Key Definitions: Soil and Natural Resources
Farming (Sustainable Agriculture)
Agricultural production prioritizing soil and water conservation and minimizing negative environmental impacts. This is achieved by using organic fertilizers, avoiding chemical pesticides and aggressive plowing techniques, using genetically diverse and non-transgenic varieties, and rotating crops.
Desertification
While some authors use ‘desertification’ to describe the natural process of soil degradation and erosion leading to desert conditions, others apply the term specifically to degradation caused directly or indirectly by human action.
Desertification is the process of environmental degradation by which soil loses part or all of its production potential or fertility, which promotes erosion and leads to the appearance of desert conditions. It is the confluence of natural factors (drought, torrential rainfall) with factors due to human activity that accelerate or exacerbate natural processes (deforestation, overgrazing).
Pedogenesis
The process of soil formation, including weathering of bedrock, formation of humus, transport of humus colloids and soluble substances leading to soil horizons, and the water balance. It depends on climate, topography, bedrock, and biological activity (soil formation parallels ecological succession).
Soil Erosion
The movement of soil components and thus its total or partial loss, causing serious environmental and social impacts. It is a natural process caused mostly by water and geological agents. It depends on climate, topography, and vegetation cover, but is also enhanced or accelerated by human activities (deforestation).
Erodibility
A parameter expressing the susceptibility of soil to be moved or eroded. Erodibility depends on soil type (structure, permeability), slope, and vegetation cover. Various indices based on these factors are used.
Erosivity
A parameter measuring the ability or potential for erosion by the predominant geologic agent. Erosivity depends on the weather. Various indices or formulas based on precipitation, temperature, etc., are used.
Soil Profile (or Edaphic Profile)
The set of more or less horizontal layers, called horizons or levels, structured from the soil surface down to the bedrock. These horizons are differentiated by their structure, composition, and properties. The number and development of horizons depends on the soil’s maturity and the characteristics that determine its formation (mainly climate).
Pyrophytic Plants
Species whose development is favored after fire. Through this adaptation, they can displace other species and become dominant in the ecosystem. They are plants adapted to the destructive effects of fire. Some have a thick bark, others sprout after fire, and others with great vitality germinate after fire.
Natural Resource
Anything obtained from nature to meet human needs (basic physical needs or resulting from desires. Examples: wind, fish). They are divided into renewable and non-renewable.
Non-Renewable Resource
Resources that exist in fixed amounts on Earth because they depend on natural processes that generate them over very long periods of time, such as fossil fuels (coal), mineral resources (iron), and soil.
Renewable Resources
Resources that are not exhausted when used, such as solar or wind energy. Among them, we can distinguish potentially renewable resources, which regenerate through natural processes in a relatively short time. However, if the rate of exploitation exceeds the rate of renewal, they can be depleted (e.g., forests, fisheries).
Soil
From a geological perspective, soil is the superficial layer, fragmented and of varying thickness, which covers the Earth’s crust in continental areas, resulting from the breakdown of the lithological substratum. From an ecological point of view, soil is a very complex ecosystem – a dynamic layer where many complex physical, chemical, and biological processes occur.