A solution or remedy for all difficulties or diseases.
The worldwide spread of a new disease. An influenza pandemic occurs when a new influenza virus emerges and spreads around the world and most people do not have immunity.
It is the material from which the soil has presumably been derived.; The original material (mineral and/or organic) from which soil developed by pedogenetic processes.
The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change. It was adopted by 196 Parties at COP 21 in Paris, on 12 December 2015 and entered into force on 4 November 2016. Its goal is to limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels. To achieve this long-term temperature goal, countries aim to reach global peaking of greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible to achieve a climate neutral world by mid-century. The Paris Agreement is a landmark in the multilateral climate change process because, for the first time, a binding agreement brings all nations into a common cause to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects.
Securing an adequate and equal opportunity for people to place questions on an agenda and to express their preferences about a final outcome during decision making to all group members. Participation can occur directly or through legitimate representatives. Participation may range from consultation to the obligation of achieving a consensus.
Proportions of various particle sizes in a solid fuel.; A presentation, in the form of a table of numbers or a graph, of the experimental results obtained using a method or an apparatus capable of measuring the equivalent diameter of particles in a sample or capable of giving the proportion of particles for which the equivalent diameter lies between defined limits.; Physical/mechanical property of biofuel.
Tiny solid particles or liquid droplets suspended in the air.
It is the physical portion of SOM smaller than 0.25 mm in size and bigger than 0.053 mm (250 - 53 μ).
The husbandry of domestic animals as a primary means of obtaining resources.
Ground covered with grass or herbage, used or suitable for the grazing of livestock.
A bacterium, virus, or other microorganism that can cause disease; The worldwide spread of a new disease. An influenza pandemic occurs when a new influenza virus emerges and spreads around the world and most people do not have immunity.
The absolute ability of an infectious agent to cause disease/damage in a host—an infectious agent is either pathogenic or not.
An economic instrument designed to provide incentives to land users, on behalf of service beneficiaries, for agricultural land, coastal, or marine management practices, that are expected to result in continued or improved service provision, so a specific user or society will benefit more broadly. Current PES schemes focus on water, carbon, or biodiversity and respond mainly to public, but increasingly also to private, interest in addressing an environmental problem through positive incentives to land managers.
Payment for environmental services/payment for ecosystem services (PES)
Appropriate mechanisms for matching the demand for environmental services with incentives for land users whose actions modify the supply of those environmental services.
Schemes that use funds from water users (including governments) as an incentive for landholders to improve their land management practices.; It is the basis for linking the needs and welfare of downstream users of water or aquatic resources to the actions of managers responsible for upstream waterways, vegetation cover, soil use and land management. It is what links the economic interests of downstream fishers, irrigators, dam operators and water supply companies to decision making by distant upstream farmers, foresters and land-use planners.
PES highlights a global continuum, illustrating the relationship between our lifestyles, the demands associated with our production and consumption patterns, and the effects those demands have on close or distant ecosystems.; A market mechanism that offers fiscal (or other benefits) to incentivize natural resource managers and users towards the continued or improved provision of ecosystem services as such.; A voluntary transaction whereby a well-defined ecosystem service, or a land-use likely to secure that service, is being ‘bought’ by at least one buyer from at least one provider – if, and only if, the provider secures the provision of the service.
The point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction is reached, after which the rate of production enters terminal decline. This concept is based on the observed production rates of individual oil wells, and the combined production rate of a field of related oil wells.
A dark brown or black plant residue produced by the partial decomposition and disintegration of mosses, sedges, trees and other plants.
Peatlands are a type of wetlands that occur in almost every country on Earth, currently covering 3% of the global land surface. The term ‘peatland’ refers to the peat soil and the wetland habitat growing on its surface.
Structured soils showing formation of peds.
Alkaline earth carbonates, commonly calcium carbonate.
The smallest, three-dimensional unit at the surface of the earth that is considered as a soil.
A general term for any procedure used to estimate various soil properties, such as moisture characteristics, humus content, etc., using information available in databases, laboratory results or legends of current soil maps.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of man-made chemicals that includes PFOA, PFOS, GenX, and many other chemicals. PFAS have been manufactured and used in a variety of industries around the globe, including in the United States since the 1940s. PFOA and PFOS have been the most extensively produced and studied of these chemicals. Both chemicals are very persistent in the environment and in the human body – meaning they don’t break down and they can accumulate over time. There is evidence that exposure to PFAS can lead to adverse human health effects.
Unconfined groundwater separated from an underlying main body of groundwater by an unsaturated zone.
