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Glossary
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GLOSSARY
Biological diversity – all life forms, from tiny microorganisms to highest animals within ecosystems and whole ecosystems. It is not only diversity of species, but also that of genetic codes accounting for the living being capacity to survive and develop due to essential qualities reflected in these codes.
Natural and agricultural zoning – territorial division based on essential environmental conditions and agro-biological requirements to agricultural crops and used for land evaluation and developing land survey guidelines on land use and protection.
Degraded lands – lands which have lost their modal qualities under the impact of anthropogenic and natural factors and the use of which is environmentally unacceptable and economically unfeasible.
Environmental stability of territories – indicator dependent on the agricultural development rate, including the ploughing-up rate and intensity of land use, intensity of amelioration and land clearing, territorial development, etc.
Anthropogenic load (pressure) – impact of human activities on the environment, including land resources.
Optimization of land use – identification of the most environmentally sustainable and economically feasible composition of lands, including agricultural lands.
Environmental rehabilitation of territories – restoration of the capacity of degraded territories and ecosystems for performing biosphere and economic functions. Unlike re-naturalization, rehabilitation does not presuppose the obligatory restoration of all components of degraded ecosystems. For example, it may be impossible to restore a destroyed peat deposit or that of any mineral resource. In carrying out environmental rehabilitation, priority is given to the restoration of ecosystems’ biosphere functions, i.e. their ability to conserve the environment and reproduce resources, to conserve and reproduce biodiversity, as well as their self-regulating and self-organizing capacities.
Intensive soil use – use f soils with maximum application of energy (in the form of fuel, fertilizers, pesticides, etc) per area unit.
