Basic terms on ecology for schoolchildren. Dictionary of ecological terms. Sciences and their object of study

Abiotic factors – impact on the body of components of inanimate nature.

Autotrophs – organisms that use carbon dioxide as a source of carbon, that is, organisms capable of creating organic substances from inorganic substances - carbon dioxide, water, mineral salts (plants and some bacteria). These include phototrophs And chemotrophs.

Agroecosystems (agricultural ecosystems, agrocenoses) – artificial ecosystems, arising from human agricultural activities (arable land, hayfields, pastures).

Morphological adaptations – changes in the structure of organisms. For example, leaf modification in desert plants.

Physiological adaptations – changes in the physiology of organisms. For example, the ability of a camel to provide the body with moisture by oxidizing fat reserves.

Ethological adaptations – changes in the behavior of organisms. For example, seasonal migrations of mammals and birds, hibernation in winter.

Adaptation – adaptation to the environment developed by organisms in the process of evolution.

allelopathy(antibiosis) is a special case of amensalism, in which the waste products of one organism are released into the external environment, poisoning it and making it unsuitable for the life of another. Common in plants, fungi, bacteria.

Allergens – factors that can cause allergy. Allergens can be pathogenic and non-pathogenic microbes, house dust, animal hair, plant pollen, drugs, gasoline, chloramine, meat, vegetables, fruits, berries, etc.

Allergy – perverse sensitivity or reactivity of the organism to a particular substance, the so-called allergen.

Amensalism – relationships in which one organism affects another and suppresses its vital activity, and itself does not experience any negative influences from the suppressed. For example, spruce and plants of the lower tier.

Anabiosis - complete suspension of life. In a state of anabiosis, organisms become resistant to various influences (rotifers, tardigrades, small nematodes, seeds and spores of plants, spores of bacteria and fungi). Anabiosis is a rather rare phenomenon and is an extreme state of rest in wildlife, the state of anabiosis is possible only with almost complete dehydration of organisms. Cm. Hypobiosis And Cryptobiosis.

Anaerobes obligate – organisms that are unable to live in an oxygen environment (some bacteria).

Anaerobes are facultative- organisms that can live both in the presence of oxygen and without it (some bacteria and fungi).

Anemophilia - wind pollination method. Anemophilous plants include all gymnosperms and about 10% of angiosperms (beech, birch, walnut, hemp, casuarina, haze, sedge, cereals, etc.).

Anemochory - settlement by means of air currents. Anemochory is characteristic of spores, seeds and fruits of plants, protozoan cysts, small insects, spiders, etc.

Antibiosis – cm. Allelopathy.

Anthropogenesis – the origin of man, his formation as a species.

Anthropogenic factors – impact on the body of human activity.

Anthropogenic circulation (metabolism) of substances – circulation (exchange) of substances, the driving force of which is human activity. Due to the openness of the anthropogenic cycle, it is often called an exchange.

anthroposphere – the sphere of the Earth where humanity lives and where it temporarily penetrates (with the help of satellites, etc.). The concept of "anthroposphere" is used to characterize the spatial position of mankind and its economic activity.

anthropocentrism – a type of social consciousness based on the idea of ​​"human exclusivity", the opposition of man to nature.

Upwelling - the rise of cold waters from the depths of the ocean, when winds move water from a steep continental slope, and in return for it, water enriched with water rises from the depths biogenic elements.

area – the space on which population or view generally occurs throughout its life.

Atmosphere – a continuous air shell of the Earth, consisting of a mixture of gases, water vapor and dust particles.

Outwelling – brought nutrients from land to coastal waters, which are ecotones between freshwater and marine ecosystems(estuaries, estuaries, river mouths, coastal bays, etc.).

autecology(ecology of individuals, factorial ecology) - a branch of ecology that studies the relationship of individuals (organism) with the environment.

acidophiles – plants that live in soils with a pH<6,7.

Aerobes – organisms that can live only in an oxygen environment (animals, plants, some bacteria and fungi).

Basiphylls – plants living on soils with pH> 7.0.

Bental – the bottom of the ocean or sea as a habitat for bottom organisms - benthos.

Benthos – organisms living on the bottom and in the ground (attached algae and higher plants, crustaceans, mollusks, starfish, etc.). Allocate phytobenthos And zoobenthos.

Nutrient – inanimate bodies formed as a result of the vital activity of living organisms (some sedimentary rocks: limestone, chalk, etc., as well as oil, gas, coal, atmospheric oxygen, etc.).

Biogenic elements – chemical elements that are

into the composition of living organisms and at the same time perform biological functions.

Biogeochemical cycle (biogeochemical cycles) – Part biological cycle, composed of exchange cycles of water, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, sulfur and others biogenic elements.

Biogeocenosis – homogeneous area of ​​the earth's surface with a certain composition of living (biocenosis) and inert (biotope) components united by the metabolism and energy into a single natural complex.

Bioindicators – living organisms, by the presence, condition and behavior of which one can judge changes in the environment.

Bioindication – detection and determination of biologically and ecologically significant anthropogenic loads based on the response of living organisms and their communities to them.

Bio-inert substance – bio-inert bodies, which are the result of joint activities living organisms and geological processes (soils, silts, weathering crust, etc.).

Biological products (productivity) – growth biomass in an ecosystem created in a unit of time. It is divided into primary And secondary products.

biological rhythms – periodically recurring changes in the intensity and nature of biological processes and phenomena. For example, rhythm in cell division, DNA and RNA synthesis, secretion of hormones, daily movement of leaves and petals towards the Sun, autumn leaf fall, seasonal lignification of wintering shoots, seasonal migrations of birds and mammals, etc.

biological clock of the body- endogenous biological rhythms, giving the body the opportunity to navigate in time and prepare in advance for the upcoming changes in the environment.

Biological (biotic) cycle- circulation of matter the driving force of which is the activity of living organisms. The main energy source of the cycle is solar radiation, which generates photosynthesis.

Biome – a set of various groups of organisms and their habitat in a certain landscape-geographical zone (for example, in the tundra, taiga, steppe, etc.).

Biomass – mass of organisms of a certain group (producers, consumers, decomposers) or the community as a whole.

Biosphere – the shell of the Earth, the composition, structure and properties of which are to one degree or another determined by the present or past activities of living organisms.

biosphere reserves – constituent parts of a series state natural reserves, used for background monitoring of biospheric processes.

biota – a historically established set of living organisms united by a common area of ​​​​distribution. For example, tundra biota, soil biota, etc.

Biotic factors – impact on other living organisms.

Biotope – a certain territory with its own abiotic environmental factors habitat (climate, soil).

Biotrophs – heterotrophic organisms that use other living organisms as food. These include zoophagous And phytophages.

Biocenosis – totality populations different species, living in a certain area.

Gross primary production – general biomass, created by plants during photosynthesis. Part of it is spent on maintaining the life of plants - spending on respiration (40–70%). The rest is called net primary production.

"Explosion" demographic – a sharp increase in population, resulting in a decrease in mortality against a background of high birth rates. Its causes are associated with changes in socio-economic or general environmental conditions of life (including the level of health care).

Type biological – a set of individuals with a hereditary similarity of morphological, physiological and biochemical features, capable of crossing with the formation of fertile offspring, adapted to certain living conditions and occupying a certain area in nature (range).

Species structure of biocenosis – the number of species that make up a given biocenosis, and the ratio of their number or mass.

Species diversity of biocenosis – the number of species in a given community. There are α-diversity - species diversity in a given habitat, and β-diversity - the sum of all species of all habitats in a given area.

Vicarious (replacement) species – Ecologically similar but not related species that can occupy the same ecological niches.

Violenti(siloviki) - species that suppress all competitors (for example, trees that form primary forests).

Renewable natural resources which, as they are used, are constantly restored (animal world, vegetation, soil).

Age structure (age composition) of the population – ratio in populations individuals of different age groups.

"Second Nature" – changes natural environment, artificially caused by people and characterized by a lack of self-maintenance, that is, gradually collapsing without the supporting influence of a person (arable land, forest plantations, artificial reservoirs, etc.).

secondary production– biomass, consumers.

"Minor" types - few and rare in biocenosis kinds.

Survival – the absolute number of individuals (or the percentage of the original number of individuals) surviving in populations for a certain period of time.

Altitudinal zonality – a natural change in the natural environment with an ascent to the mountains from their foot to the top.

Halophiles – saline soil animals. halophytes – plants in saline soils.

Heliophytes obligate (light-loving plants) – plants growing in good light conditions.

Heliophytes facultative (shade-tolerant plants) – plants that can live in both good light conditions and shading conditions.

Helophytes – variety hydrophytes - plants that live in swamps and marshy meadows.

Hemicryptophytes – plants whose renewal buds are at the level of the soil surface, or in its most superficial layer, often covered with litter (most perennial grasses).

Genetic structure of the population – ratio in populations different genotypes and alleles.

gene pool – the totality of the genes of all individuals populations.

Geobionts – animals that live permanently in the soil, the entire development cycle of which takes place in the soil environment.

geoxenes – animals that occasionally visit the soil for temporary shelter or shelter.

geological cycle – cycle of substances, the driving force of which is exogenous And endogenous geological processes.

Geophiles - animals, part of the development cycle of which (more often one of the phases) necessarily passes in the soil.

Geophytes – a variety of cryptophytes.

Heterothermic organisms – group homoiothermic organisms, in which periods of maintaining a constantly high body temperature are replaced by periods of its decrease when falling into hibernation during an unfavorable period of the year (ground squirrels, marmots, hedgehogs, bats, etc.).

Heterotrophs – organisms that use organic compounds as a carbon source, that is, organisms that feed on ready-made organic matter (animals, fungi and most bacteria).

hygrophiles – moisture-loving organisms.

Hygrophytes – plants of moist habitats that do not tolerate water deficiency. These include, in particular, aquatic, plants - hydrophytes And hydatophytes.

Hydatophytes – aquatic plants, wholly or mostly immersed in water (for example, pondweed, water lily).

Hydrosphere – discontinuous water shell of the Earth, located between atmosphere And lithosphere and includes everything: oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, as well as groundwater, ice, snow of polar and high mountain regions.

Hydrophytes - aquatic plants attached to the ground and immersed in water only with their lower parts (for example, reeds).

Guilds – groups of species in a community that have similar functions and niches of the same size, that is, the role of which in the community is the same or comparable (for example, rainforest lianas are represented by many plant species).

Hypobiosis ( compelled rest) - inhibition of activity, or torpor, occurs under the direct pressure of adverse conditions (with a lack of heat, water, oxygen, etc.) and stops almost immediately after these conditions return to normal (some species of arthropods, such as springtails, a number of flies , ground beetles, etc.). Cm. Anabiosis And Cryptobiosis.

Global Simulation – forecasting the future of the whole world based on mathematical models and computer technology.

Homeostasis - dynamic balance of processes occurring in the body, population, biocenosis, ecosystem.

homeothermic organisms – organisms capable of maintaining core body temperature at a relatively constant level regardless of ambient temperature (birds and mammals).

Horizontal zoning – a regular change in the natural environment in the direction from the equator to the poles.

State natural reserves – territories and water areas that are completely withdrawn from normal economic use in order to preserve the natural complex in a natural state.

State standard (GOST) - normative and technical document that establishes a set of norms, rules, requirements, mandatory for execution.

Humus – the bulk of organic matter soil, completely lost the features of the anatomical structure.

Soil degradation – quality degradation soil as a result of the decline fertility.

Demecology(population ecology, population ecology) – section of ecology, studying the relationship of a population, species with the environment.

Dendrological parks and botanical gardens – collections of trees, shrubs and grasses created by man for the purpose of biodiversity conservation and enrichment flora, as well as for scientific, educational, cultural and educational purposes.

Detritus - small particles of the remains of organisms and their excretion.

Detrital food chains (decomposition chains)- food chains starting from the dead remains of plants, corpses and excrement of animals. For example, detritus → detritivores → predators → microphages → predators → macrophages.

Detritophages - organisms that feed on detritus. Saprotrophs.

Jute - mass loss of livestock as a result of ice, depriving the animals of food.

Dominant species - species that dominate biocenosis by number.

Medium capacity – quantitative characteristic of the set of conditions that limit the growth of the population.

Hard control – direct, immediate impact on nature, grossly violating natural processes with the help of technical means, a radical transformation of the very mechanisms and systems of nature. For example, plowing land, building dams on rivers.

Living matter – living organisms that inhabit the earth.

life form of an organism – morphological type of adaptation of a plant or animal to certain living conditions and a certain way of life.

Pollution – bringing in environment or the emergence in it of new (usually not characteristic of it) harmful chemical, physical, biological, informational agents. Pollution can occur as a result of natural causes (natural) or under the influence of human activities (anthropogenic pollution).

pollutant – any natural or anthropogenic agent that enters the environment or occurs in it in quantities beyond the natural background. A pollutant is also called an object that serves as a source of environmental pollution. The English word "pollutant" is also used.

Pollutant – chemical that causes pollution.

Reserves – territories created for a certain period (in some cases permanently) to preserve or restore natural complexes or their components and maintain the ecological balance. Preserves preserve and restore population densities of one or more species of animals or plants, as well as natural landscapes, water bodies, etc.

Replaceable Natural Resources- Natural resources, which can be replaced by others now or in the foreseeable future (all minerals, energy resources).

tolerance zone – interval of quantitative values environmental factor between the upper and lower endurance limits.

zoobenthos – animal component of benthos (crustaceans, mollusks, starfish, etc.). Zooplankton – animal component of plankton (single-celled animals, crustaceans, jellyfish, etc.).

Zoophages – heterotrophic organisms that use live animals as food. Cm. Biotrophs.

Zoocenosis – animal component biocenosis.

Invasion - the penetration of dispersing individuals into territories not yet occupied by the species, their settlement and the formation of new populations.

Exhaustible natural resources- Natural resources, the number of which is limited both absolutely and relatively (minerals, soils, biological resources). They are divided into non-renewable And renewable natural resources.

Inventories natural resources – this is a set of economic, environmental, organizational and technical indicators that characterizes the quantity and quality of a natural resource, as well as the composition and categories of users of this resource.

Cannibalism – a special case of predation, when killing and eating their own kind occurs.

Carcinogens – factors that can cause malignant and benign neoplasms (ultraviolet, x-ray and gamma rays, benzpyrene, some viruses, etc.).