Lasting or existing for a long or apparently infinite time; enduring or continually recurring.
Ice that survives the summer and the extent at summer minimum has been used as a measure of its coverage.
(especially in Africa) denoting or located in an area immediately adjacent to a city or urban area.
Pertaining to living in and around human habitations. The rat is a peridomestic animal.
Soil, silt and rock located in perpetually cold areas, and that remains frozen year-round for two or more years.; A thick subsurface layer of soil that remains frozen throughout the year, occurring chiefly in polar regions.
Having a harmful effect, especially in a gradual or subtle way.
Chemical substances that persist in the environment, bioaccumulate through the food web, and pose a risk of causing adverse effects to human health and the environment.
It is a standard unit of energy. One petajoule equals 1 000 000 000 000 000 joules (10 to the power 15). One petajoule equals 31.60 million m³ of natural gas.
A petrocalcic horizon (from Greek petros, rock, and Latin calx, lime) is an indurated calcic horizon, which is cemented by calcium carbonate and, in places, by calcium and some magnesium carbonate. It is either massive or platy in nature, and extremely hard.
A petroduric horizon (from Greek petros, rock, and Latin durus, hard), also known as duripan or dorbank (South Africa), is a subsurface horizon, usually reddish or reddish brown in colour, that is cemented mainly by secondary silica (SiO2, presumably opal and microcrystalline forms of silica).
The petrogypsic horizon (from Greek petros, rock, and Latin gypsum) is a cemented horizon containing secondary accumulations of gypsum.
A petroplinthic horizon (from Greek petros, rock, and plinthos, brick) is a continuous, fractured or broken layer of indurated material, in which Fe (and in cases also Mn) (hydr-)oxides are an important cement and in which organic matter is either absent or present only in traces.
The study of cyclic and seasonal natural phenomena, especially in relation to climate and plant and animal life.
It is a rock with a high concentration of phosphates in nodular or compact masses. The phosphates may be derived from a variety of sources, including marine invertebrates that secrete shells of calcium phosphate, and the bones and excrement of vertebrates.; It is a natural rock containing one or more calcium phosphate minerals of sufficient purity and quantity as to permit its use directly after grinding or after chemical processing in the manufacture of commercial phosphate fertilizers.
Inflammation of the conjunctiva of the eye caused by exposure to UV.
Painful eye condition that occurs when your eye is exposed to invisible rays of energy called ultraviolet (UV) rays, either from the sun or from a man-made source.
Capable of generatinga voltage as a result of exposure to visible or other radiation.
Phylogeny is the relationship between all the organisms on Earth that have descended from a common ancestor, whether they are extinct or extant. Phylogenetics is the science of studying the evolutionary relatedness among biological groups and a phylogenetic tree is used to graphically represent this evolutionary relation related to the species of interest.
It relates to soil texture, structure, porosity, water retention capacity, etc.
It compares the amount of renewable water annually available per capita in a particular area.
The uptake of contaminants through plant roots and the translocation of the contaminants within the plants. Certain plants, called hyperaccumulators, absorb unusually large amounts of metals or other contaminants in comparison to other plants. One, or a combination, of these plants is selected and planted at a site based upon the types of metals present and other site condition. This procedure may be repeated as necessary to bring soil contaminant levels down to allowable limits. Contaminants are generally removed by harvesting the plants, which also allows the possible utilisation of the harvested biomass. Nevertheless, care must be taken to limit the environmental exposure of harvested plant materials, as some heavy metals and other contaminants can bioaccumulate if the plant material is used as cattle feed or left to decompose without measures being taken to capture the resultant leachate.
The breakdown of contaminants taken up by plants by metabolic processes within the plant. Alternatively, the term is also applied to the breakdown of contaminant, external to the plant, by compounds or enzymes produced by, and released from, the plant. In both cases, the primary treatment mechanism is plant uptake and metabolism. Degradation caused by micro-organisms associated with the plant root is considered rhizodegradation.
Microscopically small plants that float or swim weakly in fresh or saltwater bodies.
The in situ use of plants to stabilise, remediate, reduce, or restore contaminated sites, including terrestrial and aquatic sites. The process can be applied to both surface and ground waters, and includes all of the biological, ecological, chemical, and physical processes involving vegetation that affect remediation of contaminated substrates.; A general term used to describe various mechanisms by which living plants alter the chemical composition of the soil matrix in which they are growing. Essentially, it is the use of green plants to clean-up contaminated soils, sediments, or water. The word "phytoremediation" is from the Greek prefix phyto- meaning "plant" and the Latin root word remidium- meaning "to correct or remove an evil". In soil, the "evil" could be anthropogenic (man-made) contaminants such as organic solvents, heavy metals, pesticides, or radionuclides.
