Natural Water Retention Measures (NWRM) are multi-functional measures that aim to protect and manage water resources and address water-related challenges by restoring or maintaining ecosystems as well as natural features and characteristics of water bodies using natural means and processes. Their main focus is to enhance, as well as preserve, the water retention capacity of aquifers, soil, and ecosystems with a view to improving their status. (www.nwrm.eu)

Tiny, usually microscopic, unsegmented worms. Some are parasites of animals or plants. Most live free in the soil.

This is a specific feature of LANDMARK deliverables from WP3 (i.e. the harmonization of proxy indicator systems among different spatial and temporal scales). One of the means to realize this is to collect indicators, and/or proxies, which have overlap for use at different spatial/temporal scales. For instance, land use as proxy should be useful for the EU/national and at the regional scale, while crop rotation should be useful for the regional and farm scale.

A process accomplished by a few groups of aerobic organisms in which ammonia is converted to nitrite and then nitrate.

Main crop under which an undersowing is established which accompanies the main crop during at least a part of its growing season.

The capacity of a soil to receive nutrients in the form of by-products, to provide nutrients from intrinsic resources or to support the acquisition of nutrients from air or water, and to effectively carry over these nutrients into harvested crops.

The way in which nutrient availability and/or the way nutrient cycling (in terms of soil processes) is regulated.

Fraction of plant-available nutrients from fertilizers and manures taken up by the crop in harvestable fraction(s) and above ground residues, usually excluding roots and stubbles.

A surface horizon, or a subsurface horizon occurring at any depth if it has been buried, that consists of poorly aerated organic material. It is usually undecomposed or partially decomposed organic matter (litter such as leaves, needles, twigs, moss, and lichens) (WRB, 2006). Often referred as the histic horizon (from Greek histos, tissue).

Agricultural production which typically places a higher emphasis on environmental and wildlife protection and, with regard to livestock production, on measures that are supposedly animal welfare friendly. Organic production aims at more holistic production management systems for crops and livestock, emphasizing on-farm management practices over off-farm inputs. This involves avoiding, or largely reducing, the use of synthetic chemicals such as inorganic fertilizers, pesticides, medicinal products, replacing them, wherever possible, with cultural, biological and mechanical methods. Organic producers explicitly aim to develop an allegedly healthier, fertile soil by growing and rotating a mixture of crops and using clover to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere. The production of genetically-modified (GM) crops and their use in animal feed is banned. In the context of European Union (EU) statistics, farming is considered to be organic if it complies with Regulation 834/2007 of 28 June 2007 on organic production and labelling of organic products. The detailed rules for the implementation of this Regulation are laid down in Regulation 889/2008.