Environmental quality – a set of indicators characterizing the state environment, the degree of conformity of the environment of a person's life to his needs.

lodging – cm. Sinoikia.

Acid rain - rain or snow acidified to pH< 5,6 из-за растворения в атмосферной влаге антропогенных выбросов (диоксид серы, оксиды азота, хлороводород и пр.).

climax community – community in balance with the environment.

Climate – multi-year regime weather.

The colony – group settlement of sedentary animals, both long-term and arising only for the breeding season (loons, bees, ants, etc.).

Command and Administration – management of nature users, based on the establishment of norms, standards, rules for nature management and relevant targets for environmental protection enterprises and punishments from reprimand to imprisonment or dismissal and payment of fines to enterprises and their management.

Commensalism – a relationship in which one of the partners benefits from cohabitation, while the other is indifferent to the presence of the first. Cm. Trophobiosis And Sinoikia.

Convergence – external similarity that occurs in representatives of different unrelated groups and species as a result of a similar lifestyle.

Competition – relationships in which organisms compete with each other for the same environmental resources with a lack of them. Competition happens indirect (passive)– consumption of environmental resources necessary for both species, and direct (active)- suppression of one species by another; intraspecific– rivalry between individuals of the same species, and interspecific- rivalry between individuals different types.

consortium – structural unit biocenosis, uniting autotrophic and heterotrophic organisms on the basis of spatial (topical) and nutritional (trophic) links around the central member (nucleus). For example, a single tree or a group of trees (an edificator plant) and organisms associated with it.

constructive impact – human activity aimed at restoring the natural environment, disturbed as a result of human economic activity or natural processes. For example, reclamation of landscapes, restoration of the number of rare species of animals and plants, etc.

Consumers(macroconsumers, phagotrophs) - heterotrophic organisms that consume organic matter producers or other consumers (animals, heterotrophic plants, some microorganisms). Consumers are of the first order (herbivorous animals), second order (primary predators that feed on herbivores), third order (secondary predators that feed on carnivores), etc.

Environmental monitoring – checking the compliance of indicators environmental quality(water, atmospheric air, soils, etc.) established norms and requirements (maximum concentration limit, VAT, maximum allowable income, maximum allowance, etc.).

coprophages – organisms that feed on excrement, mainly mammals. Cm. Saprotrophs.

Indirect (indirect) impact – change in nature as a result of chain reactions or secondary phenomena associated with human economic activity.

Cosmopolitans – species of plants and animals that are found in most of the inhabited areas of the Earth (for example, houseflies, gray rats).

Inert substance - inanimate bodies formed as a result of processes not related to the activity of living organisms (rocks of igneous and metamorphic origin, some sedimentary rocks).

Co-evolution of society and nature – joint, interconnected evolution of society and nature.

edge effect – increase in species diversity in transition zones between communities (ecotones).

"Red Tides" – mass development of pyrophytic algae associated with excessive discharge of organic matter into the ocean. Were recorded off the coast of Florida, India, Australia, Japan, the Black Sea, etc.

Survival Curves – curves reflecting how, with aging, the number of individuals of the same age decreases in populations.

Cryophiles – organisms that live at low temperatures.

Cryptobiosis ( physiological rest) – a state of reduced vital activity as a result of partial inhibition of metabolism, is associated with a complex of physiological changes in the body that occur in advance, before the onset of adverse seasonal changes (plant seeds, cysts and spores of various microorganisms, fungi, algae, hibernation of mammals, deep dormancy of plants). Cm. Anabiosis And Hypobiosis.

Cryptophytes – plants whose renewal buds are hidden in the soil (geophytes) or underwater (hydrophytes)(bulbous, tuberous and rhizomatous plants).

Circulation of substances – multiple participation of substances in the processes occurring in atmosphere, hydrosphere And lithosphere, including those layers that are part of the Earth's biosphere.

Xenobiotics – pollutants environment from any class chemical compounds that do not occur naturally ecosystems.

Xerophiles – dry organisms.

Xerophytes – dry habitat plants that can tolerate overheating and dehydration. These include succulents And sclerophytes.

K-strategists (K-species, K-populations) – populations of slowly reproducing, but more competitive individuals (humans, trees, etc.)

Limitation of nature use – the payment for the overlimit use of natural resources and environmental pollution is several times higher than the payment for the use and pollution within the limits of the standards (limits) established by the enterprise.

Limiting (limiting) factor- environmental factor, the quantitative value of which goes beyond endurance limits kind.

Limnic zone – the water column to a depth where only 1% of the sunlight penetrates and where it fades photosynthesis.

Littoral zone - the water column where sunlight reaches the bottom.

Lithosphere – the outer hard shell of the Earth, including the earth's crust and the upper solid layer of the mantle.

Lithophytes (petrophytes) – plants that settle on stones, rocks or in their cracks.

Maximum Lifespan (MPL) – This lifespan, to which only a small fraction of individuals can survive in real environmental conditions.

Low Waste Technology – a method of production that ensures the most efficient use of raw materials and energy, with a minimum of waste and energy losses.

Material incentives for environmental protection activities – ensuring the profitability of nature protection activities for nature users.

mesotrophs – plants requiring a moderate amount of ash elements.

Mesophiles - organisms that live in both wet and dry habitats.

Mesophytes – plants of moderately humid habitats;

intermediate group between hydrophytes and xerophytes.

habitat – is the territory or water area occupied by population (species) with a complex of environmental factors inherent in it.

Microbocenosis – microbial component biocenosis.

Mixotrophs – organisms that can both synthesize organic substances from inorganic ones and feed on ready-made organic compounds (insectivorous plants, representatives of the euglenoid algae department, some bacteria, etc.). Cm. Autotrophs And Heterotrophs.

Mineralization – conversion of organic residues into inorganic substances.

Mosaic – horizontal structure biocenosis.

Environmental monitoring (environmental monitoring) – a system for monitoring, evaluating and predicting the state of the natural environment surrounding a person. Monitoring happens background (base)- monitoring of natural phenomena and processes occurring in a natural setting, without anthropogenic influence (carried out on the basis of biosphere reserves); impact– monitoring of anthropogenic impacts in especially dangerous areas, global– tracking the development of global biospheric processes and phenomena (for example, the state of the ozone layer, climate change), regional– monitoring of natural and anthropogenic processes and phenomena within a certain region (for example, the state of Lake Baikal), local– monitoring within a small area (for example, monitoring the air quality in a city).

Mutagens – factors that can cause mutations (ultraviolet, x-ray and gamma rays, high or low temperature, benzpyrene, nitrous acid, some viruses, etc.).

Mutualism(obligate symbiosis) - mutually beneficial cohabitation, when either one of the partners, or both cannot exist without a cohabitant. For example, herbivorous ungulates and cellulose-destroying bacteria.

Soft control - mainly indirect, mediated impact on nature using natural mechanisms of self-regulation, that is, the ability of natural systems to restore their properties after anthropogenic interference. For example, agroforestry.

Freeloading – cm. Trophobiosis.

National parks – relatively large natural territories and water areas, where the fulfillment of three main goals is ensured: environmental (maintaining the ecological balance and preserving natural ecosystems), recreational (regulated tourism and recreation of people) and scientific (development and implementation of methods for preserving the natural complex in conditions of mass admission of visitors). IN national parks there are economic zones.

Non-renewable natural resources- exhaustible natural resources, which are absolutely not restored (coal, oil and most other minerals) or are restored much more slowly than they are being used (peat bogs, many sedimentary rocks).

Irreplaceable Natural Resources- Natural resources, which cannot be replaced by other natural resources (atmospheric air, water, the genetic fund of living organisms).

Inexhaustible natural resources- Natural resources, the number of which is not limited, but not absolute, but relative to our needs and periods of existence (the waters of the oceans, fresh waters, atmospheric air, wind energy, solar radiation, the energy of sea tides).

Neuston – organisms that live near the surface of the water.

Neutralism – cohabitation of two species in the same territory, which has neither positive nor negative consequences for them. For example, squirrels and moose.

Neutrophils – plants living on soils with pH = 6.7–7.0.

Necrophages - heterotrophic organisms that use animal carcasses as food.

Necrophages(corpse eaters) - organisms that feed on the corpses of animals. Cm. Saprotrophs.

Nekton – animals actively moving in the water (fish, amphibians, cephalopods, turtles, cetaceans, etc.).

Unintended Impact is unconscious when a person does not anticipate the consequences of his activity.

Irrational nature management – human economic activity leading to depletion (and even extinction) natural resources, environmental pollution, disruption of the ecological balance of natural systems, that is, to ecological crisis or disaster.

Nitrophils – plants that prefer soils rich in nitrogen.

Noosphere – realm of the mind, the highest stage of development biosphere, when reasonable human activity becomes the main, determining factor in its development.

Regulation of environmental quality – establishment of a system of quantitative and qualitative indicators (standards) of the state environment(for air, water, soil, etc.), which provide favorable conditions for human life and sustainable functioning of natural, ecosystems.

The abundance of the species – the number or mass of individuals of a given species per unit area or volume of space it occupies.

"The ozone hole" – significant space in ozonosphere planets with a markedly reduced (up to 50% or more) ozone content.

Ozonosphere – layer atmosphere with the highest ozone concentration at an altitude of 20–25 (22–24) km.

Environment – natural habitat and activities of humans and other living organisms, including the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, biosphere and near-Earth space. Within the natural environment, natural resources And natural conditions.

Oligotrophs – plants content with a small amount of ash elements.

Optimum (optimum zone, zone of normal life activity) – such a number environmental factor, at which the intensity of life activity of organisms is maximum.

osmotrophy – heterotrophic organisms that absorb organic matter from solutions through cell membranes (fungi, most bacteria).

Specially Protected Natural Territories (PAs) – territories or water areas within which their economic use is prohibited and their natural state is maintained in order to maintain ecological balance, as well as for scientific, educational, cultural and aesthetic purposes.

Protection of nature (environment) – a system of international, state and public events aimed at the rational use, reproduction and protection of natural resources and the improvement of the state of the natural environment in order to meet the material and cultural needs of both existing and future generations of people. In other words, a system of measures to optimize the relationship between human society and nature.

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) – type of activity to identify, analyze and account for direct, indirect and other consequences of impact on environment planned economic and other activities in order to make a decision on the possibility or impossibility of its implementation.

Risk assessment – scientific analysis the occurrence of a risk (possibility of a dangerous situation) in order to identify the danger, determine the degree of danger in specific conditions. Characterizes the probability of a negative event (accident, emission, epidemic, etc.).

monuments nature – unique, non-reproducible natural objects of scientific, ecological, cultural and aesthetic value (caves, ancient trees, rocks, waterfalls, etc.). On the territory where they are located, any activity that violates their safety is prohibited.

panmixia – free interbreeding between individuals of the same species.

Greenhouse (greenhouse, greenhouse) effect – warming up the lower layers atmosphere, due to the ability of the atmosphere to transmit short-wave solar radiation, but delay long-wave thermal radiation of the earth's surface. The greenhouse effect is facilitated by the entry into the atmosphere of anthropogenic impurities (carbon dioxide, dust, methane, freons, etc.).

Parcel – structural part in horizontal dismemberment biocenosis, different from other parts in the composition and properties of the components. For example, areas of broad-leaved trees in a coniferous forest.

Pasture food chains (grazing chains)- food chains starting with living photosynthetic organisms. For example, phytoplankton → zooplankton → microphage fish → macrophage fish → ichthyophage birds.

Patients – species that can survive in adverse conditions (“shade-loving”, “salt-loving”, etc.).

Pedosphere(soil cover) - the shell of the Earth formed by the soil cover; upper (day) part of the lithosphere on the land.

Pelagial – the water column in the ocean or sea as a habitat for pelagic organisms - plankton And nekton.

primary production– biomass, created per unit of time producers. It is divided into gross And clean products.

rifts – shallow sections of rivers with a fast current (the bottom is without silt, there are mainly attached forms periphyton And benthos).

Periphyton - organisms attached to the leaves and stems of aquatic plants or other protrusions above the bottom of a body of water.

Pessimum (zone of pessimum, zone of oppression) – such a number environmental factor, in which the vital activity of organisms is oppressed.

Biomass pyramid – graphic representation of the relationship between producers And consumers different orders, expressed in units of biomass. Shows the change in biomass at each next trophic level: for terrestrial ecosystems, the biomass pyramid narrows upwards, for the ocean ecosystem it has an inverted character.

Pyramid of numbers (Elton numbers)– graphic representation of the relationship between producers And consumers different orders, expressed in units of the number of individuals. Reflects the decrease in the number of organisms from producers to consumers.

Pyramid of energy (products) – graphic representation of the relationship between producers And consumers different orders, expressed in units of energy contained in the mass of living matter. It has a universal character and reflects a decrease in the amount of energy contained in products created at each next trophic level.

food web – intricate weave in the community food chains.

Food chain (trophic chain, food chain) – the sequence of organisms through which the energy contained in food is transferred from its original source.

Plankton – organisms, mainly passively moving due to the current (unicellular algae, unicellular animals, crustaceans, jellyfish, etc.). Allocate phytoplankton And zooplankton.

Payment for nature use – payment for the use of almost all natural resources, for environmental pollution, the placement of production waste in it and for other types of impact.

Plesy – deep-water sections of rivers with a slow current (soft silty substrate and burrowing animals at the bottom).

soil fertility – ability soil to satisfy the need of plants for nutrients and water, to provide their root systems with sufficient heat and air for normal activity and creation of a crop.

Density – number of individuals or biomass populations per unit area or volume.

Human behavior – a complex set of motor acts aimed at meeting the needs of the body.

Weather – the continuously changing state of the atmosphere near the earth's surface, up to about 20 km (troposphere boundary).

Poikilothermic organisms – organisms with a non-constant internal body temperature that varies depending on the temperature of the external environment (microorganisms, plants, invertebrates and lower vertebrates).

Sexual structure (sex composition) of the population – ratio in populations male and female individuals.

population – a collection of individuals of the same species capable of self-reproduction, which exists for a long time in a certain part range relatively isolated from other aggregates of the same species.

Threshold (minimum effective) concentration – the minimum concentration of a chemical that causes slight but significant changes in the body or in environment.

Potential natural resources -Natural resources, which are currently not used by man at all or are used insufficiently (the energy of the Sun, sea tides, wind, etc.).

human needs – a source of activity, a state that expresses a person's dependence on the conditions of existence.

