Glossary definitions

Refers to transparent social practices that are based on ethical values, compliance with legal requirements, and respect for people, communities, and the environment.

Social welfare services provided by a community of individuals at the state and local levels. These services are geared toward eliminating poverty in a specific area. These services may include housing re- assignment, job placement, subsidies for household bills, and other cash equivalents for food. Social safety net works in conjunction with a number of other poverty reduction programs with the primary goal of reducing/preventing poverty.

Social values refer to value indicators at a social scale, such as social willingness to pay in economics. They can be established by aggregation from individual values through analytical procedures, or through social processes, such as deliberative valuation, that lead to shared social values.

The condition of a society emphasizing happiness and contentment; social welfare relates to how individuals use their relationships to other actors in societies for their own and for the collective good; it has both material elements and wider spiritual and social dimensions.

Social-ecological systems are complex adaptive systems in which people and nature are inextricably linked, in which both the social and ecological components exert strong influence over outcomes. The social dimension includes actors, institutions, cultures and economies, including livelihoods. The ecological dimension includes wild species and the ecosystem they inhabit.

The capacity of a social-ecological system to absorb or withstand perturbations and other stressors such that the system remains within the same regime, essentially maintaining its structure and functions. It describes the degree to which the system is capable of self-organization, learning and adaptation.

Aggregations of people involved in persistent social interactions or sharing geographical or social territories, often with individual political authorities and dominant cultural expectations.

Values shared by people in groups and/or values that inform shared identity of a particular group.

Dynamic mosaics of habitats and land uses where the harmonious interaction between people and nature maintains biodiversity while providing humans with the goods and services needed for their.

Dynamic mosaics of habitats and land uses where the harmonious interaction between people and nature maintains biodiversity while providing humans with the goods and services needed for their livelihoods, survival and well-being in a sustainable manner.

A bio-geo- physical unit and its associated social actors and institutions. Socio-ecological systems are complex and adaptive and are delimited by spatial or functional boundaries surrounding particular ecosystems and their specific context.

A concept used in a variety of analytical approaches intended to examine the relationship between people and nature as inter-linked, recognizing that humans should be seen as a part of, not apart from, nature, and nature as inter-linked to social systems.

see indirect drivers.

An ecosystem, the management of this ecosystem by actors and organizations, and the rules, social norms, and conventions underlying this management.

The upper layer of the Earth’s crust transformed by weathering and physical/ chemical and biological processes. It is composed of mineral particles, organic matter, water, air and living organisms organized in genetic soil horizons.

Soil acidification is caused by a number of factors including acidic precipitation and the deposition from the atmosphere of acidifying gases or particles, such as sulphur dioxide, ammonia and nitric acid. The most important causes of soil acidification on agricultural land, however, are the application of ammonium-based fertilizers and urea, elemental S fertilizer and the growth of legumes.

Decline in the diversity of (micro- and macro-) organisms present in a soil. In turn, this prejudices the ability of soil to provide critical ecosystem services.

An increase in density and a decline of porosity in a soil that impedes root penetration and movements of water and gases.

Defined as an increase in density and a decline of porosity in a soil that impedes root penetration and movements of water and gases.

An increase of toxic compounds (heavy metals, pesticides and so on) in a soil that constitute, directly or indirectly (via the food chain), a hazard for human health and/or for the provision of ecosystem services assured by the soil.

The diminishing capacity of the soil to provide ecosystem goods and services.

The diminishing capacity of the soil to provide ecosystem goods and services as desired by its stakeholders.

A description of the significance of soils to humans and the environment. Examples are: (i) control of substance and energy cycles within ecosystems; (ii) basis for the life of plants, animals and man; (iii) basis for the stability of buildings and roads; (iv) basis for agriculture and forestry; (v) carrier of genetic reservoir; (vi) document of natural history; and (vii) archaeological and paleo-ecological document.

The capacity of a soil to receive, store and transmit energy to support plant growth. It is the component of overall soil productivity that deals with its available nutrient status, and its ability to provide nutrients out of its own reserves and through external applications for crop production.

