During 2010, many countries submitted their existing plans for controlling greenhouse gas emissions to the Climate Change Secretariat and these proposals were formally acknowledged under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Developed countries presented their plans in the shape of economy-wide targets to reduce emissions, mainly up to 2020, while developing countries proposed ways to limit their growth of emissions in the shape of plans of action.
A regulatory or management system that sets a target level for emissions or natural resource use, and, after distributing shares in that quota, lets trading in those permits determine their price.
Maximum population that a given ecosystem can support indefinitely under a given set of environmental conditions.
The calcic horizon (from L. calx, lime) is a horizon in which secondary calcium carbonate (CaCO3) has accumulated either in a diffuse form (calcium carbonate present only in the form of fine particles of 1 mm or less, dispersed in the matrix) or as discontinuous concentrations (pseudomycelia, cutans, soft and hard nodules, or veins).
A compact mass of bacteria usually derived by vegetative multiplication of a single cell, on the surface of a streaked or spread plate or in the depth of a pour plate of solid medium.
The process through which individuals, organizations and societies obtain, strengthen and maintain the capabilities to set and achieve their own development objectives over time.
A culvert, pipe or shallow channel laid diagonally across the surface of a road, skid trail or cableway in order to divert water from the cleared surface or from the roadside ditch.
The universal unit of measurement used to indicate the global warming potential of the different greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide – a naturally occurring gas that is a byproduct of burning fossil fuels and biomass, land-use changes and other industrial processes – is the reference against which other greenhouse gases are measured.
Carbon dioxide equivalent (co2-equivalent or co2e)
The process or processes of soil formation in which the surface soil is kept sufficiently supplied with calcium to saturate the soil cation exchange sites, or the process of accumulation of calcium in some horizons of the profile, such as the calcic horizon of some Aridisols and Mollisols.
A taxon is critically endangered when the best available evidence indicates that it is considered to be facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.
In the case where an existing bottom fishing areas square would overlap with a closed area, the existing bottom fishing areas square would be deemed as closed.
One of four key global causes of diarrhoeal diseases and considered the most common bacterial cause of human gastroenteritis in the world. Campylobacter are mainly spiral-shaped, ‘S’-shaped or curved, rod-shaped bacteria. Campylobacter infections are generally mild but can be fatal among very young children and elderly and immunosuppressed individuals. In developing countries, Campylobacter infections in children under the age of 2 years are especially frequent, sometimes resulting in death. Campylobacter species can be killed by heat and thoroughly cooking food.
In general, a geographical area of land and water along the coast, affected by the biological and physical processes of both the terrestrial and marine environments.
An urban development on a massive scale: a major city that expands beyond administrative boundaries to engulf small cities, towns and semi-urban and rural hinterlands, sometimes expanding sufficiently to merge with other cities, forming large conurbations that eventually become city-regions.
(1) A cation bound to an organic molecule through electron pair donation from nitrogen and/or oxygen atoms in its structure. Ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid is a typical and frequently employed chelating agent. Soluble chelates can supply plants with micronutrients which would otherwise be unavailable because of precipitation. (2) Complex organic molecule that can combine with cations and does not ionize. Chelates can supply micronutrients to plants at slow, steady rates. Usually used to supply iron to plant cells.
Materials purchased, used and discarded by the buyer, or consumer, as opposed to those discarded in a manufacturing process.
A change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods.
Caregivers provide assistance to other people who because of physical disability, chronic illness or cognitive impairment are unable to perform certain activities on their own. So-called informal care can be offered by family members or friends, often in a home setting. Paid or volunteer professional care, so-called formal care, can be obtained at home, in the community or from institutions such as nursing facilities or government institutions.
For a given temperature rise limit, for example a 1.5°C or 2°C long-term limit, the corresponding carbon budget reflects the total amount of carbon emissions that can be emitted for temperatures to stay below that limit. Stated differently, a carbon budget is the area under a carbon dioxide (CO2) emission trajectory that satisfies assumptions about limits on cumulative emissions estimated to avoid a certain level of global mean surface temperature rise.
Carbon dioxide emission budget (or carbon budget)
The long-term storage of carbon in plants, soils, geologic formations, and the ocean. Carbon sequestration occurs both naturally and as a result of anthropogenic activities and typically refers to the storage of carbon that has the immediate potential to become carbon dioxide gas.
An aqueous solution of chlorine used as a bleaching or sterilizing agent.