The soil – this is the surface horizon of the earth's crust, forming a layer of small thickness, formed as a result of the interaction of soil formation factors: climate, organisms, soil-forming rocks, terrain, age of the country (time), human economic activity.

Endurance upper limit - maximum amount environmental factor,

Endurance limit lower – minimal amount environmental factor, in which the life of organisms is still possible.

Maximum permissible anthropogenic (environmental) load on the environment (maximum permissible harmful impact - MPE) - the maximum intensity of anthropogenic impact on the environment that does not lead to a violation of the sustainability of ecological systems (or, in other words, to the exit ecosystems beyond the ecological capacity).

Maximum Permissible Concentration (Amount) (MAC) – the amount of a pollutant in the environment (soil, air, water, food), which, under permanent or temporary exposure to a person, does not affect his health and does not cause adverse effects in his offspring. MPC is calculated per unit volume (for air, water), mass (for soil, food) or surface (for the skin of workers).

Maximum Permissible Harmful Effect (MAE)– see Maximum permissible anthropogenic (environmental) load on the environment.

Maximum Permissible Emission (MPE) or Discharge (MPD) – the maximum amount of pollutants that a given enterprise is allowed to emit into the atmosphere or discharge into a water body per unit of time without causing them to exceed the maximum permissible concentrations of pollutants and adverse environmental consequences.

Maximum Permissible Level (MPL) – this is the maximum level of exposure to radiation, noise, vibration, magnetic fields and other harmful physical effects, which does not pose a danger to human health, the condition of animals, plants, their genetic fund. MPC is the same as MPC, but for physical impacts.

Intentional exposure is conscious when a person expects certain results of his activity.

Natural resource potential – Part natural resources, which can be involved in economic activity given the technical and socio-economic capabilities of the society with the condition of preserving the living environment of mankind. In a narrower economic sense, a set of natural resources available with given technologies and socio-economic relations.

natural parks – territories that are of particular ecological and aesthetic value, with a relatively mild protection regime and are used mainly for organized recreation of the population. In their structure, they are simpler than national natural parks.

Natural resources – elements of nature (objects and phenomena) necessary for man for his life support and involved in material production (atmospheric air, water, soil, solar radiation, minerals, climate, vegetation, wildlife, etc.). They are divided unreal And potential, replaceable And indispensable, exhaustible And inexhaustible natural resources.

natural conditions – elements of nature (objects and phenomena) that affect human life and activity, but are not involved in material production (certain gases of the atmosphere, species of animals and plants, etc.). With the development of science and technology, natural conditions become natural resources.

nature management – the use of natural resources in order to meet the material and cultural needs of society. Nature management (as a science) is a field of knowledge that develops the principles of rational (reasonable) nature management. Nature management can be rational and irrational.

Lifespan – the duration of an individual's existence. Distinguish physiological, maximum And average life expectancy.

Producers – autotrophic organisms capable of producing organic substances from inorganic substances using photosynthesis or chemosynthesis(plants and autotrophic bacteria).

Spatial structure of biocenosis – distribution of organisms of different species in space (vertically and horizontally).

Spatial and ethological structure of the population – the nature of the distribution of individuals populations within range.

Protocooperation(facultative symbiosis) - mutually beneficial, but not mandatory, coexistence of organisms, from which all participants benefit. For example, hermit crabs and sea anemones.

profundal zone – the bottom and column of water where sunlight does not penetrate.

Direct (immediate) impact – change in nature as a result of the direct impact of human economic activity on natural objects and phenomena.

Psammophytes – sand plants.

Destructive (destructive) impact – human activity leading to the loss by the natural environment of its qualities useful to man. For example, the reduction of rainforests to pastures or plantations, as a result of which the biogeochemical cycle of substances is disturbed, and the soil loses its fertility in 2-3 years.

Rational nature management – human economic activity that ensures economical use natural resources And natural conditions, their protection and reproduction, taking into account not only the present, but also the future interests of society.

Real natural resources- Natural resources, which are currently used by man in production activities.

decomposers(microconsumers, destructors, saprotrophs, osmotrophs) are heterotrophic organisms that feed on organic residues and decompose them into minerals (saprotrophic bacteria and fungi).

recycling – reuse of material resources, saving raw materials and energy, and reducing waste generation.

Fertility (birth rate) – the number of new individuals that appeared in populations per unit of time as a result of reproduction. .

r-strategists (r-species, r-populations) – populations of rapidly reproducing, but less competitive individuals (bacteria, aphids, annual plants, etc.).

Saprotrophs – heterotrophic organisms that use the organic matter of dead bodies or excreta (excrement) of animals as food. These include saprotrophic bacteria, fungi, plants (saprophytes), animals (saprophages). Among them there are detritivores(feed on detritus) necrophages(feeding on carcasses) coprophages(feed on excrement), etc.

Saprophages – saprotrophic animals. Cm. Saprotrophs.

Saprophytes – saprotrophic plants. Cm. Saprotrophs.

Sinoikia (lodging) – a form of commensalism where one species uses the body or dwelling of another species as shelter or habitation. For example, sea anemones and tropical fish.

Synusia – structural part in vertical dismemberment biocenosis, limited in space (or in time). For example, in a pine forest, one can distinguish pine synusia, lingonberry synusia, green moss synusia, etc.

synecology(ecology of communities, population ecology) - a branch of ecology that studies communities of organisms (biocenoses, ecosystems).

System of standards in the field of nature conservation (SSOP) – complex of interconnected standards aimed at the conservation, restoration and rational use of natural resources.

Sclerophytes – xerophytic plants with hard shoots, due to which, with a water deficit, they do not have an external wilting pattern (for example, feather grass, saxaul). Cm. Xerophytes.

population growth rate – change population size per unit of time. It depends on indicators fertility, mortality and migration (settlement - immigration and eviction - emigration).

Mortality (mortality rate) – the number of individuals who died in populations per unit of time (from predators, diseases, old age and other causes).

Smog- a poisonous mixture of smoke, fog and dust. There are two types of smog: London and Los Angeles.

Habitat – it is a part of nature that surrounds living organisms and has a certain effect on them.

Average life expectancy (ALE) – is the arithmetic mean life expectancy all individuals in the population.

The stabilizing effect human activity aimed at slowing down the destruction (destruction) of the natural environment as a result of both human economic activity and natural processes. For example, soil protection measures aimed at reducing soil erosion.

Herd - longer than a flock, or a permanent association of animals, in which, as a rule, all the vital functions of the species are performed: protection from enemies, obtaining food, migration, reproduction, raising young, etc. (deer, zebras, etc.).

Standards (norms, regulations) – legally permitted concentrations (contents) pollutants in objects environment or the magnitude of the impact.

Station - the habitat of any species (population) land animals.

flock – temporary association of animals, facilitating the performance of any function: protection from enemies, obtaining food, migration (wolves, herring, etc.).

Stenobionts – ecologically low-hardy species with a narrow zone of tolerance (ecological valency).

The degree of dominance - the ratio of the number of individuals of a given species to the total number of all individuals of the group under consideration.

Population structure – ratio in populations groups of individuals by sex, age, size, genotype, distribution of individuals over the territory, etc. (gender, age, size, genetic, spatial-ethological, etc.).

succulents – xerophytic plants with succulent, fleshy leaves (for example, aloe) or stems (for example, cacti) in which water storage tissue is developed. Cm. Xerophytes.

Successional series – successive succession of communities.

Succession - consecutive shift biocenoses (ecosystems), expressed in a change in the species composition and structure of the community. There are successions natural- occurring under the influence of natural causes not related to human activity, and anthropogenic- caused by human activity; autogenous(self-generated) - arising from internal causes (environment changes under the influence of the community) and allogeneic(generated from outside) - caused by external causes (for example, climate change); primary- developing on a substrate not occupied by living organisms (on rocks, cliffs, loose sands, in new reservoirs, etc.), and secondary- developing on the site of already existing biocenoses after their disturbance (as a result of felling, fire, plowing, volcanic eruption, etc.).

Sciophytes(shade-loving plants) - plants that do not tolerate direct sunlight.

Teratogens – factors that can cause deformities (ultraviolet, x-rays and gamma rays, benzpyrene, some viruses, etc.).

Thermophiles - organisms that live at high temperatures.

Terophytes - annual plants that do not have renewal buds; reproduce only by seeds.

Technogenesis – a set of geochemical processes caused by human production and economic activities.

Technosphere – part of the biosphere (over time, apparently, the whole biosphere), transformed by human technical activity. The concept of "technosphere" is used when they want to emphasize the material side of the relationship between man and nature, as well as the fact that at the present stage, the economic activity of people is not so reasonable as to talk about noosphere.

Toxicants – chemicals that have toxicity.

Toxicity – toxicity, that is, the ability to have a harmful or even deadly effect on a living organism.

Topical connections – communication between species, when one species changes the habitat of another species. For example, under a coniferous forest, as a rule, there is no grass cover.

"Third Nature" an artificial world created by man and not having a material-energy analogy in nature (cities, interior spaces, asphalt, concrete, synthetics, etc.).

Trophic connections – connections between species, when one species feeds on another: living individuals, dead remains, waste products.

Trophic level – link place in the food chain.

Trophobiosis (freeloading) – a form of commensalism where one species consumes the food leftovers of another species. For example, the relationship between large predators and scavengers.

Ubiquists- species of plants and animals with a wide ecological valence, able to exist in a variety of environmental conditions, have extensive areas (for example, common reed, wolf).

Natural systems management – measures, the implementation of which makes it possible to change natural phenomena and processes (strengthen or limit them) in the direction desired by a person. The management of natural systems is soft And hard.

Management of nature users(management of environmental protection and rationalization of the use of natural resources) - ensuring the norms and requirements that limit the harmful effects of production processes and products on the environment, and the rational use of natural resources, their restoration and reproduction. Management of nature users is command and control And economic.

Urbanization – this is a historical process of increasing the role of cities in the life of society, associated with the concentration and intensification of non-agricultural functions, the spread of an urban lifestyle, and the formation of specific socio-spatial forms of settlement.

Urban systems (urban systems) – artificial systems (ecosystems), arising from the development of cities and representing the focus of the population, residential buildings, industrial, domestic, cultural facilities, etc.

living conditions – a complex of environmental factors under the influence of which all the basic life processes of organisms are carried out, including normal development and reproduction.

factory connections – links between species, when one species uses excreta, dead remains, or even living individuals of another species for its structures. For example, when building nests, birds use tree branches, grass, down and feathers of other birds.

phagotrophs(holozoic) - heterotrophic organisms that swallow solid pieces of food (animals).

health factors- a set of factors that are not the direct cause of a particular disease (risk factors) and factors that are the direct cause of the disease.

Risk factors - factors that are not the direct cause of a particular disease, but increase the likelihood of its occurrence.

Phanerophytes – plants whose renewal buds are high above the ground (above 30 cm) (trees and shrubs).

PAR – photosynthetic activity of solar radiation.

Fauna – the totality of animal species that live in a given area.

Physiological life expectancy (FPL) – This lifespan, which could be in an individual of this species if limiting factors did not influence it throughout its life.

Physiological rhythms -endogenous biological rhythms, supporting the uninterrupted vital activity of organisms (heartbeat, respiration, work of endocrine glands, etc.).

Financing of environmental measures – providing funds for environmental protection measures.

Phytobenthos – plant component of benthos (attached algae and higher plants).

Phytoplankton - plant component plankton(unicellular algae).

Phytophages – heterotrophic organisms that use living plants as food. Cm. Biotrophs.

Phytocenosis – plant component biocenosis.

Flora – the totality of plant species found in a given area.

Foric connections – relationships between species, when one species participates in the distribution of another species. For example, the transfer of seeds, spores, pollen by animals.

photoperiodism – response of organisms to daylight hours. For example, leaf fall, flights of birds.

Photosynthesis(photoautotrophy) - the synthesis of organic compounds from inorganic ones due to the energy of light.

Phototrophs – autotrophic organisms that use light energy for biosynthesis (plants, cyanobacteria). Cm. Autotrophs.

Freons (chlorofluorocarbons or FHU) – highly volatile, chemically inert substances near the earth's surface, widely used in production and everyday life as refrigerants (refrigerators, air conditioners, refrigerators), foaming agents and sprayers (aerosol packaging). Freons, rising into the upper layers of the atmosphere, undergo photochemical decomposition with the formation of chlorine oxide, which intensively destroys ozone.

Hamefites – plants, the renewal buds of which are located near the soil surface or not high (not higher than 20-30 cm), in winter may be under the snow (semi-shrubs and small shrubs).

Chemosynthesis(chemoautotrophy) - the process of synthesis of organic compounds from inorganic (CO 2, etc.) due to the chemical energy of the oxidation of inorganic substances (sulfur, hydrogen, hydrogen sulfide, iron, ammonia, nitrite, etc.).

Chemotrophs – autotrophic organisms that use energy for biosynthesis chemical reactions oxidation of inorganic compounds (chemotrophic bacteria: hydrogen bacteria, nitrifying bacteria, iron bacteria, sulfur bacteria, etc.). Autotrophs.

Predation – a relationship in which one of the participants (the predator) kills the other (the prey) and uses it as food. For example, wolves and hares.

Water bloom – the massive development of phytoplankton, causing a change in the color of the water from green and yellow-brown to red. It is due to a significant intake of biogenic elements (phosphorus, nitrogen, potassium, etc.) into water bodies.

Circadian (circadian) rhythms – recurring changes in the intensity and nature of biological processes and phenomena with a period of 20 to 28 hours.

Circanian (circa-annual) rhythms – recurring changes in the intensity and nature of biological processes and phenomena with a period of 10 to 13 months.

Frequency of occurrence – percentage of the number of samples or sites where the species occurs to the total number of samples or sites.

population – number of individuals in populations.

Net primary production– biomass, which is not spent on maintaining the life of plants and is subsequently used consumers And decomposers, or accumulate in the ecosystem.

Environmental emergency – cm. Ecological crisis.

eurybionts – ecologically hardy species with wide zone of tolerance (ecological valency).

