Glossary A–Z
Every term in brief. Articles lead on to the full entry; short terms explain names and places that appear in the texts.
A
- AgroforestryFood forest and growing
A land-use system that deliberately combines trees and shrubs with crops or livestock on the same plot.
Read the articleMentioned in: Nitrogen-Fixing Plants · Silvopasture
- Assisted MigrationTrees of Sardinia
Deliberately moving tree species or their seed to areas better suited to the future climate, when they cannot spread there fast enough on their own.
Read the article
B
- BiocharSoil and life
A stable, charcoal-like material made by heating plant matter with little oxygen, mixed into soil to improve its structure, water-holding and living activity.
Read the articleMentioned in: Mycorrhiza
C
- Climate-Adapted TreesTrees of Sardinia
Tree species and varieties chosen for their ability to thrive in hotter, drier future conditions rather than the climate of the recent past.
Read the article- Cork OakTrees of Sardinia
A Mediterranean evergreen oak whose thick insulating bark can be harvested every decade without harming the tree, and which survives fire.
Read the articleMentioned in: Holm Oak · Maquis (Mediterranean Scrubland) · Monumental Trees · Silvopasture
D
- DesertificationWater and slope
The creeping loss of fertile land in dry regions: soil loses its humus, water and life until it can barely carry anything at all.
Read the articleMentioned in: Regreening & Reversing Desertification
- Drought-Tolerant Landscaping (Xeriscaping)Water and slope
A landscape design approach that minimizes or removes the need for irrigation by using drought-tolerant plants, improved soil and mulch.
Read the article- Dry Stone WallsWater and slope
Walls built from stacked stone without mortar, held together by the placing of each stone and the friction between them.
Read the articleMentioned in: Herb Spiral · Terracing
- Dynamic AccumulatorSoil and life
A deep-rooted plant that draws minerals up from the subsoil and returns them to the surface through its leaves, feeding neighbouring plants.
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E
- Ecological FacilitationNature in transition
The ecological principle that plants can help each other: one species measurably improves the living conditions of another instead of merely competing with it.
Read the articleMentioned in: Nurse Trees
- Ecological RestorationNature in transition
The practice of assisting the recovery of ecosystems that have been degraded, damaged or destroyed, so they regain health, function and resilience.
Read the articleMentioned in: Climate-Adapted Trees · Drought-Tolerant Landscaping (Xeriscaping) · Holm Oak · Keyline Design · Millennial Olive Trees and 9 more
- Ecological SuccessionNature in transition
The gradual process by which the mix of species in an ecosystem changes over time, from pioneers toward a mature community.
Read the articleMentioned in: Agroforestry · Ecological Restoration · Food Forest · Holm Oak · Maquis (Mediterranean Scrubland) and 7 more
F
- Food ForestFood forest and growing
A cultivated woodland of edible and useful plants arranged in layers, designed to work like a self-sustaining natural forest.
Read the articleMentioned in: Agroforestry · Polyculture · Reconciliation Ecology · Rewilding
H
- Herb SpiralFood forest and growing
A small raised mound built in a spiral, which packs several climates into a few square metres so that herbs with opposite needs can grow side by side.
Read the article- Holm OakTrees of Sardinia
The evergreen oak of the Mediterranean, dense-shading and deep-rooted, the tree the landscape returns to when it is left the chance.
Read the articleMentioned in: Assisted Migration · Climate-Adapted Trees · Cork Oak · Maquis (Mediterranean Scrubland) · Monumental Trees and 1 more
- HügelkulturSoil and life
Hügelkultur is a permaculture method: a raised bed over buried decaying wood that stores rainwater and slowly releases nutrients.
Read the articleMentioned in: Sheet Mulching
- HumusSoil and life
The dark, stable fraction of organic matter in soil, the part that holds water and nutrients and gives a living soil its colour, smell and structure.
Read the articleMentioned in: Desertification · Ecological Facilitation · Pioneer Plants · Regreening & Reversing Desertification
K
- Keyline DesignWater and slope
A land-planning method that reads a slope's shape to move rainwater from moist valleys toward drier ridges, storing it in the soil.
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M
- Maquis (Mediterranean Scrubland)Trees of Sardinia
The dense, hard-leaved shrubland of the Mediterranean, from knee height to small trees, tough enough to hold ground that woodland has lost.
