All terms

 

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Diversity

Biological diversity can refer to the number of species in an area, the number of types of species (e.g. microbial functional groups, or plant structural types), the degree of genetic variability within a species, or the distribution of species within an area.

DPSIR analysis

Drivers-Pressures-States-Impacts-Responses analysis of a subject (EEA, 2007). The driving forces can be either environmental or biophysical (including pedo-climatic zonation and soil type) or external (driven by the market, by policy, scientific innovations, etc.), the pressures here are the soil threats, the states are relevant soil quality (health) indicators, whereas the impacts are the resulting effects of the interplay of driving forces, pressures and responses, in this case SICS.

Drainage (artificial)

Man-made adjustments to a field directed at the removal of excess water by ditches, subsoiling, pipes.

Drainage (natural)

Refers to the capacity of unaltered soils to drain water through percolation, as opposed to artificial drainage, which is commonly the result of artificial drainage or irrigation but may be caused by the sudden deepening of channels or the blocking of drainage outlets.

Drip irrigation

Application of water under low pressure through a piped network in a pre-determined pattern, applied as a small discharge close to each plant and adjustable by irrigation nozzles or droppers. Usually called

Dynamic properties

Soil characteristics that can change in response to land use changes.

Dynamic soil properties

Soil properties that change over the human time scale in response to anthropogenic (management, land use) and non-anthropogenic (natural disturbances and cycles) factors. Many are important for characterizing soil functions and ecological processes and for predicting soil behavior on human time scales. (Compare to use-dependent soil properties.)

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