Eutrophication(eutrophication) - an increase in the biological productivity of water bodies as a result of the accumulation of biogenic elements (phosphorus, nitrogen, potassium, etc.) under the influence of natural and anthropogenic factors. The negative consequence of eutrophication is the deterioration of the physicochemical conditions of the habitat of fish and other hydrobionts due to the massive development of phytoplankton, the decomposition of dead organisms and the toxicity of their decay products. Cm. Blooming waters, Red tides.

Eutrophic – plants that need a large amount of ash elements.

Euphotic zone – the entire illuminated water column. It includes littoral And limnic zone.

Edifiers(builders) - species that determine the microenvironment (microclimate) of all biocenosis(usually plants).

Exogenous (external) rhythms- biological rhythms arising as a reaction to periodic changes in the environment (change of day and night, seasons, solar activity).

Exogenous processes (processes of external dynamics) - geological processes occurring under the influence of the external energy of the Sun. Exogenous processes include the geological activity of the atmosphere, hydrosphere (rivers, temporary streams, groundwater, seas and oceans, lakes and swamps, ice), as well as living organisms and humans.

Environmental Safety – a set of actions, states and processes that do not directly or indirectly lead to vital damage (or threats of such damage) inflicted on the natural environment, individuals and humanity.

Ecological valence (plasticity, tolerance, stability) – the degree of adaptability of the species to changes in environmental conditions; its ability to tolerate quantitative fluctuations in the action of the environmental factor to one degree or another.

Ecological catastrophe (environmental disaster) – ecological trouble, characterized by deep irreversible changes in the environment and a significant deterioration in the health of the population.

ecological niche – the totality of all environmental factors within which the existence of a species in nature is possible.

ecological pyramid – graphic representation of the relationship between producers And consumers different orders, expressed in units of biomass (pyramid of biomass), number of individuals (pyramid of numbers) or the energy contained in the mass of living matter (pyramid of energy).

Ecological Survival Strategy – set of properties populations aimed at increasing the likelihood of survival and leaving offspring. Cm. r-strategists And K-strategists.

Ecological structure of biocenosis – ratio in biocenosis organisms of different ecological groups.

Environmental assessment – assessment of the level of possible negative impacts of the planned economic and other activities on the environment, natural resources and human health.

Ecological rhythms- endogenous biological rhythms, arising as an adaptation of living organisms to periodic changes in the environment (daily, annual, tidal, lunar, etc.).

Environmental factors – these are individual elements of the habitat that affect organisms.

Environmental Equivalents – species that occupy the same niches in different geographical areas (for example, large kangaroos of Australia, bison of North America, zebras and antelopes of Africa, etc.).

Environmental audit - independent, comprehensive, documented assessment of compliance by a business entity and other activities with the requirements, including standards and regulations, in the field of environmental protection, requirements of international standards and preparing recommendations for improving such activities.

Environmental control - activities of state bodies, enterprises and citizens to comply with environmental standards and rules. There are state, industrial and public environmental control. Cm. Monitoring the state of the environment.

Ecological crisis (ecological emergency) – ecological trouble, characterized by persistent negative changes in the environment and posing a threat to human health.

Ecological passport of the enterprise – normative and technical document, including data on the use of resources by the enterprise (natural, secondary, etc.) and determining the impact of its production on environment. Includes a set of data and indicators according to GOST 17.0.0.04–90.

environmental risk – the probability of an event occurring that has adverse consequences for the natural environment and is caused by the negative impact of economic and other activities, natural and man-made emergencies.

environmental disaster – cm. Ecological catastrophy.

Ecological well-being of the ecosystem - state ecosystems, which is characterized by the normal reproduction of its main links.

environmental law – a set of environmental legal norms (rules of conduct) that regulate social (environmental) relations in the field of interaction between society and nature in order to protect the environment, prevent harmful environmental consequences, improve and improve the quality of the natural environment.

Ecology – the science of the relationship of living organisms with each other and with their environment. The term "ecology" was first introduced by the German biologist E. Haeckel (1866). By ecology, he meant "the sum of knowledge relating to the economics of nature."

human ecology – chapter ecology, studying the patterns of interaction between a person and the human community with the surrounding natural, social, environmental, hygienic and other factors.

Environmental economics – a branch of economics that studies mainly the issues of economic (in some cases, non-economic) assessment of natural resources and damage from environmental pollution.

economic management – management of natural resources based on economic incentives, when, with the help of various levers (prices, payments, tax benefits and penalties), the state makes it more financially profitable for enterprises, that is, more profitable, to comply with environmental legislation than to violate it.

Ecosystem(ecological system) - a system of living organisms living together and the conditions for their existence, connected by the flow of energy and the circulation of substances.

Ecotones – transition zones between communities.

ecocentrism – a type of social consciousness based on the understanding of the need for co-evolution of man and the biosphere.

Explerents(filling) - species that can quickly appear where indigenous communities are disturbed - on clearings and burnt areas (aspens), on shallows, etc.

emergence – the system has special, qualitatively new properties that are not inherent in the sum of the properties of its individual elements. For example, one cannot predict the properties of water from the properties of oxygen and hydrogen.

Endemics – plant and animal species that have small limited ranges (often found on islands of oceanic origin, in mountainous regions and isolated water bodies).

Endogenous (internal) rhythms- biological rhythms generated by the organism itself (the rhythm of DNA, RNA and protein synthesis, cell division, heartbeats, respiration, etc.).

Endogenous processes (processes of internal dynamics) – geological processes occurring under the influence of the internal energy of the Earth: the energy of radioactive decay, chemical reactions of the formation of minerals, crystallization of rocks, etc. Endogenous processes include: tectonic movements, earthquakes, magmatism, metamorphism.

Epiphytes – plants living on other plants (on branches, tree trunks), without contact with the soil.

Ethology – the science of the behavior of organisms.

Aestivation(from lat. " aestes" - summer) – summer hibernation of small mammals (mouse-like rodents, some ground squirrels, insectivorous chanterelles, etc.) in deserts.

Ephemeroids – perennial herbaceous plants, which, like ephemera, has a very short growing season.

Ephemera – annual herbaceous plants that complete their full cycle of development in a very short and usually wet period.

The group effect optimization of physiological processes, leading to an increase in the viability of individuals in coexistence.

Layered – vertical structure biocenosis.

Dictionary of environmental terms

Abiotic factors- all components of inanimate nature (light, temperature, humidity, etc.), as well as the composition of water, air and soil environments.

Anthropogenic factor- human activity, leading to a change in the habitat of living organisms.

Atmosphere - the gaseous shell of the Earth.

Biology - a science that studies the living world of the Earth and considers the laws of the structure and functioning of the living.

Bionics – scientific direction in biology and cybernetics, which studies the structure and vital activity of organisms in order to use the established patterns in the construction of technical systems similar in characteristics to living organisms and their parts.

Biotic factors– interactions between different individuals in populations, between populations in natural communities.

Biosphere - the largest (global) ecosystem of the Earth, a geological shell inhabited by living organisms. It covers the surface of the Earth, the upper part of the lithosphere, the entire hydrosphere and the lower part of the atmosphere - the troposphere.

Vegetative Pertaining to plants or organs associated with nutrition and growth.

Volcano - fire-breathing mountains. As a result of the eruption of underwater volcanoes, new islands can form and tsunami waves can occur.

Volcanologists - scientists who study volcanoes and predict their awakening.

Hydrosphere - the shell of the Earth formed by oceans, seas, lakes, rivers.

Rocks (or stones)are composed of two or more minerals. They can be igneous (granite, tuff, basalt), sedimentary (limestone, coal), etc.

Caterpillar - a worm-like larva of Lepidoptera, develops from an egg.

Trees - tall plants with one solid, woody, bark-covered trunk, branches grow at a considerable distance from the ground.

spruce forest - coniferous forest, in which it is dark, cool, humid; vegetation is represented by spruces, undersized shrubs, shade-tolerant herbs. Animals adapted to the change of seasons - squirrels, chipmunks, deer, hares, wild boars, moose.

live birth - a method of reproduction of offspring, in which the embryo develops from an egg, receiving nutrition from the mother's body, and is born in a more or less formed form (like a baby free from egg membranes).

Animals - a group of living beings, as a rule, capable of active movement; not forming, but eating the finished organic matter.

Law of ecological correlation- in an ecosystem, all the species included in it functionally correspond to each other, and the destruction of one species or their group always ultimately leads to the disappearance of interconnected other species of living things. With the complete extermination or extinction of a species, it never disappears alone, but always together with interconnected forms.

Reserve - a space specially protected by law or customs, completely excluded from any economic activity in order to preserve intact natural complexes, protect living species.

Human health- an objective state and a subjective feeling of complete physical, mental and social comfort.

Earth is one of the planets that orbit around the sun. These planets form the solar system. The earth is a huge ball. It consists of three parts: crust, mantle and core.

Zoocenosis - a set of interconnected and interdependent animal species that has developed in any space.

Variability - the existence of organisms in various forms and variants within a species; the ability of organisms to respond to the effects of environmental factors by morphophysiological changes; characterization of the degree of change in organisms of any group in the course of evolution.

Caviar - a set of eggs laid into the water by fish, amphibians and other animals.

Ecological catastrophe- a complete and irreversible violation in nature.

Environmental quality - compliance of natural conditions with the needs of living organisms. The environmental quality indicator can include both natural factors (temperature, amount of light, etc.) and anthropogenic (pollution, disturbance factor, etc.)

Climate - an annual recurring weather pattern characteristic of a given area.

Cocoon - a protective formation that protects eggs or embryos (in earthworms, spiders, etc.), or pupae of many insects.

Root - a plant organ that holds the plant in the soil, absorbing water and minerals dissolved in it.

Red Book - a list and description of rare and endangered animals, plants and fungi.

ecological crisis- a temporary tense state of the relationship between man and nature.

chrysalis - the phase of development of insects following the larva.

bushes - perennial plants that do not have a main stem; several stems, covered with bark, grow from the root, the branches are located close to the ground.

Landscape - a natural system homogeneous in terms of development.

Forest - a natural complex, which is dominated by trees of one or many species, growing close to each other and forming a more or less dense forest stand. Usually in the forest there are several tiers. Depending on the composition, forests are divided into coniferous, deciduous, tropical, etc.

Deciduous forest - a natural complex represented by deciduous plants, located in four tiers: 1 - large trees - oak, linden, ash; 2 - undersized trees - mountain ash, aspen, alder; 3 - shrubs - hazel, euonymus, wild rose, honeysuckle; 4 - herbs - oxalis, ferns, strawberries. Animals adapted to seasonal environmental changes - wild boars, elks, hares, birds, insects.

tropical forest - a natural complex, which is characterized by: a lot of heat (26° C) and moisture, a variety of plant species that grow, bloom and bear fruit all year round; variety of animals active throughout the year.

temperate forests- natural complexes, which are characterized by seasonal fluctuations in temperature and precipitation. Represented by broad-leaved and mixed forests.

Forest park - an extensive natural forest, usually not far from a large settlement or inside it, adapted for mass recreation.

forest-steppe - a natural zone of temperate and subtropical zones with alternating steppe and forest areas.

forest tundra - natural zone of the northern hemisphere, transitional between forest and tundra - a complex complex of light forests, tundra, swamps and meadows.

Sheet - plant organ, the function of which is photosynthesis, respiration, evaporation of moisture.

Lithosphere - the outer solid shell of the earth, covering its firmament to depths of 50 - 200 km and consisting of two layers: the upper - sedimentary rocks and the lower - basalt.

Larva - the actively feeding phase of development of some invertebrates, amphibians, and fish following the egg.

Minerals - homogeneous compounds that occur in nature in pure form. They differ in color, hardness, gloss, transparency, composition, structure.

Model - a system of objects or signs that reproduces some essential properties of the original system. The model is used as a proxy for the system under study. The model simplifies the structure of the original, abstracting from the irrelevant. It serves as a generalized reflection of the phenomenon. Models can be material objects or be mathematical, informational (visual-figurative, logical-symbolic).

Metabolism - consistent consumption, transformation, use, accumulation and loss of substances and energy in living organisms in the process of life.

Coloring is adaptive- a group of adaptations to environmental conditions, expressed in the appearance of shapes and colors in animals during natural selection, making them either invisible or especially noticeable against the background of the environment.

Organ A part of an organism that performs a specific function or group of functions.

organism – Living being, the carrier of life, characterized by all its properties: metabolism, the ability to move, grow, reproduce, adapt to changes in the external environment.

food chain - a sequence of groups of organisms, each of which (food link) serves as food for the next one; a link in the food chain is the level of the ecological pyramid.

Planet - a huge ball of solid rocks or gases that revolves around a star.

Weather - the state of the lower layer of the atmosphere in a certain area and at a certain time.

Minerals- rocks and minerals used by man in the national economy.

Need - the need for something necessary to maintain the vital activity of the body, this is an internal stimulus of activity.

The soil - the top fertile layer of the earth. Soil composition: clay, sand, humus (humus).

Signs of living organisms- movement, nutrition, excretion, respiration, growth, development, reproduction, death.

Nature - 1) in a broad sense - everything that exists, the whole world in the variety of its forms; 2) in the narrow sense - the object of study of the science of natural science.

Desert - an area without continuous vegetation; a lot of heat (35 O C), little moisture, certain types of plants. Animals store water in the form of fat, many are nocturnal, some hibernate.

Plants - autotrophic living organisms (capable of producing organic matter from inorganic).

Symbiosis - joint mutually beneficial, often mandatory coexistence of two or more species.

System - a set of elements that are in relationships and connections with each other and form a certain integrity, unity. The concept of a system is organically connected with the concept of integrity, subsystem, connection, structure.

mixed forest - a natural complex represented by deciduous and coniferous trees.

solar system- The sun and all other space objects, for example, the planets that revolve around it: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto.

Sun - a giant star that radiates light and heat. Its diameter is 140,000 km, the temperature in the center is 16,000,000 O C, surface temperature - 5500 O C, the time it takes for sunlight to reach Earth is 8 minutes 20 seconds.

Pinery - coniferous forest, in which it is dry and a lot of light, from vegetation - mainly pines, solitary bushes, grasses, mosses. Animals adapted to the change of seasons - squirrels, chipmunks, deer, hares, wild boars, moose.

hibernation - a period of a sharp decrease in the intensity of metabolism, allowing an animal or plant to survive adverse conditions of existence.

Habitat - all bodies and phenomena (natural and anthropogenic), with which the organism is in direct or indirect relationship. The environment includes all environmental factors.