Human coronaviruses (named for the crown-like spikes on their surface) were first identified in the mid-1960s. Seven coronaviruses can infect people. Four of these are common human coronaviruses, 229E, NL63, OC43 and HKU1, which usually cause mild to moderate upper-respiratory tract illnesses like the common cold. But three of the seven coronaviruses— MERS-Cov, SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2—are novel and lethal coronaviruses that originated in animals and evolved in ways that, in humans, can cause serious illness and death.
The cambic horizon (from L. cambiare, to change) is a subsurface horizon showing evidence of alteration relative to the underlying horizons. It lacks the set of properties diagnostic for a ferralic, argic, natric or spodic horizon and the dark colours, organic matter content and structure of a histic, folic, mollic or umbric horizon.
It is a contraction of "cyber-enabled taxonomy". It shares the traditional goals of taxonomy: to explore, discover, characterize, name, and classify species; to study their phylogenetic relationships; and to map their geographic distributions and ecological associations. Through cyberinfrastructure and the adoption of digital technologies, cybertaxomy is able to produce results faster and better than ever before.
The geomorphologic area either side of the seashore, in which the interaction between the marine and land parts occurs in the form of complex ecological and resource systems, made up of biotic and abiotic components, coexisting and interacting with human communities and relevant socio-economic activities.
The material underlying the soil, exclusive of cemented pedogenetic horizons such as a petrocalcic, petroduric, petrogypsic and petroplinthic horizons, which is sufficiently coherent and hard when moist to make hand digging with a spade impractible. The material is considered continuous if only a few cracks 10 cm or more apart are present and no significant displacement of the rock has taken place.
Organic materials deposited under water and dominated by faecal material from aquatic animals.
Resource that can be mobilized in the pursuit of an individual’s goals. Thus, natural capital (natural resources such as land and water), physical capital (technology and artefacts), social capital (social relationships, networks and ties), financial capital (money in a bank, loans and credit), human capital (education and skills).
The land along the edge of a coast, forming a boundary between the land and the ocean, sea or a lake.
During the process of compaction the minerals in the rock are dissolving. These dissolved minerals fill in the spaces between sediment particles. Cementation is the process of sediments being glued tightly together.
It is due to SOM content, pH, cationic exchange capacity, availability of key nutrients N, P and K, presence of pollutants, etc.
A situation in which urgent action is required to reduce or halt climate change and avoid potentially irreversible environmental damage resulting from it.
The CO2 fertilization effect begins with enhanced photosynthetic CO2 fixation. Non-structural carbohydrates tend to accumulate in leaves and other plant organs as starch, soluble carbohydrates or polyfructosans, depending on species. In some cases, there may be feedback inhibition of photosynthesis associated with accumulation of non-structural carbohydrates. Increased carbohydrate accumulation, especially in leaves, may be evidence that crop plants grown under CO2 enrichment may not be fully adapted to take complete advantage of elevated CO2. This may be because the CO2-enriched plants do not have an adequate sink (inadequate growth capacity), or lack capacity to load phloem and translocate soluble carbohydrates. Improvement of photoassimilate utilization should be one goal of designing cultivars for the future.
Soil with very small, flat particles that tend to pack together tighly.
A parasitic tissue infection caused by larval cysts of the tapeworm Taenia solium. These larval cysts infect brain, muscle or other tissue and are a major cause of adult onset seizures in most low-income countries. A person gets cysticercosis by swallowing eggs found in the faeces of a person who has an intestinal tapeworm. People do not get cysticercosis by eating undercooked pork, which can result in intestinal tapeworm if the pork contains larval cysts. Pigs become infected by eating tapeworm eggs in the faeces of a human infected with a tapeworm. Both the tapeworm infection, also known as taeniasis, and cysticercosis occur globally. The highest rates of infection are found in areas of Latin America, Asia and Africa that have poor sanitation and free-ranging pigs that have access to human feces.
The union of two persons at least one of whom is under 18 years of age.
Moisture held in the tiny spaces between soil particles after the gravitational water has drained off.
Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning (CMSP) is about proper use and management of ocean and coastal spaces based on publicly agreed upon goals and objectives. It is about ensuring that marine uses are compatible and occur in areas where environmental effects are avoided or minimized. The need for CMSP is the result of increasing competition for ocean space by existing and emerging users.
The process of generating a genetically identical copy of a cell or an organism.
The amount of emissions of CO2 released per unit of another variable such as gross domestic product, output energy use, transport or agricultural/forestry products.
Subsurface drainage without water table control structures.
Attribute or aspect of natural environment, human health, or resources, identifying an environmental issue giving cause for concern.
(1) The portion of a river between bends, in one of which flow is clockwise and in the other anticlockwise. (2) The relatively short and shallow length of a river between bends.
Environmental claim regarding the superiority or equivalence of one product versus a competing product that performs the same function.
