Glossary definitions

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.

The number of species within a given sample, community, or area.

Number of species.

The morphological, physiological, phonological or behavioural characteristics of an organism, that typically inform about its response to the environment and effects on the ecosystem (Lavorel & Garnier, 2002; Violle et al., 2007).

The morphological, physiological, phonological or behavioral characteristics of an organism, that typically inform about its response to the environment and effects on the ecosystem.

A well-known strong empirical relationship between the area (A) of a region or patch of habitat and the number of species (S) it contains. Over most spatial scales, a power-law relationship S = cAz provides a good fit to data, with z often around 0.25 for separate sets of regions (known as the island species-area relationship) and 0.15 for nested parts of the same region (known as the continental species-area relationship). The species- area relationship has often been used to estimate the size of an extinction debt (qv) resulting from habitat loss.

invasive alien species management (in all contexts) focused on reducing the threats and impacts of specific or multiple invasive alien species.

Specific values of nature are opinions or judgments regarding the importance of nature in a particular situation or context. Specific values can be grouped into three types: instrumental, intrinsic and relational values.

Pathogen spillover refers to the transfer of one or more pathogens from one population or species (or biotype) to another. A spillover event occurs when an infected reservoir population causes an epidemic in a novel host population.

Human impacts or natural disturbances beyond system boundaries. These effects can be positive or negative, socioeconomic or/and environmental and can be much more profound than the effects within the focal system.

Human impacts or natural disturbances beyond system boundaries. These effects can be positive or negative, socioeconomic or/and environmental and can be much more profound than the effects within the focal system (Liu et al., 2013).

The degree to which a system can continue to function if inputs, controls, or conditions are disrupted. It is a reflection of how minor a perturbation is capable of rendering the system inoperable or degraded; the types of perturbation to which the system is especially vulnerable; whether the system can “ignore” certain stresses; and the degree to which the system can be altered by surprise.

Refers to the three stages that a species must successfully transit by in an invasion process and become an invasive species.

Actors that are involved in decision making processes and implementation, either as influencing the decision-making process, or as being dependent on, and therefore facing the consequences of, the decisions (incl. Public, private and civil society actors). For the values assessment, 13 stakeholder groups have been identified that can be categorised in three categories: Influencers, affected actors and key players (See section 6.1.2.2).

Any individuals, groups or organizations who affect, or could be affected (whether positively or negatively) by a particular issue and its associated policies, decisions and action.

The collection of variables that describe the whole of the social- ecological system, including the attributes of ecosystem service providers and beneficiaries.

The collection of variables that describe the whole of the social-ecological system, including the attributes of ecosystem service providers and beneficiaries (Harrington et al., 2010).

Downscaling based on interpolation of statistical relationships between specific model or scenario metrics and predictors with higher resolution data.