Stage (stage) of development- a certain stage, period, stage in the development of something that has clearly distinguishable qualitative features.

Stem - vegetative organ of a plant. Its functions are mechanical, conductive, sometimes storage.

Steppe - a treeless type of vegetation, which is characterized by: little precipitation, mainly in spring and summer, frequent droughts, sharp changes in temperature by season, cold winters; various herbs. Variety of herbivores.

succulents - perennial plants with succulent leaves or stems that easily tolerate high air temperatures, but cannot withstand dehydration.

Taiga - type of vegetation with a predominance of coniferous forests; there is little precipitation, mostly in summer; large temperature difference between winter and summer; evergreen forests, represented by coniferous trees, various mosses and lichens. Animals are adapted to harsh conditions.

Tornado - a huge vortex of destructive force.

Herbs - a life form of plants that has soft, succulent, grassy stems.

Tundra - type of vegetation characterized by treelessness, strong development of mosses and lichens, in some places perennial grasses, stunted bushes and shrubs; little precipitation, cold winters, short summers; the lower layers of the earth are permafrost; undersized dwarf plants, mosses, lichens, mushrooms. Poor fauna, many migratory birds, many stinging insects in summer.

Turgor - the elasticity of tissues and organs due to the pressure of the contents of the cells on their elastic walls.

Hurricanes - storms during which the winds blow along a giant circle. In the center of it is a windless area - the "eye" of the hurricane.

Environmental conditions (habitat)- a set of environmental factors: from cosmic - the impact of the Universe on the solar system - to the direct influence of the environment on an individual (community).

Ecosystem resilience- its ability to maintain its structure and functional features under the influence of external factors.

Fauna - the existing set of all animal species living in a given territory, water area.

Phytocenosis - a more or less stable natural grouping (community) of plant species in a relatively homogeneous area.

Flora - the established set of plant species living in a certain area or as part of a particular plant community.

Function - specific activity of the organism, its organs.

coniferous forest - the natural complex, represented by coniferous plants, does not have a second tier - undersized trees.

Chitin - external skeleton of arthropods.

Predator - an animal or plant that catches and eats other animals that serve as food objects.

Development cycle - the totality of all phases of the individual development of the organism, as a result of which it becomes able to give rise to a new generation.

Expediency- the correspondence of the process, phenomenon, structure of an organ or organism to the prevailing environmental conditions for better adaptation to them.

The integrity of nature- the internal unity of the object (organism, community, biosphere) as a system, which determines its essence and the possibility of normal functioning.

Human - a rational natural being, which differs from other living organisms in the strong development of the brain, the ability to think, use speech as a means of communication, the vertical position of the body and movement on two legs, the structure of the hand as a labor organ.

cuttings - separation from the plant of a part of its stem, root or leaf and engraftment of this fragment, followed by the restoration of the missing organs of the whole plant.

cutting - a fragment of a plant, most often a part of the stem, used for cuttings.

Flower An organ of a plant whose function is reproduction.

ecological niche- the totality of all factors in the environment, within which the existence of a species in nature (community, ecosystem) is possible.

Environmental monitoring – Information system, the main tasks of which are the observation, assessment and forecast of the state of the natural environment under the influence of anthropogenic impact in order to warn about emerging critical situations that are harmful and dangerous to human health, the well-being of other living beings.

Environmental factor- any environmental condition that affects the state and properties of an organism, population, natural community.

Ecology The science that studies the relationship of organisms with the environment and with each other.

human ecology- a science that studies the general laws of the relationship between the biosphere and human society, the influence of the natural environment on a person.

ecological trail- a specially equipped and carefully studied path in places where the environment Live nature allows guides to transfer knowledge about natural phenomena and objects, create prerequisites for the development of environmental thinking, environmentally appropriate behavior in nature.

Ecosystem - a single natural or natural-anthropogenic complex formed by living organisms and their environment, in which all components are connected by metabolism. Important properties of an ecosystem are its stability and ability to self-regulate.

egg production - a method of reproduction by animals of offspring, in which the embryo develops in an egg under the protection of egg membranes outside the mother's body.

ABIOTIC ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS - a set of conditions of the inorganic environment that affect organisms.

ABRASIA - the destruction of the shores of large reservoirs by waves and surf.

ABSORPTION - the absorption of matter or energy by the entire mass (volume) of the absorbing body.

AUTOTROPHISM ( trophy - food) - nutrition of organisms (autotrophs) with inorganic substances through photosynthesis or chemosynthesis. Thanks to autotrophy, primary production is created.

AUTOTROPHICITY OF HUMANITY - a concept proposed by V.I. Vernadsky (1937) to refer to the process of obtaining food and energy by mankind from the energy of the sun without the participation of producers.

AUTOTROPHIC - feeding on inorganic substances.

AUTOTROPHIC ORGANISMS - organisms that use carbon dioxide as the sole or main source of carbon to build their body and have both an enzyme system for assimilation and the ability to synthesize all cell components.

Autotrophs - organisms whose food source, carried out by photosynthesis or chemosynthesis, is inorganic substances (carbon dioxide, ammonia, etc.). These include green plants (including algae) and some microorganisms. They play an important role in the cycle of substances in nature.

AGROBIOGEOCENOSIS ( agrobiocenosis, agrocenosis) - secondary, man-made artificial elementary units of the biosphere (arable land, garden, vegetable garden, pastures, etc.).

AGROINDUSTRY - agricultural production on an industrial basis.

AGROFOREST MELIORATION - creation of forest belts and plantations on steep slopes, along gullies and ravines, on sands, etc.

AGROECOSYSTEMS - an unstable, artificially created and regularly maintained by man ecosystem of cultural biosystems. Like natural ecosystems, agrosystems are elementary units of the biosphere (fields, artificial pastures, kitchen gardens, orchards, vineyards, forest plantations, etc.).

AGROCENOSIS - a biotic community created for the purpose of obtaining agricultural products and regularly maintained by humans, with low ecological reliability, but high yield (productivity) of one or more selected species (varieties, breeds) of plants or animals.

AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION - the transition of mankind about 10 thousand years ago from a gathering economy to a producing economy, the emergence of agriculture and cattle breeding.

ADAPTIVE STRATEGY OF INTENSIFICATION OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION - an alternative technogenic strategy of agriculture, fully involving qualitatively new ecological and agrobiological factors (species, varieties, agrocenoses) in the agrarian process, ensuring high productivity and environmental sustainability of agroecosystems.

ADAPTATION ( lat. adaptation - adaptation) - a complex of adaptive morphophysiological, behavioral and informational-biocenotic reactions, which ensures an increase in resistance to environmental factors and success in competition.

ADSORPTION - the absorption of a substance from a gaseous medium or solution by the surface of another substance (body).

ADRENALIN - adrenal hormone increases oxygen consumption and blood pressure, stimulates metabolism.

ACCLIMATIZATION ( lat. hell - to, for, at + gr. clima (climatos) - slope / the ancient Greeks associated the climatic features of the area with the different inclination of the sun's rays to the earth's surface /) - sustainable adaptation to life in new conditions and a set of measures to introduce a species to new habitats.

ACCELERATION - a sharp acceleration in the growth and maturation of individuals, as well as an increase in their size, recorded with a change of generations.

ACME ( other Greek.) - the pinnacle of life, its focus, in which comes - according to the idea of ​​Hellenic culture - the most complete flowering of all human forces and aspirations.

ALLERGY - altered reactivity of the body to repeated exposure to various irritants (microbes, foreign proteins, etc.) - allergens that cause the formation of antibodies in it. Allergies cause the development of such diseases as hay fever, bronchial asthma, urticaria, etc.

DEVELOPMENT ALTERNATIVES ( fr. alternative, from lat. alter - one of two) - development options, both mutually exclusive and intermediate between them.

ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY - a branch of chemistry that studies the methods of qualitative and quantitative analysis of a substance.

ANALYTICAL APPROACH ( Greek analysis - decomposition) - a way of mentally dividing the object under study into its constituent parts to obtain new knowledge by presenting the whole as a set of parts, reducing the complex, unknown to the known, simple, separating the essential from the inessential in the object, depending on the objectives of the study.

ANALOGY ( gr.) - a similarity between something that has a different origin (for example, the legs of crayfish, insects, vertebrates).

ANABOLISM - a set of metabolic reactions in the body (metabolism).

Anaerobes are organisms that live in the absence of free oxygen. These include many bacteria, ciliary ciliates, some worms and molluscs.

ANTIBIOTICS ( Greek anti - against, bios - life) - organic substances formed by microorganisms and having the ability to kill microbes (or prevent their growth).

ANIMISM - belief in the existence of souls and spirits, i.e. supernatural, supersensitive images, which in religious consciousness are represented as agents acting in all dead and living nature, controlling all objects and phenomena of the material world, including man.

ANTHROPOMETRY is one of the main research methods in anthropology, which consists in various measurements of the human body.

AREAL ( lat. area - area, space) - a part of the earth's surface (territory or water area), within which the given dachshund is distributed and goes through a full cycle of its development: species, genus, family.

ARIDIZATION is a process that leads to the loss of a continuous vegetation cover by a natural complex (ecosystem) with the further impossibility of its restoration without human participation.

ARID ZONE ( lat.aridus - dry) is an arid zone.

Aridity - dryness of the climate, leading to a lack of moisture for the life of organisms.

AROMATIC COMPOUNDS - hydrocarbons (benzene, naphthalene, anthracene, etc.) and their derivatives (aniline, benzoic acid, phenol) containing cycles (benzene nuclei) of 6 carbon atoms in the molecule.

ARCHAIC ( from the Greek archaikos - ancient, ancient) is a relic of antiquity.

ASTRONOOSPHERE - the emergence of a system of information or other links between the civilizations of the Cosmos, which have different origins.

ENERGY BALANCE ( thermal) is the totality of heat input and output. Distinguish B.e. (i.e.) atmosphere, earth's surface, Earth, soil, etc.

DRAINAGE BASIN - a territory from which water is collected, which then enters a watercourse (river) or a stagnant body of water (lake, pond, sea).

BATYAL - an area of ​​the ocean floor on the continental slope at depths from 500 m to 3 km. It is characterized by insignificant seasonal fluctuations in temperature, low water mobility, high pressure and lack of light.

ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER - any (natural, natural-anthropogenic, anthropogenic) change in the natural environment, leading to a deterioration in the health of the population or to difficulties in managing the economy.

ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY - 1) guaranteeing the prevention of environmentally significant disasters and accidents as a result of a combination of certain actions; 2) the degree of compliance of existing or expected environmental conditions with the tasks of preserving the health of the population to ensure long-term and sustainable socio-economic development; 3) a complex of states, phenomena and actions that ensures the ecological balance on Earth at a level to which humanity can adapt without serious damage.

WASTE-FREE TECHNOLOGY - a technology of a separate production or industrial complex aimed at the rational use of natural resources, which ensures the production of products without waste. It includes a set of measures to ensure minimal loss of natural resources in the production of raw materials, fuel and energy, as well as the maximum efficiency and economy of their use.

PROTEIN is a high-molecular organic compound built from 20 amino acid residues and playing a primary role in the life processes of all organisms.

UNNATURAL TECHNICAL WORLD - a mental state of the technosphere, which is expected in the event of the destruction of nature and the survival of mankind in these conditions.

BIOGENIC - originating from a living organism, associated with it.

BIOGEOCENOSIS - a complex natural system that combines, on the basis of metabolism and energy, a set of living organisms (biocenosis) with non-living components - living conditions; living components of biogeocenosis include autotrophic and heterotrophic organisms.

BIOCLIMAT - climatic conditions modified by organisms and their communities. For example, in the forest it is usually cooler and higher in summer, the air humidity is weaker, the wind is weaker, cold air “flows” into the glades in the forest and frosts occur more often here - they begin earlier in the fall and end later in the spring.

BIOSYSTEM - any system consisting of the same type (“homogeneous” and “heterogeneous”, according to V. I. Vernadsky) living substance - its macromolecule, all cellular structures, the cells themselves, tissues, organs, their systems, individual, specimen. The latter can already be attributed to bioecosystems, since an individual as an individual consortium consists of an individual and cohabitants. Biosystems also include demes, populations, and communities.

Bioenvironment - an environment created or modified by a community of living organisms.

BIOSPHERE ( gr. bios - life and gr. sphere - ball) is a qualitatively peculiar planetary shell, which includes not only organisms, but also the entire environment of their life, embraced and transformed by the activity of these organisms. The cycles of matter and energy, due to the exchange processes between the various functional components of the biosphere, ensure the existence and integrity of the latter.

BIOTA - a set of species of plants, fungi, animals and microorganisms (flora and fauna) of a biocenosis, as well as larger taxa and ecosystems. Biota organisms are connected with each other by complex biotic, and with the environment - by non-biotic relationships.

BIOTIC FACTORS OF THE ENVIRONMENT - a set of influences exerted on the body by the vital activity of other organisms.

BIOTOP ( gr. bios - life and gr. topos - place) - a place with relatively homogeneous conditions, occupied by one biocenosis. Wed Habitat.

BIOTECHNOLOGY - 1) a scientific discipline and field of practice bordering between biology and technology, studying the ways and methods of changing the natural environment around a person in accordance with his needs; 2) a set of production methods and techniques using biological agents (for example, the production of feed proteins using microorganisms, wastewater treatment on biofilters, etc.). Biotechnologies serve as genetic, cellular and environmental engineering, as well as applied (engineering) biology.

BIOLOGICAL RHYTHMS ( biorhythms) - cyclic (daily, seasonal, etc.) fluctuations in the intensity and nature of certain biological processes and phenomena, giving organisms the opportunity to adapt to cyclic changes in the environment.

BIOMASS - expressed in units of mass (weight) or energy, the amount of living matter of certain organisms per unit volume or area.

BIOTIC POTENTIAL - The theoretical maximum rate of increase in the population of a species.

BIOCENOSIS ( gr. bios - life and gr. kainos - new, common) - a set of populations of various species of plants, animals and microorganisms inhabiting a relatively homogeneous living space.

BIOCIDE - 1) substances capable of destroying living organisms; 2) the extermination of all living things in large areas.

BIFURCATION - the division of something into two branches (polyfurcation - into many branches). For example - a branching of the trachea into two bronchi.

