compare the mass and star-formation properties of galaxies in the cluster and field environments. To take this further we look to the AKARI all- sky survey and assess the potential of this survey for future studies. We calculate the completeness and reliability of the survey. Such wide surveys also allow for the possibility of studying rare and extreme phenomena. Such phenomena can push theories of galaxy evolution to their extremes and constrain these theories. We present the discovery of four such objects in the SWIRE survey. Finally, since environment plays a large role in the evolution of galaxies we extend this investigation to smaller scales. We investigate the progenitors of Type Ia Supernovae from a study of their host galaxies, which have implications for their use as standardisable candles.