The capacity of a soil to receive, store and transmit energy to support plant growth. It is the component of overall soil productivity that deals with its available nutrient status, and its ability to provide nutrients out of its own reserves and through.

The quality of a soil that enables it to provide compounds in adequate amounts and proper balance to promote growth of plants when other factors (such as light, moisture, temperature and soil structure) are favourable.

The process of rock weathering though which soil is formed.

The continued capacity of the soil to function as a vital living system, within ecosystem and land-use boundaries, to sustain biological productivity, promote the quality of air and water environments, and maintain plant, animal and human health.

A summarizing parameter including all of the carbon forms for dissolved (DOC: Dissolved Organic Carbon) and total organic compounds (TOC: Total Organic Carbon) in soils.

Matter consisting of plant and/or animal organic materials, and the conversion products of those materials in soils.

Matter consisting of plant and/or animal organic materials, and the conversion products of those materials in soils (ISO, 2013).

Process of soil contamination by chemicals (fertilizers, petroleum products, pesticides, herbicides, mining) which has affected agricultural productivity and other ecosystem services negatively.

Physical or reactive geochemical and biological processes which may attenuate, concentrate, immobilize, liberate, degrade or otherwise transform substances in soil.

Soil quality is a measure of the soil's ability to provide ecosystem and social services through its capacities to perform its functions under changing conditions. Soil quality reflects how well a soil performs the functions of maintaining biodiversity and productivity, partitioning water and solute flow, filtering and buffering, nutrient cycling, and providing support for plants and other structures.

All current positive or negative properties with regard to soil utilization and soil functions.

Increase in water-soluble salts in soil which is responsible for increasing the osmotic pressure of the soil. In turn, this negatively affects plant growth because less water is made available to plants.

The covering of the soil surface with materials like concrete and stone, as a result of new buildings, roads, parking places, but also other public and private space.

The integrity of soil aggregates, degree of soil structural development, and erosion resistance.

The arrangement of soil particles in a variety of recognized shapes and sizes.

Bees that are not fully social (such as honey bees (q.v.), bumble bees (q.v.) and stingless bees (q.v.)), but are instead solitary or primitively social. There are more than 19,000 species of solitary bee.

Sovereignty in the sense of contemporary public international law denotes the basic international legal status of a state that is not subject, within its territorial jurisdiction, to the governmental, executive, legislative, or judicial jurisdiction of a foreign state or to foreign law other than public international law. A sovereign entity can decide and administer its own laws, can determine the use of its land and can do pretty much as it pleases, free of external influence (within the limitations of international law).

see downscaling.

Comprised of two properties: 1) spatial extent - the size of the total area of interest for a particular study (e.g. a watershed, a country, the entire planet); and 2) spatial grain (or resolution) - the size of the spatial units within this total area for which data are observed or predicted (e.g. fine-grained or coarse-grained grid cells).

In ecology, spatial scale refers to the spatial extent of ecological processes. The responses of organisms, populations, species or communities to the environment may differ at larger or smaller scales. Choosing the scale appropriate to a given ecological process is crucial to hypothesizing and determining the underlying causes of the processes and effects involved.

A species that can thrive only in restrictive environmental conditions and can make use of only a few different (even only one) resources (for example, a flower-visiting insect that lives on the floral resources provided by one plant or a few different plants or a plant that depends on just one or only a few animal species for pollination).

An interbreeding group of organisms that is reproductively isolated from all other organisms, although there are many partial exceptions to this rule in particular taxa. Operationally, the term species is a generally agreed fundamental taxonomic unit, based on morphological or genetic similarity, that once described and accepted is associated with a unique scientific name.

The array of species in a specific sample, community, or area.

The array of species in a specific region, area, or assembly.

Species distribution models relate field observations of the presence/absence of a species to environmental predictor variables, based on statistically or theoretically derived response surfaces, for prediction and inference. The predictor variables are often climatic but can include other environmental variables.

The local extinction of a species.