A trading system through which countries may buy or sell units of greenhouse-gas emissions in an effort to meet their national limits on emissions, either under the Kyoto Protocol or under other agreements, such as that among member states of the European Union.
Approach that helps to guide actions needed to transform and reorient agricultural systems to effectively support development and ensure food security in a changing climate.
More than one disease/condition present in an individual at the same time. Other names to describe co-morbid conditions are ‘co-existing’ or ‘co-occurring’ conditions and ‘multimorbidity’ or ‘multiple chronic conditions’.
When statistically recording the conversion from fuelwood (or woodfuels) to charcoal, three principal aspects must be dealt with: wood density, moisture of the wood, and the means of charcoal production.
Funding principle according to which funded activities must be coherent with national programmes and policies to maximize global environmental benefits.
This method is the only method which is used for the non-use value. For the valuation of non-use values it is necessary to create a hypothetical market and therefore people are directly questioned through surveys about their willingness to pay for keeping or maintaining the service.; Seeks to elicit information on environmental preferences directly from individuals using surveys, questionnaires or experimental techniques which collect information either on the "willingness-to-pay" (WTP) for an increase in the provision or quality of an environmental good or service, or the minimum "willingness-to-accept" (WTA) compensation to forego such beneficial change. The approach depends on the respondents having a good understanding of why environmental preferences are solicited and interpreting the contingent valuation method question and scenario in the same way as the writer of the question.
A reservoir that absorbs or takes up released carbon from another part of the carbon cycle. The four sinks, which are regions of the Earth within which carbon behaves in a systematic manner, are the atmosphere, terrestrial biosphere (usually including freshwater systems), oceans, and sediments (including fossil fuels).; A reservoir (natural or human, in soil, ocean, and plants) where a greenhouse gas, an aerosol or a precursor of a greenhouse gas is stored.
System for uniquely referencing spatial information in space as a set of coordinates (x, y, z) and/or latitude and longitude and height, based on a geodetic horizontal and vertical datum.
(1) Management of local natural resources by, with and for members of the local community. A specific result of conscious efforts on the part of the State to decentralize and devolve responsibilities to the lower administrative levels. Denotes management practices that recognize the importance of involving local people. The starting point is local resource degradation, and the natural outcome of the analysis of available options is management through community action. (2) An approach to conservation and development that recognizes the rights of local people to manage and benefit from the management and use of natural resources. It entails transferring back to communities access and use rights, empowering them with legislation and devolved management responsibility, building their capacity and creating partnerships with the public and private sector actors to develop programmes for the sustainable use of a variety of natural resources.
community-based natural resource management
Water attached to soil minerals by means of chemical bonds.
A local phenomenon at the surface of the soil that results in a thin impermeable layer that hampers seedling emergence, reduces infiltration and favours runoff and erosion. It depends on soil texture, aggregate stability, topography and rainfall characteristics.
A levy on the carbon content of fossil fuels. Because virtually all of the carbon in fossil fuels is ultimately emitted as CO2, a carbon tax is equivalent to an emission tax on CO2 emissions.
Factor derived from a characterization model which is applied to convert an assigned life cycle inventory analysis result to the common unit of the category indicator.
Sewers that are designed to collect rainwater runoff, domestic sewage, and industrial wastewater in the same pipe.
Geographic area containing physical or biological features essential to the conservation of a listed species or an area that may require special management considerations or protection.
Refers to a set of techniques that aim to remove CO2 directly from the atmosphere by either (1) increasing natural sinks for carbon or (2) using chemical engineering to remove the CO2, with the intent of reducing the atmospheric CO2 concentration.
Initiatives that put an explicit price on greenhouse gas emissions, i.e. a price expressed as a value per ton of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e).
It is a phenomenon in which two or more predictors in a multiple regression model are highly correlated.
The paling in color of corals resulting from a loss of symbiotic algae. Bleaching occurs in response to physiological shock in response to abrupt changes in temperature, salinity, and turbidity.
Illness caused by a novel coronavirus, ‘severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2’ (SARS-CoV-2), which was first identified amid an outbreak of respiratory illness cases in East Asia. The outbreak was first reported to WHO on 31 December 2019. On 30 January 2020, WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global health emergency and the following March a global pandemic, WHO’s first such designation since declaring H1N1 influenza a pandemic in 2009.
These are bench terraces which alternate with the original slope and are used for the mixed cultivation of annuals and tree crops. Should a farmer wish to cultivate more food crops at a later stage, he can build more benches on the original slopes. Alternatively, he can convert the whole area into tree crops should age, labour or economic circumstances make this desirable.