Read the articleMentioned in: Climate-Adapted Trees · Herb Spiral · Holm Oak
- Millennial Olive TreesTrees of Sardinia
Olive trees over a thousand years old, including Sardinia's ancient wild olives (olivastro) among the oldest living trees in the Mediterranean.
Read the articleMentioned in: Monumental Trees
- Monumental TreesTrees of Sardinia
Trees officially recognised for their great age, size, rarity or cultural value, and protected as living natural monuments, in Italy under Law 10/2013.
Read the article- MycorrhizaSoil and life
The underground partnership between roots and fungi: the fungi reach water and phosphorus, the plant returns sugars and vitamins.
Read the articleMentioned in: Biochar · Ecological Facilitation
N
- Nitrogen-Fixing PlantsSoil and life
Plants that host bacteria or actinobacteria able to convert atmospheric nitrogen into a form plants can use, fertilising the soil around them.
Read the articleMentioned in: Nurse Trees · Rhizobia
- Nurse TreesNature in transition
Fast, hardy trees and shrubs that shelter young target trees through their first years, softening sun, wind and drought until the protégés stand alone.
Read the articleMentioned in: Ecological Facilitation
P
- PermacultureFood forest and growing
A design system for sustainable human habitats modelled on natural ecosystems, developed by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in the 1970s.
Read the articleMentioned in: Agroforestry · Climate-Adapted Trees · Food Forest · Herb Spiral · Hügelkultur and 8 more
- Pioneer PlantsNature in transition
Species that colonise bare or damaged land first, making it habitable for everything that follows through their shade, roots and nutrients.
Read the articleMentioned in: Ecological Facilitation · Ecological Succession · Food Forest · Nurse Trees · Regreening & Reversing Desertification and 3 more
- Plant GuildFood forest and growing
A mutually supportive grouping assembled around a central element, which may be a plant, an animal, or a structure such as a pond.
Read the articleMentioned in: Ecological Facilitation
- PolycultureFood forest and growing
Growing several plant species together on the same ground at the same time, instead of a single crop in isolation.
Read the article
R
- Rainwater Harvesting & SwalesWater and slope
Holding rain where it falls: soaking it into ditches and basins, storing it in dams and cisterns, spreading it along the shape of the slope.
Read the articleMentioned in: Biochar · Keyline Design
- Reconciliation EcologyNature in transition
The practice of fostering biodiversity inside landscapes people actively use, rather than only inside protected areas set aside from them.
Read the articleMentioned in: Silvopasture
- Regreening & Reversing DesertificationWater and slope
Bringing living vegetation and fertility back to land that has dried out or degraded, halting and reversing the slide toward desert.
Read the article- RehumanizationNature in transition
Restoring the human being as a conscious, caring participant in the living world: the human counterpart to ecological restoration.
Read the articleMentioned in: Ecological Restoration
- RewildingNature in transition
A restoration approach that returns ecosystems to self-sustaining states by reducing human control and letting natural processes lead.
Read the articleMentioned in: Reconciliation Ecology
- RhizobiaSoil and life
Soil bacteria that live inside root nodules and turn air nitrogen into plant food there: the smallest fertiliser factories in the world.
Read the article
S
- Service TreeTrees of Sardinia
One of Europe's rarest cultivated trees (Sorbus domestica): deep-rooted, heat- and drought-hardy, a quiet favourite of the climate-forestry debate.
Read the article- Sheet MulchingSoil and life
Building soil from the top down by laying organic material in layers on undisturbed ground, so that decay does the work a plough would otherwise do.
Read the article- SilvopastureFood forest and growing
The deliberate combination of trees, forage and grazing animals on the same ground, so that all three support one another.
Read the articleMentioned in: Agroforestry
- Syntropic AgricultureFood forest and growing
A regenerative farming method that grows food by accelerating natural forest succession, developed by the Swiss farmer Ernst Götsch in Brazil.
Read the articleMentioned in: Agroforestry · Ecological Succession · Food Forest · Nitrogen-Fixing Plants · Permaculture and 2 more
T
- TerracingWater and slope
Cutting a slope into level steps so that water soaks in instead of running off, and soil stays on the hillside instead of leaving it.
Read the articleMentioned in: Dry Stone Walls · Herb Spiral · Rainwater Harvesting & Swales · Reconciliation Ecology