particulate matter |
A mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets (dust, dirt, soot, or smoke).
|
Americas assessment |
particulate organic carbon |
The carbon content of particulate organic matter (Fiedler et al., 2008).
|
Global assessment (1st work programme) |
particulate organic matter |
The large fraction (usually more than 7 micrometers) of soil organic matter (Fiedler et al., 2008).
|
Global assessment (1st work programme) |
passive restoration |
See restoration.
|
Land degradation and restoration assessment |
pastoralism |
Extensive livestock production in rangelands.
|
Europe and Central Asia assessment |
pathway management |
any action taken (single or via systems approach) towards a particular anthropogenic invasive alien species arrival pathway (e.g., trade) to prevent or address the threats and risks of an invasive alien species arriving and establishing via that pathway either between or within jurisdictions
|
Invasive alien species assessment |
pathways |
In the context of the IPBES global assessment, trajectories toward the achievement of goals and targets for biodiversity conservation and management of nature and nature’s contributions to people.
|
Sustainable use assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme) |
pathways |
“Pathways” consist of descriptions of different strategies for moving from the current situation towards a desired future vision or set of specified targets. They are descriptions of purposive courses of actions that build on each other, from short-term to long-term actions into broader transformation. They are closely related to normative or policy or target-seeking scenarios.
|
Values assessment |
pathways |
In the context of the IPBES global assessment, trajectories toward the achievement of goals and targets for biodiversity conservation, the management of nature and nature’s contributions to people, and, more broadly, the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
|
Values assessment |
patrimonial species |
A rare or threatened species which needs local management and which may be a flagship species and may have cultural importance (Pervanchon, 2004).
|
Global assessment (1st work programme) |
payment for ecosystem services |
Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) are a specific class of approach, used to facilitate voluntary transaction between a provider and a user of a service, conditioned on natural resource management rules for dealing with environmental externalities. PES is created to deal with market failures, environmental externalities, property rights problems and asymmetric information between economic actors.
|
Sustainable use assessment |
payment for ecosystem services |
Voluntary transactions that generate offsite services and are established to enable service users to pay resource providers for the conditional provision of the desired ecosystem service.
|
Americas assessment |
payment for ecosystem services |
A payment mechanism that involves a series of payments to land or other natural resource owners in return for a guaranteed flow of ecosystem services or certain actions likely to enhance their provision over-and-above what would otherwise be provided in the absence of payment.
|
Global assessment (1st work programme), Asia-Pacific assessment, Land degradation and restoration assessment |
payment for ecosystem services |
Payments for ecosystem services (PES) is a term used to describe a process whereas a beneficiary or user of an ecosystem service makes a direct or indirect payment to a provider of that service. PES involve a series of payments to land or other natural resource owners in return for a guaranteed flow of ecosystem services or certain actions likely to enhance their provision over-¬and-above what would otherwise be provided in the absence of payment.
|
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peatland |
Wetlands which accumulate organic plant matter in situ because waterlogging prevents aerobic decomposition and the much slower rate of the resulting anaerobic decay is exceeded by the rate of accumulation.
|
Asia-Pacific assessment, Americas assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme), Sustainable use assessment, Land degradation and restoration assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme), Europe and Central Asia assessment |
pedosphere |
A part of the Earth’s surface that contains the soil layer.
|
Land degradation and restoration assessment |
pelagic |
Organisms that live in the water column.
|
Global assessment (1st work programme), Asia-Pacific assessment, Europe and Central Asia assessment, Americas assessment |
people and plants initiative |
A collaboration initiated in 1992 between the World-Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), UNESCO-MAB and the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew on the promotion of ethnobotany and the equitable and sustainable use of plant resources.
|
Global assessment (1st work programme) |
perceptions |
The first stage of the human cognitive process. Perceptions are not neutral as they pass through rational and emotional filters which assess and interpret the relevancy of what people see. These filters are conditioned by individual experience, education, and by collective worldviews. See also Reality; Concepts”; Worldviews”.
|
Land degradation and restoration assessment |
perennial |
See annual.
|
Americas assessment, Europe and Central Asia assessment |
permaculture |
See Conservation agriculture.
|
Land degradation and restoration assessment |
permafrost |
Perennially frozen ground that occurs wherever the temperature remains below 0°C for several years.
|
Americas assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme), Europe and Central Asia assessment |
permafrost |
Perennially frozen ground that occurs wherever the temperature remains below 0°C for several years. Ground (soil or rock and included ice and organic material) that remains at or below 0°C for at least two consecutive years.
|
Land degradation and restoration assessment, Asia-Pacific assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme) |
permeability |
The porosity of soils to allow water to pass through it.
|
Land degradation and restoration assessment |
persistent organic pollutant |
Organic compounds that are resistant to environmental degradation through chemical, biological, and photolytic processes. Because of their persistence, persistent organic pollutants bioaccumulate with potential adverse impacts on human health and the environment.
|
Asia-Pacific assessment |
persistent organic pollutant |
Organic compounds that are resistant to environmental degradation through chemical, biological, and photolytic processes. POPs persist in the environment for long periods, are capable of long-range transport, bioaccumulate in human and animal tissue and biomagnify in food chains, and have potentially significant impacts on human health and the environment. Exposure to POPs can cause serious health problems including certain cancers, birth defects, dysfunctional immune and reproductive systems, greater susceptibility to disease and even diminished intelligence.