Phytotechnology is the application of plants in scientific and engineering approaches to resolve environmental problems.
The uptake and transpiration of contaminant by a plant. This process results in the release of the contaminant from the plant, in a modified form of the contaminant to the atmosphere from the plant. Key elements of this process include contaminant uptake, metabolic transformation, and transpiration.
A pisoplinthic horizon (from Latin pisum, pea, and Greek plinthos, brick) contains concretions or nodules that are strongly cemented to indurated with Fe (and in some cases also with Mn) (hydr-)oxides.
The long-term management and maintenance of high-quality spaces to ensure that their economic, social and environmental qualities and benefits can be enjoyed by future generations.
A framework designed to define a safe operating space for humanity for the international community, including governments at all levels, international organizations, civil society, the scientific community and the private sector, as a precondition for sustainable development.
defined as “the achievement of the highest attainable standard of health, wellbeing, and equity worldwide through judicious attention to the human systems—political, economic, and social—that shape the future of humanity and the Earth’s natural systems that define the safe environmental limits within which humanity can flourish. Put simply, planetary health is the health of human civilization and the state of the natural systems on which it depends”. In 2014 the Rockefeller Foundation and The Lancet jointly formed the Commission on Planetary Health to review the scientific basis for linking human health to the underlying integrity of Earth’s natural system.
A simple soil and water conservation technique for dryland agriculture, where holes are dug and crops planted within them.
a substance (typically a solvent) added to a synthetic resin to produce or promote plasticity and flexibility and to reduce brittleness.
A plinthic horizon (from Greek plinthos, brick) is a subsurface horizon that is rich in Fe (in some cases also Mn) (hydr-)oxides and poor in humus.
Pneumonia is a bacterial, viral, or fungal infection of one or both sides of the lungs that causes the air sacs, or alveoli, of the lungs to fill up with fluid or pus. Symptoms can be mild or severe and may include a cough with phlegm (a slimy substance), fever, chills, and trouble breathing. Many factors affect how serious pneumonia is, such as the type of germ causing the lung infection, your age, and your overall health. Pneumonia tends to be more serious for children under the age of five, adults over the age of 65, people with certain conditions such as heart failure, diabetes, or COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), or people who have weak immune systems due to HIV/AIDS, chemotherapy (a treatment for cancer), or organ or blood and marrow stem cell transplant procedures.
A process of soil formation resulting in the genesis of Podzols and Podzolic soils characterized by the eluviation of iron, aluminium, and organic matter from the surface horizon, which results in the formation of a highly leached, whitish gray E horizon and a dark reddish brown to black B horizon.
Pollution arising from an identified single point.; It refers to contaminants that enter a waterway through a discrete conveyance, such as a pipe or ditch.; Pollution resulting from any confined, discrete source, such as a pipe, ditch, tunnel, well, container, concentrated animal-feeding operation, or floating craft.
Any form of intervention or societal response. This includes not only statements of intent, but also other forms of intervention, such as the use of economic instruments, market creation, subsidies, institutional reform, legal reform, decentralization and institutional development. Policy can be seen as a tool for the exercise of governance. When such an intervention is enforced by the state, it is called public policy.
The process of a policy being taken up, copied, implemented in other areas, fields, regions or sectors.
a member of a government department, legislature, or other organization who is responsible for making new rules, laws, etc.
Any substance that causes harm to the environment when it mixes with soil, water or air.
The presence of minerals, chemicals or physical properties at levels that exceed the values deemed to define a boundary between good or acceptable and poor or unacceptable quality, which is a function of the specific pollutant.
Generic term that refers to all freshwater. Includes shared waters, transboundary waters, international drainage basin, international water course.
The idea of environmental taxation can be translated as an attempt to alter polluting human behavior by imposing taxes that can be avoided, or diminished, by more environmentally friendly behaviour.
Judging by emissions intensity (actual emissions per unit of output, rather than abatement costs), the five most pollution intensive industries are iron and steel, non-ferrous metals, industrial chemicals, pulp and paper, and non-metallic minerals.
Having many centres, especially of authority or control.
Area of open water in pack ice or sea ice.
Concentration of a substance in the critical organ at which a specified percentage of the exposed population has reached the individual critical organ concentration. The percentage indicated by PCC-10 for 10 %, PCC-50 for 50 % etc. (similar to the use of the term LD50).