BIOECOLOGY - the science of the relationship between organisms and the environment, taking into account all conditions of existence, including both organic and inorganic nature; is designed to reveal patterns in the relationship "organism - environment".

BOGARA ( Persian behar - spring) - land (usually in the zone of irrigated agriculture), on which crops are grown without irrigation, non-irrigated land.

DISEASES OF URBANIZATION - a large group of diseases associated with overcrowding of the population and environmental pollution (noise, chemical, biological, etc.).

STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE - a metaphorical concept that reflects all intraspecific and interspecific relationships, as well as relationships with abiotic (non-living) factors of the natural environment.

BIOGEOCHEMISTRY is a science that studies the circulation of chemical elements in the biosphere.

BIOACCUMULATION ( bio - lat., accumulatio - accumulation) - accumulation of pollutants in organisms of high trophic levels.

DOWN'S DISEASE is a form of oligophrenia. It is manifested by a delay in growth and physical development in combination with a violation of the activity of the endocrine glands and often deformities.

BIOPOLYMERS are high-molecular natural compounds (proteins, nucleic acids etc.), which are the basis of living organisms.

Fermentation - the process of enzymatic breakdown of organic substances, mainly carbohydrates, proceeding without the use of oxygen under the action of microorganisms or enzymes isolated from them.

VALENCE ECOLOGICAL - a characteristic (value) of the ability of a species to exist in a variety of environmental conditions.

HARMFUL SUBSTANCE - 1) a chemical compound that, upon contact with the human body, can cause occupational diseases or deviations in the state of health; 2) a chemical substance that causes disturbances in the growth, development or health of organisms, and is also capable of affecting these indicators over time, including in the chain of generations.

LIVING SUBSTANCE - a set of bodies of living organisms inhabiting the Earth, regardless of their systematic affiliation.

DEMOGRAPHIC EXPLOSION - a sharp increase in population associated with an improvement in socio-economic or general environmental conditions of life.

SPECIES - a set of populations of individuals capable of interbreeding and having fertile offspring, possessing similar morphophysiological characteristics and inhabiting a common continuous or partially broken range.

DYING OUT SPECIES - a species whose morphophysiological and / or behavioral features do not correspond to modern conditions of the living environment, and the genetic possibilities of further adaptation have been exhausted.

VITALISM ( from lat. vitalis - vital, alive, vita - life) - the doctrine of the qualitative difference between living nature and inanimate nature, of the fundamental irreducibility of life processes to the forces and laws of the inorganic world, of the presence in living bodies of special factors that are absent in inanimate ones.

WATER PURIFICATION - technical bringing the quality of water entering the water supply network to the indicators established by the standards.

WASTE WATER - water that was in industrial, household or agricultural use, as well as passed through some kind of polluted territory.

IMPACT ON THE NATURE INDIRECT - an unintentional change in nature and as a result of chain reactions or secondary phenomena associated with economic activities.

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION - the impact on people's consciousness in the process of initial personality formation and in the subsequent time in order to develop socio-psychological attitudes and active citizenship, respect for the totality of natural and social benefits.

REPRODUCTION OF THE HUMAN ENVIRONMENT - a set of measures aimed at maintaining the parameters of the living environment within the limits favorable for the existence of a person as a biological species.

EMISSION(S) - short-term or for a certain time release of any pollutants into the environment. Distinguish: 1) V. from a separate source; 2) total V.

GENETICS ( from Greek. genesis- origin) ¾ each species of plants and animals carries in its cells its inherent hereditary information. Its material basis is deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecules.

GENE POOL - 1) a set of genes (alleles) of one group of individuals (population, population group or species), within which they are characterized by a certain frequency of occurrence; 2) the whole set of species of living organisms with their manifested and potential hereditary inclinations.

GEOGRAPHICAL ENVIRONMENT - a set of natural objects and phenomena (the earth's crust, the lower part of the atmosphere, water, soil cover, flora and fauna) involved at a given historical stage in the process of social production and constituting a necessary condition for the existence and development of human society.

GEOSPHERES - concentric shells different density and composition that make up the Earth. From the periphery to the center of the planet, the magnetosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, mantle and core of the Earth are distinguished. The living shell of the Earth (biota) closely interacts with the hydrosphere, atmosphere and lithosphere.

Heterotrophs - organisms that use organic substances produced by other organisms as a source of nutrition. Heterotrophs include humans, all animals, some plants, most bacteria, and fungi. In the food chain, ecosystems make up a group of consumers.

HYDROBIONTS - plants, animals and microorganisms that live in the aquatic environment.

HYPOTROPHY - 1) a decrease in the volume of an organ or part of it, the term atrophy is more often used to refer to this concept; 2) chronic eating disorders in children, expressed in weight loss, loss or insufficiency of body weight gain, accompanied by a number of painful disorders, in many cases associated with adverse environmental conditions.

GLOBAL - 1) relating to the territory of the entire globe, covering the entire globe, worldwide; 2) comprehensive, complete, general, universal.

GLOBALISTICS is a complex scientific direction that studies various aspects of global problems: economic, socio-political, technological and some other prerequisites and conditions for their solution.

GLOBAL SECURITY - any human activity that excludes harmful effects on the environment surrounding civilization.

GLOBAL ECOLOGY is a scientific direction that considers the ecological interaction of the biosphere with the processes occurring in the bowels of the Earth, the space environment and anthropogenic factors (the consequences of nature-transforming, human production activities).

GLOBAL POLLUTION - pollution that violates the natural physico-chemical, biological indicators of the biosphere, as a whole, is found at any point on the surface of our planet.

HOMEOSTASIS - a state of internal dynamic balance of a natural system, supported by the renewal of its main structures, material-energy composition and constant functional self-regulation of its components. Homeostasis is characteristic and necessary for all natural systems - from space to the organism and the atom. The term "homeostasis" is most often used for the organismic (structural) level of organization.

HOMOLOGY ( gr. homology - conformity, agreement) - the similarity of organs or their parts of the same origin, but capable of performing different functions (for example, human hands, legs of animals, flippers of marine mammals, wings of bats). Wed Analogy.

HOMOYOTHERMAL ANIMALS - animals with a constant, stable body temperature, almost independent of the ambient temperature; these include birds and mammals.

GENETIC LOAD - the presence in the population and species as a whole of lethal and other negative mutations that cause the death of individuals in the chain of generations or a decrease in their viability.

GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL OBSERVING SYSTEM (GOS) - in the field of environmental assessment, the main direction of international environmental activity has become its creation. Within the framework of which such tasks are solved as determining the state of the environment in the regions of the world, early warning of potential dangers in this area, studying the interaction between society and nature in various countries. The GOS is composed of three components: the Global Environmental Monitoring System (GEMS), the International Register of Potentially Toxic Chemicals (IPTC) and the International Environmental Information System (INFOTERRA).

GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING SYSTEM (GEMS) - carries out work in five main areas related to human health (with the participation of the World Health Organization), climate (with the World Meteorological Organization), long-range transport of pollutants (with the European Economic Commission).

HUMUS - humus - the organic part of the soil, formed as a result of the biochemical transformation of plant and animal residues; humus content is an indicator of soil fertility.

READINESS - a person's ability to appropriate purposeful activity, determined by previous upbringing and education.

GEOMAGNETISM - the Earth's magnetic field, which has features of space and changes in time.

HEMORRHAGIC FEVER - a group of human viral diseases in which small blood vessels are affected, the temperature rises. Viruses circulate between rodents and ticks.

HYPODYNAMIA ( Greek hypo - under, below, dinamis - strength) - a violation of the function of the body with a restriction of motor activity (musculoskeletal system, blood circulation, nutrition, digestion).

HORMONE ( Greek hormno - excite, set in motion) - biologically active substances produced in the body by specialized cells or organs (endocrine glands).

DEVON (DEVONIUM) - the fourth in order system of the Paleozoic group of layers of the earth's crust, corresponding to the fourth period of the Paleozoic era of the geological history of the Earth.

ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION - 1) deterioration of the natural environment of human life; 2) joint deterioration of natural conditions and the social environment of life (for example, in some cities).

DECOMPRESSION - 1) reduction of compression; 2) rapid transition from a medium with a higher pressure to a medium with a lower pressure; 3) the painful state arising from such a transition; observed in case of violation of the rules for exiting caissons, diving suits, due to violation of the sealing of the cabins of aircraft, spacecraft, etc.

DEPOPULATION - a decrease in the population of people or animals.

DESTRUCTORS - organisms, mainly bacteria and fungi, in the course of their entire life activity transform the remains of organic substances into inorganic ones.

DETRIT - 1) small particles of the remains of organisms and their secretions in the aquatic environment (suspended in water or settled to the bottom of a reservoir); 2) an English-language synonym for the Russian word "humus", which is occasionally used in Russian literature.

DETRIOPHAGE ¾ an aquatic or terrestrial organism that feeds on detritus-1 or -2 (usually with microorganisms contained in it).

DYSTOPIA - the image of a social ideal in negative, frighteningly tragic tones, the opposite of utopia.

RAIN ACID, ACID (ACID PREDITION) ¾ rain (snow), acidified (pH below 5.6) due to dissolution of industrial emissions in atmospheric moisture.

DOSE MAXIMUM PERMISSIBLE (SDA) - the maximum amount of a harmful agent, the penetration of which into organisms (through breathing, food, etc.) does not yet have a detrimental effect on them.

PRECAMBRIAN - the most ancient strata of the earth's crust and the time corresponding to about 6/7 of the geological history of the Earth.

DOMESTICATION - the process of turning wild animals into domestic animals, as well as wild plants into cultivated ones.

Sod - the top layer of soil, densely intertwined with living and dead roots and rhizomes of plants. It is most developed in the virgin steppe and meadows.

DOMINANTS ( lat. dominans - state) - the dominant individual - the leader - in a group of individuals.

DIAPAUSE ( Greek diapausis - break, stop) - a period of temporary physiological rest in development and reproduction.

RANGE ( Greek range - interval) - volume, coverage of knowledge, actions.

DEGRADATION ( fr. degradation - step) - gradual deterioration, loss of original qualities.

DYNAMIC EQUILIBRIUM - equality (balance) of the inflow and outflow of energy, matter and information, maintaining a system (socioecosystem) in a qualitatively defined state for a long time.

DECLARATION ( lat. declaratio - statement, declaration) - a solemn proclamation of the basic principles, as well as a document in which they are set out.

DEMOCRACY ( Greek demokratia - democracy) - a political system in which the supreme power belongs to the people.

NATURAL SELECTION - the process of survival and reproduction of organisms that are most adapted to environmental conditions and death in the course of evolution of unadapted organisms.

LIVING MATTER is one of the main forms of matter movement: biological systems (the entire biosphere, from microorganisms to humans).

LIFE FORM OF PLANTS - the appearance (habitus) of plants, reflecting their adaptability to environmental conditions.

LIFE FORM OF ANIMALS - organisms of different species that have similar morphological and ecological adaptations for living in the same environment.

METEOROLOGICAL DISEASE - a disease that occurs under the influence of certain weather or as a result of prolonged exposure to a climate that is unfavorable for a given organism (from a lack or excess of heat, including heat stroke, from a lack or excess of humidity, ultraviolet radiation, polar stress syndrome, etc. .).

LAW OF BIOGENIC MIGRATION OF ATOMS (V.I. Vernadsky) - the migration of chemical elements on the earth's surface and in the biosphere as a whole is carried out either with the direct participation of living matter (biogenic migration), or it proceeds in an environment whose geochemical features (O 2, CO 2 , H 2 , etc.) are due to living matter - both the one that currently inhabits the biosphere and the one that has acted on the Earth throughout geological history.

THE LAW OF THE DEVELOPMENT VECTOR - development is unidirectional. You can't live life the other way around - from death to birth, from old age to youth, you can't turn back the history of mankind.

LAW OF HOMOLOGICAL SERIES (N.I. Vavilova) - 1. Species and genera that are genetically close are characterized by similar series of hereditary variability with such accuracy that, knowing a number of forms within one species, one can foresee the presence of parallel forms in other species and genera. The closer genera and linneons are genetically located in the general system, the more complete is the similarity in the series of their variability. 2. Whole families of plants are generally characterized by a certain cycle of variability passing through all the genera and species that make up the family.

THE LAW OF CONSTANTITY (V.I. Vernadsky) - the amount of living matter in the biosphere (for a given geological period) is a constant.

LAW OF ENERGY MAXIMIZATION - in competition with other systems, the one that best contributes to the flow of energy and uses its maximum amount in the most efficient way survives.

THE LAW OF MAXIMUM - a quantitative change in environmental conditions cannot increase the biological productivity of an ecosystem and the economic productivity of an agrosystem beyond the material and energy limits determined by the evolutionary properties of biological objects and their communities.

LAW OF MINIMUM (J. Liebig) - the endurance of the organism is the weakest link in the chain of its environmental needs, that is, life opportunities are limited by that environmental factor, the amount of which is close to the minimum required by the organism or ecosystem and a further decrease in which leads to the death of the organism or destruction of the ecosystem.

LAW (RULE) OF IRREVERSIBILITY OF EVOLUTION (L. Dollo) - an organism (population, species) cannot return to the previous state already passed by its ancestors.

THE LAW OF IRREVABILITY OF WASTE OR SIDE EFFECTS OF PRODUCTION (FARMS) - in any economic cycle, the waste generated and the resulting side effects are irremovable, they can only be transferred from one form to another or moved in space.

THE LAW OF THE SEQUENCE OF THE PASSING OF THE PHASES OF DEVELOPMENT - the phases of the development of a natural system can follow only in an evolutionarily fixed (historically, ecologically determined) order, usually from relatively simple to complex.

LAW OF REDUCING THE ENERGY EFFICIENCY OF NATURE MANAGEMENT - in the course of historical development, an increasing amount of energy is spent on average in obtaining useful products per unit.

THE LAW OF TOLERANCE (V. Shelford) - the limiting factor for the prosperity of an organism (species) can be both a minimum and a maximum of environmental impact, the range between which determines the amount of endurance (tolerance) of the organism to this factor.

THE LAW OF PHYSICO-CHEMICAL UNITY OF LIVING SUBSTANCE (V.I. Vernadsky) - all living matter of the Earth is physically and chemically one.

"LAWS" OF ECOLOGY B. COMMONER - 1) everything is connected with everything; 2) everything has to go somewhere; 3) nature "knows" better; 4) nothing is given for free.

