Even though it has been known for decades that the properties of galaxies are tightly linked to the environment they inhabit, we still miss a coherent picture on the role played by the cluster environment on galaxy evolution. Until very recently, one of the main problems has been the lack of information about the properties of the different baryonic components (e.g.,gas, stars, dust and metals) taking part in the star formation cycle of galaxies and their variation with local density. Now, wide-area multi-wavelength surveys are finally under way, making it possible to investigate separately the effects of the environment on the different constituents of galaxies.
In this talk, I will combine multiwavelength data (e.g., GALEX-UV, SDSS-optical, Arecibo-HI, Herschel-FIR/submm) for the Herschel Reference Survey, a volume-, magnitude-limited sample of nearby galaxies, to explore how the cold gas, dust and metal content and star formation activity of galaxies vary when moving from the field to the center of the Virgo cluster. I will conclude describing how upcoming multi-wavelength surveys will soon allow us to extend the same kind of analysis to galaxy groups, thus bridging the gap between cluster and field populations.