|
Sustainable use assessment |
persistent organic pollutant |
Chemicals of global concern due to their potential for long-range transport, persistence in the environment, ability to bio-magnify and bio-accumulate in ecosystems, as well as their significant negative effects on human health and the environment.
|
Global assessment (1st work programme), Land degradation and restoration assessment |
persistent organic pollutant |
Organic compounds that are resistant to environmental degradation through chemical, biological, and photolytic processes. POPs persist in the environment for long periods, are capable of long-range transport, bioaccumulate in human and animal tissue and biomagnify in food chains, and have potentially significant impacts on human health and the environment. Exposure to POPs can cause serious health problems including certain cancers, birth defects, dysfunctional immune and reproductive systems, greater susceptibility to disease and even diminished intelligence.
|
Global assessment (1st work programme) |
pest |
An animal, plant, fungus, or other organism that thrives in places where it is not wanted by people, e.g. in fields, with livestock, in forests, gardens, etc.
|
Pollination assessment |
pesticide |
A substance that kills pests (q.v.). Pesticides may be synthetic chemicals, natural chemicals, or biological agents.
|
Pollination assessment |
pesticide |
A pesticide is any substance used to kill, repel, or control certain forms of plant or animal life that are considered to be pests.
|
Americas assessment |
phenological shifts |
Changes in species phenology, mostly as a result of climate change (Scranton & Amarasekare, 2017).
|
Global assessment (1st work programme) |
phenology |
The study of the relationship between climate and the timing of periodic natural phenomena such as migration of birds, bud bursting, or flowering of plants.
|
Sustainable use assessment |
phenology |
The study of the relationship between climate and the timing of periodic natural phenomena such as migration of birds, bud bursting, or flowering of plants (IUCN, 2012a).
|
|
phenology |
The timing of seasonal activities of animals and plants such as bud burst, flowering, fruiting, migration. Also used to refer to the study of such natural phenomena that recur periodically (e.g. development stages, migration) and their relation to climate and seasonal changes.
|
Land degradation and restoration assessment |
phenotype |
The characteristics of an individual resulting from interaction between its genotype (genetic constitution) and its environment (IUCN, 2012a). These characteristics often include behavior, physiology (e.g. oxygen consumption, heart rate), life history (e.
|
Global assessment (1st work programme) |
phenotype |
The characteristics of an individual resulting from interaction between its genotype (genetic constitution) and its environment (IUCN, 2012a).These characteristics often include behavior, physiology (oxygen consumption, heart rate), life history (e.g. body size, age, offspring number), or morphology (e.g. body proportions).
|
Sustainable use assessment |
phenotypic attributes (biodiversity) |
A distinct variant of a phenotypic characteristic of an organism; it may be either inherited or determined environmentally, but typically occurs as a combination of the two (Lawrence, 2005).
|
Global assessment (1st work programme) |
phenotypic attributes (biodiversity) |
A distinct variant of a phenotypic characteristic of an organism; it may be either inherited or determined environmentally, but typically occurs as a combination of the two.
|
Sustainable use assessment |
phenotypic plasticity |
An ability to alter growth form to suit current conditions without genetic change.
|
Land degradation and restoration assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme) |
phenotypic plasticity |
The capacity of a single genotype to exhibit a range of phenotypes in response to variation in the environment (Whitman & Agrawal, 2009).
|
Global assessment (1st work programme) |
phylogenetic diversity |
Although species richness is a commonly used measure of biodiversity, it fails to capture the reality that species without close relatives contribute more uniqueness than do species with many close relatives. Phylogenetic diversity is used as a general term for a range of measures that consider the total length of all the branches linking a set of species on their phylogeny (“evolutionary tree”) and so reflect species’ evolutionary uniqueness. One of the first such measures is simply the sum of the branch lengths.
|
Sustainable use assessment |
phylogenetic diversity |
Although species richness is a commonly used measure of biodiversity, it fails to capture the reality that species without close relatives contribute more uniqueness than do species with many close relatives. Phylogenetic diversity is used as a general te.
|
|
phylogenetic diversity |
Phylogenetic diversity (PD) describes the breadth of evolutionary history that is represented among the organisms found in a particular area. It can capture both the diversity of ecological functions that are represented, and perhaps more importantly for human well-being, the evolutionary potential of a community to respond to future stressors.
|
Americas assessment |
phylogenetic endemism |
Is a measure of spatial restriction of phylogenetic diversity. In other words, PE is a relative measure of endemism that represents the degree to which lineages or branches of the tree of life (calculated in my) are restricted spatially.
|
Americas assessment |
phylum |
A major taxonomic grouping of animals linked by having a similar general body plan and thought to be a clade. In plants the similar category is called a division (Lawrence, 2005).
|
Global assessment (1st work programme) |
phytophilia |
The positive effect of green vegetation in landscapes on human beings.
|
Europe and Central Asia assessment |
phytoplankton |
The autotrophic components of the plankton community and a key part of oceans, seas and freshwater basin ecosystems.
|
Asia-Pacific assessment |
planetary boundary |
The safe operating space for humanity with respect to the Earth system and are associated with the planet’s biophysical subsystems or processes.
|
Land degradation and restoration assessment |
plankton |
Aquatic organisms that drift or swim weakly. Phytoplankton are the plant forms of plankton (e.g., diatoms), and are the dominant plants in the sea. Zooplankton are the animal forms of plankton. Picoplankton are all forms of plankton which size is comprised between 0.2 and 2 micrometers (mostly bacteria).
|
Sustainable use assessment |