It is a heterogeneous mixture of material that, by gravitational action, has moved down a slope.
The conventional gap is the difference between the total and advanced mandates as defined by the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2). It is often seen as an implied maize based ethanol mandate. The assumed mandate levels are based on the blend wall limit and on the evolution of gasoline use in the United States.
An area characterized by all runoff being conveyed to the same outlet.; An area in which the natural hydrological boundaries drain to a common point on a watercourse, usually a confluence of streams or rivers (also known as drainage area or, catchment).; The area which supplies water by surface and subsurface flow from rain to a given point in the drainage system.
Sound and rotting logs and stumps, and coarse roots in all stages of decay, generally greater than 3 inches in diameter, that provide habitat for plants, animals, and insects and a source of nutrients and structures for soil development. CWD also provides erosion control and links between habitats.; Any piece(s) of dead woody material, e.g., dead boles, limbs, and large root masses, on the ground in forest stands or in streams.
Substance or agent present in the soil as a result of human activity.
The price for avoided or released CO2 or CO2e emissions. This may refer to the rate of a carbon tax or the price of emission permits. In many models that are used to assess the economic costs of mitigation, carbon prices are used as a proxy to represent the level of effort in mitigation policies.
The name for loose bodies of sediment that has been deposited or built up at the bottom of a low grade slope or against a barrier on that slope, as a result of rainwater or downhill creep by gravity.
Adding chlorine to an irrigation system to counteract clogging caused by organic materials such as algae and bacterial slime.
(1) The highest or most intense point in the development or resolution of something. (2) The final stage of biotic succession attainable by a plant community in an area under the environmental conditions present at a particular time.
It includes the physical (tangible) and/or non-physical (intangible) manifestation of an indigenous peoples and local communities’ cultural heritage, in accordance with the traditional inheritance and transmission.
Forage established with domesticated introduced or indigenous species that may receive periodic cultural treatment such as renovation, fertilization or weed control.
Calcaric material (from Latin calcarius, containing lime) refers to material that contains ≥ 2% calcium carbonate equivalent.
Any activity that compensates for the emission of CO2 or other greenhouse gases (measured in CO2e) by providing for an emission reduction elsewhere. Because greenhouse gases are widespread in Earth's atmosphere the climate benefits from emission reductions regardless of where such cutbacks occur. If carbon reductions are equivalent to the total carbon footprint of an activity, then the activity is said to be “carbon neutral.” Carbon offsets can be bought, sold, or traded as part of a carbon market.
The operation of a water table management system with water table control structures adjusted to limit drainage system discharge, and to maintain a free water surface (water table) within the soil profile.
Any rock composed mainly of carbonate minerals. The principal members of the group are the sedimentary rocks dolomite and limestone.
The capacity of a soil or any other substance with negatively charged exchange complex to hold cations in exchangeable form is referred as the CEC. It is a measure of the net negative charge of a soil.
Also known as American trypanosomiasis: A potentially life-threatening neglected tropical disease caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. Found mainly in Latin American countries, where it is mostly vector-borne, often by a ‘kissing bug’, an estimated 8 million people are infected worldwide, mostly in Latin America. Chagas disease is clinically curable if treatment is initiated at an early stage. The disease has spread to other continents over the last century mainly because of greater travel. It is estimated that over 10,000 people die every year from clinical manifestations of Chagas disease and more than 25 million people risk acquiring the disease.
The quantity of carbon contained in a “pool”, meaning a reservoir or system which has the capacity to accumulate or release carbon.
A register of property showing the extent, value, and ownership of land for taxation.
A chernic horizon (from Russian chorniy, black) is a relatively thick, well-structured, very dark-coloured surface horizon, with a high base saturation, a high biological activity and a moderate to high content of organic matter.
Groundwater that is under sufficient pressure to rise above the level at which it encounters a well, but which does not necessarily rise to or above the surface of the ground.
The soil layer lying beneath the B horizon and consisting essentially of more or less weathered parent rock.
A way of planning the operations needed to complete a land-use planning project by identifying the individual operations needed and plotting how each task has to be related to the others in time.
A cryic horizon (from Greek kryos, cold, ice) is a perennially frozen soil horizon in mineral or organic materials.
A viral haemorrhagic fever usually transmitted by ticks. It can also be contracted through contact with animal tissue where the virus has entered the bloodstream during and immediately post-slaughter of animals. Outbreaks of the disease can lead to epidemics, have a high case fatality ratio (10–40 per cent) and are difficult to prevent and treat. First described in the Crimea in 1944, the disease is endemic in all of Africa, the Balkans, the Middle East and in Asia.