A non-zoonotic viral disease of pigs caused by a coronavirus and characterized by watery diarrhoea and weight loss. First identified and reported in 1971, it affects pigs of all ages, but most severely neonatal piglets, reaching a morbidity and mortality of up to 100 per cent, with mortality decreasing as age increases. It is a contagious disease transmissible mainly by the faecal-oral route. The prevention and management control are focused on strict biosecurity and early detection. There is no specific treatment for the disease.
It is an indication of the total volume of voids discernible with a ×10 hand-lens measured by area and recorded as the percentage of the surface occupied by pores.
An assessment of the accuracy of the positions of spatial objects.
The state of one who lacks a defined amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty refers to a state of lacking basic human needs, which commonly include clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter.
Those needs that assist women and men in their current activities. Interventions that focus on meeting practical gender needs respond to an immediate perceived necessity, but do not challenge women’s social position as often subordinate and discriminated against.
The precautionary approach or precautionary principle states that if an action or policy has a suspected risk of causing harm to the public or to the environment, in the absence of scientific consensus that the action or policy is harmful, the burden of proof that it is not harmful falls on those taking the action.
It involves the observation, impact assessment and timely strategic response to fine-scale variation in causative components of an agricultural production process. Therefore, precision agriculture may cover a range of agricultural enterprises, from dairy herd management through horticulture to field crop production. The philosophy can be also applied to pre- and post-production aspects of agricultural enterprises. With this definition in mind, the Precision Agriculture Laboratory is presently focused on applying precision agriculture to field crop production. The term 'site-specific management' (SSCM) describes this facet of precision agriculture.
This is the estimated concentration of a chemical in an environmental compartment calculated from available information on its properties, its use and discharge patterns, and the quantities involved.
The act of attempting to produce a description of the expected future, or the description itself, such as “it will be 30°C tomorrow, so we will go to the beach”.
It refers to the variability in prediction due to plausible alternative input value.
Movement of water and solutes through large cracks or worm holes in the soil profile.
Deaths occurring earlier due to a risk factor than would occur in the absence of that risk factor.
A means for structuring indicators which facilitates interpretation and decision-making and is based on causality.
In Family law, primary caretaker or primary caregiver refers to the parent who has the greatest responsibility for the daily care and rearing of a child. It also refers to a person who has had the greatest responsibility for the daily care and rearing of a child. This person can be a non parent also.
Energy embodied in natural resources (such as coal, crude oil, sunlight or uranium) that has not undergone any anthropogenic conversion or transformation.
“prime age” as 15 to 45 years for women and 15 to 54 years for men.
The private sector is part of a country’s economy which consists of industries and commercial companies that are not owned or controlled by the government.
Various definitions have been proposed, including: growth that, relatively speaking, benefits the poor proportionally more than the non-poor; any increase in GDP that reduces poverty; growth that, in addition to reducing poverty, also decreases inequality; development of macro-economic policies deemed fair and equitable for all citizens and not only for elites.
The act of attempting to produce a description of the future subject to assumptions about certain preconditions, or the description itself, such as “assuming it is 30°C tomorrow, we will go to the beach.”
A clearly defined geographical space, recognized, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values.
Category V. Protected area managed mainly for landscape/seascape conservation and recreation. Area of land, with coast and sea as appropriate, where the interaction of people and nature over time has produced an area of distinct character with significant aesthetic, ecological and/or cultural value, and often with high biological diversity. Safeguarding the integrity of this traditional interaction is vital to the protection, maintenance and evolution of such an area.
Protection from sexual exploitation and sexual abuse
As defined in the 2003 United Nations Secretary-General’s Bulletin on Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (ST/SGB/2003/13), sexual exploitation means any actual or attempted abuse of a position of vulnerability, differential power, or trust, for sexual purposes, including, but not limited to, profiting monetarily, socially or politically from the sexual exploitation of another, while sexual abuse means the actual or threatened physical intrusion of a sexual nature, whether by force or under unequal or coercive conditions.
These are the material benefits people get from ecosystems for e.g. supply of food, water, fibers, wood and fuels.
The products obtained from ecosystems, including, for example, genetic resources, food and fibre, and freshwater.
Growth of the conjunctiva or mucous membrane that covers the white part of your eye over the cornea. The cornea is the clear front covering of the eye. This benign or noncancerous growth is often shaped like a wedge. A pterygium usually doesn’t cause problems or require treatment, but it can be removed if it interferes with your vision.
The portion of society that comprises the general government sector plus all public corporations including the central bank.
A contractual agreement between a public agency (federal, state or local) and a private sector entity. Through such an agreement, the skills and assets of each sector (public and private) are shared in delivering a service or facility.