HEALTH is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity (WHO).

"GREEN" MOVEMENT - a public movement, formalized or not formalized in the form of political parties and advocating the preservation of the environment (against the nuclear threat, for the purity of the atmosphere, waters, etc.). The political face of the "greens", the programs of their activities have not yet taken shape sufficiently.

ZONE OF INTENSE ENVIRONMENTAL SITUATION -1) area (territory or water area), within which there is a transition of the state of nature from crisis to critical; 2) a territory where certain negative indicators of the health of the population (morbidity in children, adults, the number of social and mental deviations, etc.) are significantly higher than the norm existing in similar places in the country and the world that are not subject to pronounced anthropogenic impact of this type.

A ZONE OF HIGH ENVIRONMENTAL RISK is a territory where there is an increased likelihood of adverse consequences for human health and the state of ecosystems, a consequence of any - intentional or accidental, gradual or catastrophic, anthropogenic or natural - objects and factors. The factors in question are primarily related to the presence of potentially hazardous industries and facilities in the given territory, as well as to the increased likelihood of especially dangerous natural phenomena.

ZONE OF ECOLOGICAL DISASTER - areas of territories where, as a result of economic or other activities, as well as natural disasters, irreversible changes in the environment have occurred, entailing an increase in morbidity and mortality, the destruction of biogeocenoses.

ZONE OF ECOLOGICAL BENEFITS is a region in which all biospheres (air, water, earth) do not contain elevated amounts of pollutants, an increased level of radioactivity is not recorded, vegetation cover and hydrobalance are not disturbed, there is no decrease in the number and diversity of species of living beings, does not grow morbidity of the population, the levels of fertility, mortality and life expectancy of the population remain unchanged.

ZONE OF ECOLOGICAL DISASTER - a territory or water area within which there is a transition of the state of nature from a catastrophic phase to collapse, which makes it unsuitable for human life.

ZONE OF ENVIRONMENTAL RISK - a territory (or water area) within which a certain type of human economic activity is capable of causing dangerous environmental situations (for example, places of underwater oil production, burial of radioactive or toxic waste, etc.).

ZONE OF ENVIRONMENTAL EMERGENCY SITUATION - areas of territories where, as a result of economic or other activities, stable negative changes in the environment occur, entailing a violation of public health, the balance of natural ecosystems, primarily damage to the genetic funds of plants and animals.

HIERARCHY OF SYSTEMS ( gr. hieros - sacred + gr. arche - power) - entry into the functional subordination of the entire system world, in which smaller subsystems make up large systems that are themselves subsystems of even larger systems. For example, elementary particles make up atoms, those - molecules, molecules - crystals and organelles, those - a cell, etc. The position of the system under consideration in their general series of subordination is called the hierarchical rank or level of organization. For example, the biosphere is a system of the 1st rank in a series of ecosystems, and biogeocenosis is a system of the lowest rank in the same series. Often, the level of organization is a set of systems of the same type: the biogeocenotic level of organization, the level of organization of an individual, etc.

ISOMERIA OF CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS - a phenomenon consisting in the existence of substances that are identical in composition and molecular weight, but differ in the structure or arrangement of atoms in space and, as a result, in physical and chemical properties.

INDUSTRIAL LANDSCAPE - an anthropogenic landscape, formed as a result of the impact on the natural environment of industrial complexes, is usually characterized by a significant concentration of the population, industrial enterprises, and the intense influence of technogenic factors.

INDUSTRIALIZATION - the process of creating large-scale machine production in all sectors of the national economy.

INTENSIVE-CO-EVOLUTIONARY (NOOSPHERIC) METHOD OF INTERACTION OF SOCIETY AND NATURE - a future form of eco-development based on the comprehensive intensification of production and the emergence of other ecophilic types of social activity that ensure the co-evolution of man and the biosphere. This form of harmonization of society and nature, which ensures social progress in an environmentally safe form, will appear in its developed form only at the stage of ecological society as a stage of the noosphere.

INTENSIVE PATH OF DEVELOPMENT - the development of social production and other types of social activities, in which progressive development (including the growth of production efficiency) is achieved through the maximum possible use of qualitative factors while minimizing (including savings) quantitative parameters.

INTENSIVE ECOLOGICAL PROCESS - the progressive development of an ecosystem subject not due to a quantitative expansion of the field of interaction with the environment, but due to qualitative sources and factors available both in the subject itself and in its environment.

INFONOOSPHERE - a society in which, on the basis of the created infonoosphere (using artificial intelligence systems to the maximum extent), civilization will fully master the processes of production and reasonable use of information, resolve the information crisis, create conditions for free access of each person to information and active democratic participation in the adoption solutions.

INFORMATIZATION OF SOCIETY - the process of mastering information as a development resource with the help of computers and other informatics tools in order to meet the ever-increasing information needs, create an information society that involves a radical intellectual and humanistic restructuring of the life of a person and all mankind.

INFORMATION SECURITY - the property of a society to guarantee such a flow of information processes that would create a social and information environment (including a computer environment) necessary for the survival and further progress of civilization, the orientation of the process of informatization to a person.

INFORMATION SOCIETY - the state of society in a particular country or humanity as a whole, which will come as a result of complete informatization and the intellectual and humanistic restructuring based on it social structures and relationships.

INFORMATION AND ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY - a state of global civilization in which, on the basis of complete and comprehensive informatization (information society), conditions have been created for preventing environmental disasters and positively solving environmental problems.

INFRASTRUCTURE - a complex of sectors of the economy that serve and create conditions for the location and activity of industrial and agricultural production, as well as for human life.

INDUSTRY ( from lat. indusria - activity) - factory industry with machinery.

INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY - one of the stages of development of society, characterized by a high level of industrial production, focused on the mass production of consumer goods without taking into account the consequences of this impact on the state of the natural environment.

INTELLIGENCE ( lat. intellectus) - mind, reason, mind, mental abilities of a person. Reason is the ability to operate with ready-made knowledge, reason is the ability to create new knowledge.

PERFECT ( Greek idea - view, image, representation, concept) - an image of reality that arises in a person's thinking in the process of expedient activity. The “idealistic” point of view is also widespread, representing the ideal as a special world not connected with nature, as a “world mind”. Supporters of this point of view see in the "world mind" the starting point, the beginning of any human activity.

INFORMATIONAL CAUSATION - causality, which is caused not by the influence of the information carrier, but by the information itself. For example, the energy of a spoken word cannot move a person, while the information carried by this energy makes a person act accordingly.

INTENSIVE ( fr. intensive, lat. intensio - tension, amplification) - giving the maximum result, the highest productivity due to a comprehensive, in-depth development of nature.

IONOSPHERE ( Greek ion - walking, sphaira - ball) - the upper layers of the atmosphere, starting from 50-80 km, characterized by a significant content of atmospheric ions and free electrons.

IMMUNITY ( lat. immunitas - getting rid of something) - the body's immunity to infectious agents and foreign substances.

INFOTERRA is an international information system on the environment covering all aspects of environmental protection and rational use of natural resources, as well as such issues as the state of settlements and the supply of drinking water to the population (which is of particular importance for developing countries), contains information on sources of information on the environment environment in 136 countries. In their activities, they close on the central body of the system - the Program Activities Center (PAC), located at the UNEP headquarters in Nairobi (Kenya).

The main tasks of the JRC are the maintenance of the main working document of the system - the International Reference Register and the issuance of the Bulletin once every two months (published in English, Spanish, Russian and French).

The international reference register contains data on all aspects of environmental issues coming from many organizations around the world, one way or another related to environmental activities. Subscribers are given the opportunity not only to receive information (including through remote access channels), but also to establish contacts with these organizations.

ECOLOGICAL DISASTER - a relatively fast-paced chain of events that led to hard-to-reversible or irreversible processes of nature degradation (severe desertification) and / or its pollution (contamination), to a real danger of serious diseases and death of people, mutagenic and carcinogenic effects, to the growth of genetic defects.

NUCLEIC ACID - a high-molecular organic compound formed by nucleotide residues that act as building blocks, similar to the construction of proteins from amino acids. Depending on which carbohydrate is part of K. n. - deoxyribose or ribose, - distinguish between deoxyribonucleic (DNA) and ribonucleic (RNA) acids, a synonym is polynucleide.

COADAPTATION - mutual adaptation in the course of evolution: 1) different forms of living things that live together (for example, insects for pollination of plants, and plants for pollination by insects), 2) different organs of one individual.

Maximum Permissible Concentration (MPC) - a standard, the amount of a harmful substance in the environment, which practically does not affect human health.

CONSORBENT ( lat. consortium - complicity, partnership) is a member of the consortium.

CONSORTION - acting as a single systemic whole, a set of heterogeneous organisms, closely related to each other and dependent on the central member, or core, of the community, usually a large organism (living or already dead). There are individual consortia, where the core is a set of individuals of the same species, and synusial consortia, where the core is made up of several closely related species (for example, dark coniferous trees - spruce, fir, cedar).

CONSENSUS - the presence between two or more individuals of the unity of views, initial orientations in any respect.

CONSUMENT ( lat. consumo - consume) - an organism that consumes ready-made organic substances, but does not bring their decomposition to simple mineral components Cf. Producer, Redu-cent.

CONTINUUM ( lat. continuum - continuous, continuous) - an idea of ​​the life film of the Earth as a continuous whole without division into separate parts - ecosystems.

COMBINATION (COOPERATION) OF INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION - the combination at one enterprise of several related industries in order to create low-waste technologies.

ECOLOGICAL COMPONENTS - the main material and energy and information components of the ecosystem: energy, gas composition (atmosphere), water, soil-substrate (rocks, soil of water bodies, etc.), autotrophs (heliotrophs, chemotrophs) - producers (mainly plants ), heterotrophic consumers (mainly animals) and decomposers.

INTEGRATED USE OF NATURAL RESOURCES - the practical development of certain types of natural resources, based on the economically and environmentally justified use of their useful properties, their comprehensive involvement in economic circulation.

COMPREHENSIVE ASSESSMENT OF TECHNICAL SYSTEMS - evaluation of the results of the objectification of a technical goal based on technical, economic and socio-ecological criteria.

CORRELATION - mutual relation, interdependence of objects, phenomena and concepts.

COSMOCREATICS - large-scale transformations of space objects according to the desire of man.

SPACE SOCIETY (COSMONOOSPHERE) - the stage of formation of the noosphere following the econoosphere, in which humanity will mainly develop outside the planet, on the basis of the wide industrialization of the Cosmos.

SPACE ECOLOGY is a branch of knowledge that studies the ecological relationship between man and the Cosmos.

CO-EVOLUTION - a direction of development that does not destroy the biosphere and ensures the progress of the human race, i.e. the possibility of joint development of society and nature.

CO-EVOLUTIONARY-INTELLIGENT NEEDS - social or individual needs that satisfy ecological imperatives, excluding imaginary (pseudo-) needs.

COEVOLUTIVE-COLLECTIVE METHOD OF INTERACTION OF SOCIETY AND NATURE - a method based on a gathering economy (appropriating economy) and biosphere-compatible nature management of Paleolithic mankind.

RED BOOK - an annotated list of endangered animals or plants. The Book indicates the current and past distribution, abundance, reproduction, and the necessary protection measures taken. The International Red Book is maintained by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). According to its model, national Red Books have been created in a number of countries, including the CIS.

CLIMATE - the weather regime characteristic of a given area due to its geographical location.

CLIMATOPATOLOGY - the occurrence or exacerbation of diseases under the influence of adverse climatic influences due to a violation of the processes of adaptation of the body to changed meteorological conditions.

ECOLOGICAL CRISIS - a tense state of relations between humanity and nature, characterized by a discrepancy between the development of productive forces and production relations in human society and the resource and environmental capabilities of the biosphere or its major subdivision.

CIRCLE OF BIOTIC EXCHANGE SMALL (BIOGEOCENO-TIC) - multiple, non-stop, cyclic, but uneven in time and open circulation of a part of the substances, energy and information included in the biospheric circle of exchange, within the biogeocenosis.

CIRCLE OF BIOTIC EXCHANGE LARGE (BIOSPHERIC) - a non-stop planetary process of regular cyclic, uneven in time and space, redistribution of matter, energy and information, repeatedly entering (except for a unidirectional energy flow) into continuously renewing ecological systems of the biosphere.

XENOBIOTIC - any substance alien to a given organism or their community (pesticides, household chemicals, and other pollutants) that can cause disruption of biotic processes, including disease and death of living organisms.

Xerophytization - desertification of the area. Xerophytes - plants living in arid areas (deserts, dry steppes, etc.).

CUMULATION - increase, collection, concentration of the active principle, for example, an increase in the concentration of pesticides in the food chain.

KYARIZ - hydraulic structures in Central Asia in the past, with the help of which groundwater from the foothills was brought out to the desert plain.

CULTURE ( lat. cultura - I cultivate, processing) - a way of human life, characterizing the spiritual and material prerequisites and consequences of human adaptation to the environment.

COSMIC RADIATIONS - a stream of a stable part of high energies coming to the Earth from world space.

A CRISIS ( Greek krisis - decision, turning point, outcome) - a difficult difficult situation.

CONCENTRIC ( lat. sops + centrum - center, focus) - having a common center, such as circles, but different radii.

LANDSCAPE - a natural geographical complex, defined as a relatively small specific and homogeneous area of ​​the earth's surface ("geographical individual"), limited by natural boundaries.

ANTHROPOGENIC LANDSCAPE - a landscape transformed by human economic activity.

LIMITS (QUOTAS) OF EMISSIONS - a system of environmental restrictions, which are the volumes of maximum permissible emissions and discharges of pollutants into the environment established by enterprises that use natural resources for a certain period.

LOCAL POLLUTION - environmental pollution manifested within a large territory (region). Regional pollution is formed on the basis of local pollution with an increase in their number or spatio-temporal scales.

PERSONALITY - a person as a member of society, as a social individual.

LOGIC ( Greek logike) is the science of the laws of thought.

LOW WASTE PRODUCTION - industrial production that generates a minimum amount of waste.

MARGINALITY - the result of a conflict with generally accepted norms, an expression of specific relations with the existing social order.

MATERIAL CULTURE - a set of natural objects transformed by man, material values ​​accumulated by all generations of people.

IUCN - International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources of the international system of cooperation in the field of environmental protection and rational nature management.

Today, this system, covering the whole world and a variety of forms and activities, is formed by 3 main components: 1) international organizations; 2) multilateral agreements (state and non-governmental) and 3) bilateral relations (between states and national organizations of the state).

MCED - a new stage in the development of the international system of environmental cooperation was the development of a global environmental strategy, which was formulated and submitted to the UN General Assembly in 1987. The work was carried out within the framework of UNEP by an intergovernmental committee - a subsidiary body of the UNEP Governing Council and the International Commission on the Environment and Development (ICED), which included prominent statesmen and public figures, as well as scientists and environmentalists from various countries. The work of the IWCSR was headed by the leader of the Labor Party of Norway and its Prime Minister G.Kh. Brundtland.

The intergovernmental committee was tasked with developing a forward-looking document that would substantiate common approaches to environmental problems and the necessary measures to resolve environmental problems, as well as formulate a long-term program of action for the coming decades.

METHOD OF MECHANICAL WASTEWATER TREATMENT - removal of heterogeneous undissolved impurities from wastewater by special devices and structures.

METEOPATHY - an acute, painful dependence of a person's well-being on changes in weather conditions or climate when moving to another climatic zone.

HABITATS - a limited part of space with a characteristic set of abiotic and biotic environmental conditions that provide the entire development cycle of an individual, population or species as a whole. M. is a place where a given organism is found and which is functionally necessary for the entire cycle of its existence. For example, a pond and its shallow waters, where pike and carp feed and spawn. M. - as if the "registration" of the body. M. consists of stations (see). The totality of habitats of a species constitutes its range.

LOCATION - a geographical point where an organism belonging to a certain taxonomic category (species, genus, etc.) is found.

MECHANICAL PROTECTION FOR FIGHTING WITH SANDS ¾ shields, fences and other mechanical devices used for fighting sand drifts and securing sands.

MECHANICAL METHODS OF PEST CONTROL - extermination of pests (insects, rodents, etc.) using the simplest mechanical devices (baits, traps, barrage ditches) or manually.

MICROCLIMATE - the climate of small areas of the Earth.

MONITORING - long-term tracking of some objects or phenomena; in the application to the living environment - monitoring the state and timely warning of emerging critical situations (increase in air pollution above the MPC, etc.), harmful or dangerous to human health.

MUTAGEN - any agent (factor) that causes a mutation. Distinguish physical M., physicochemical M., chemical M., biological M.

MUTATION ( lat. mutation - change, change) - a sudden natural or artificially caused persistent change in hereditary structures responsible for the storage of genetic information and its transmission from cell to cell and from ancestor to offspring. Mutations occur in germ cells - gametes (gametic mutations) - and body cells (somatic mutations).

MIGRATION ( lat. migratio, from migro - I pass, I move) - movement, resettlement of animals caused by a change in the conditions of existence in their habitats or associated with the cycle of their development.

MONOCARPIC HERBS ( Greek monos - one, only, karpos - fruit) - plants that bloom and bear fruit once in a lifetime.

WORLD VIEW - a system of generalized views on the world and a person's place in it; the beliefs, ideals, and values ​​conditioned by these views.

EARTH MAGNETOSPHERE - a region of near-planetary space, the physical properties of which are determined by the Earth's magnetic field and its interaction with streams of charged particles of cosmic origin.

EARTH MANTLE - a shell of the "solid" Earth, located between the earth's crust and the core of the Earth. The upper boundary passes at a depth of 5-10 to 70 km, the lower one - at a depth of 2900 km.

SIMULATION ( lat. modulus - measure, sample, norm) is a method of indirect study of objects of reality on their natural or artificial analogues-models.

THE MEASURE OF BIOSPHERE PHENOMENA is the allowable interval of changes in the quantitative indicators of a phenomenon, in which it retains its original qualitative certainty.

MORAL ( lat. mores - manners) is a form of social consciousness that performs the function of regulating people's behavior.

MATERIAL ( lat. materialis - material) - being matter, i.e. existing outside and independently of consciousness, belonging to objective reality.

WEATHER SENSITIVITY ( Greek meteora - atmospheric phenomena) - the body's sensitivity to weather changes.

MUTAGENESIS ( lat. mutatio - change, genes - giving birth) - the process of occurrence in the body of hereditary changes - mutations.

MESOSAPROBES ( Greek mesos - middle, intermediate, sapros - rotten, bios - life) - organisms that live in waters moderately polluted with organic substances.

ANTHROPOGENIC LOAD - the degree of direct and indirect impact of people and their economic activities on nature as a whole or on its individual environmental components and elements (landscapes, natural resources, living species, etc.).

DISTURBED LANDS - areas where, as a result of human activities, vegetation has been destroyed, the soil cover has been destroyed, the hydrological regime and terrain have been changed.

NEGENTROPY - a measure of remoteness from the state of energy (physical) equilibrium, the desire for unevenness, fluctuation orderliness of the distribution of particles, characterizing the ability of the system to do work. The negentropy increases with an increase in the organization of the system.

Necrophage - an organism that feeds on dead animals.

NEOLITH - the era of the late Stone Age (8-3 millennium BC), characterized by a sedentary population, the appearance of cattle breeding and agriculture, the use of flint, bone and stone tools (including those made using sawing, drilling and grinding techniques) and, generally widespread pottery.

NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION - the transition from an appropriating to a producing economy, which led to economic progress and, at the same time, to ecological regression. Consists of two stages - agro-Neolithic (transition to agriculture and cattle breeding) and industrial-Neolithic; neolithic period social development ends with the beginning of the formation of the noosphere.

NON-COLLECTIVE - a form of interaction between society and nature, which is a process of maximum involvement natural factors and agents in social activities in their natural form.

NICHE ECOLOGICAL - the totality of all environmental factors (abiotic and biotic), within which the existence of a species and its transforming activity is possible - the functional place of the species (its "profession") in the community and biocenosis.

NOOSPHERE - lit. "thinking shell", the sphere of the mind, a qualitatively new phase - the highest stage of the development of the biosphere, associated with the emergence and development of civilized humanity in it. The period when reasonable human activity becomes the main, determining factor of development on Earth.

SANITARY AND HYGIENIC NORMS - a qualitative and quantitative indicator, the observance of which guarantees safe or optimal conditions for human existence, for example, the norm of living space per 1 family member, the norm of water, air quality, etc.

REGULATION OF THE QUALITY OF THE ENVIRONMENT (WATER, AIR, SOIL ...) - setting the limits within which changes in its natural properties are allowed. Usually, the norm is determined by the reaction of the type of organisms most sensitive to changes in the environment (indicator organism), but sanitary-hygienic and economically feasible standards can also be adopted.

SCIENCE is a sphere of human activity, the task of which is to obtain and systematize objective knowledge about reality. Scientific knowledge is obtained by using special methods (cognitive techniques, procedures). The immediate goal of science is the description, explanation and prediction of the studied processes and phenomena, i.e. theoretical development (reflection) of reality. The sum of the scientific knowledge obtained so far forms the scientific picture of the world.

WEIGHTLESSNESS is a state in which external forces acting on a body do not cause mutual pressures of its particles on each other.

MORAL NORMS - a form of moral requirements that regulate people's behavior through general prescriptions and prohibitions.

NORM SOCIAL ( lat. Byrta - guiding principle, rule) - means of social regulation of people's behavior.

PEOPLE - a community of people growing out of a mixture of tribes and tribal unions.

NATION ( lat. natio - people) - a community of people connected by a single language, a single territory, economy, culture, traditions, psychology.

ARID REGION - a territory with a dry (arid) climate.

HUMID REGION - a territory with a humid (humid) climate.

OBJECTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY - the vital interests of security subjects: rights, material and spiritual needs of the individual, natural resources and the natural environment as the material basis of state and social development.

EIA - environmental impact assessment. Conclusion on the impact of the economic facility on the environment, drawn up in accordance with the approved rules. Since 1988, the requirement to conduct an EIA has been extended to all areas of activity.

OZONOSPHERE (OZONE SCREEN) - a layer of the atmosphere, characterized by an increased concentration of ozone molecules (10 times higher than at the Earth's surface), absorbing ultraviolet radiation, fatal to living things.

OMNICIDE - the destruction of all life on Earth. It can occur both under the influence of natural (for example, a planetary or space catastrophe), and anthropogenic (global nuclear war, global ecological catastrophe, etc.) factors.

ORGANELLA ( lat. organelle is a diminutive of gr. organon - organ - tool, instrument) - a permanent (unlike a cellular inclusion), a clearly differentiated part of the body of a unicellular individual, his "organ" that performs a specific function: motor (cilia, flagella), contractile, digestive, excretory, etc.

ORGANOID ( gr. organ - tool, tool + gr. eidos - view) - permanent, obligatory (unlike cellular inclusions) specialized structures in the cells of any organisms (unicellular and multicellular), performing certain functions and therefore perceived as analogues of organs. In unicellular individuals, such formations are called organelles.

OSMOS is the diffusion of a substance, usually a solvent, through a semi-permeable membrane that separates a solution and a pure solvent or two solutions of different concentrations.

OBJECTIVE ( lat. objectum - subject) - something that exists outside and independently of human consciousness.

RESPONSIBILITY - a special relationship of a person to society and nature, characterized by the awareness of one's moral duty to the present and future generations of people.

OZONE SCREEN - OZONE LAYER - a layer consisting of ozone (a blue gas with a pungent odor), its height is from 10 to 15 km, maximum at a height of 20-25 km. Protects life in the biosphere from the influence of short-wave ultraviolet radiation.

PALEOGEN - the most ancient system of the Cenozoic group, corresponding to the first period of the Cenozoic era of the geological history of the Earth, following the Cretaceous and preceding the Neogene system.

Paleolithic - the oldest period of the Stone Age: the beginning of the Paleolithic coincides with the appearance on Earth of the oldest ape-like people (over 2 million years ago), the end refers to a period of approximately 10 thousand years ago.

PARACLIMAX ( gr. couple - near, at + gr. climax - stairs) - a community (ecosystem) that has arisen as a result of external, usually anthropogenic, impacts on the climax and its destruction with the formation of another stable community in its place (for example, a pasture constantly supported by grazing in the place of a reduced forest).

PANGEA is a hypothetical continent that united Laurasia and Gondwana in the Paleozoic - the beginning of the Mesozoic.

PARADIGMA - a theory (or model of problem setting) adopted as a model for solving research problems.

PATHOGENIC REACTIONS - the ability of living beings (usually microorganisms) to cause disease in other organisms.

OVERPOPULATION (OVERPOPULATION) - a temporary state of an ecosystem in which the number of individuals of a species is greater than the capacity of the environment allows.

PESTICIDE - A chemical compound used to protect plants, agricultural products, wood, wool, cotton, leather, and to control vectors of dangerous diseases.

ECOLOGICAL PYRAMID - the ratio between producers, consumers (of the first, second orders) and decomposers in the ecosystem, expressed in their mass (the number is the pyramid of Elton numbers, the enclosed energy is the pyramid of energies) and depicted in the form of a graphical model.

PLANKTON ( gr. planktos - wandering) - a set of organisms that live in the water column and are not capable of actively resisting their transfer by currents (i.e., more or less passively "floating" in the water). There are plant plankton - phytoplankton and animal plankton - zooplankton. In addition, picoplankton are isolated ( Spanish pico - small value) - the smallest organisms (less than 3 microns and ch. arr. 0.45-0.85 microns) capable of exceptionally active photosynthesis (see).

POLLUTION PAYMENTS - payment for the emission of pollutants into the atmosphere from stationary and mobile sources, the discharge of pollutants into water bodies, and the disposal of waste. The specified fee is collected from the profits remaining at the disposal of enterprises, sent to environmental funds and used for environmental purposes.

PAYMENTS FOR NATURAL USE - payment for the use of natural resources (land, subsoil, water, forest and other vegetation, wildlife, recreational and other resources).

PLEISTOCENE - the first division corresponding to the longest epoch of the Anthropogenic (Quaternary) period. It is characterized by a general cooling of the Earth's climate and the periodic occurrence of extensive glacial glaciations in the middle latitudes.

SLASH AND FIRE AGRICULTURE - A primitive farming system in which agricultural plants were grown for several years on lands liberated from the forest by cutting or burning it. After the loss of fertility, the site was abandoned and a new one was developed. Soil fertility was restored under the influence of natural vegetation.

POLICY OF ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY - a purposeful activity of the state, public organizations, legal entities and individuals to ensure environmental safety.

POLLUTANT - a substance that pollutes the environment of life (usually it means anthropogenic, municipal, industrial or agricultural pollution). Russian synonym - pollutant.

POPULATION (French population, from lat. populus - people, population) - a set of individuals of the same species, during a large number generations inhabiting a certain space with relatively homogeneous conditions of existence.

POST-INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY - following the industrial (which replaced the agricultural) state of civilization, focused on eliminating the negative consequences of traditional industrial development and the survival of mankind.

BIOTIC POTENTIAL - 1) the hereditarily determined degree of resistance of a species to adverse environmental factors; 2) the potential ability of living organisms to increase their numbers exponentially.

HUMAN NEEDS - conscious or unconscious conditions for ensuring the life of a person or his need for objects and phenomena, without which he experiences discomfort that worsens his health.

VICARIA RULE (D. Jordan) - the ranges of closely related forms of animals (species and subspecies) usually occupy adjacent territories and do not significantly overlap; related forms, as a rule, vicarate, that is, geographically replace each other.

RULE OF INTERNAL CONSISTENCY - in natural ecosystems, the activity of the species included in them is aimed at maintaining these ecosystems as their own habitat.

RULE OF MUTUAL FITTING (K. Möbius-G.F. Morozov) - species in the biocenosis are adapted to each other so much that their community constitutes an internally contradictory, but single and mutually coordinated systemic whole.

RULE OF OBLIGATORY FILLING OF ECOLOGICAL NICHES - an empty ecological niche is always naturally filled.

RULE OF NUTRITIONAL CORRELATION (W. Winie-Edwards) - in the course of evolution, only those populations are preserved whose reproduction rate is correlated with the amount of food resources of their habitat.

THE RULE OF CONFORMITY OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS TO THE GENETIC PREDETERMINATION OF AN ORGANISM - a species of organisms can exist as long as and insofar as its natural environment corresponds to the genetic possibilities of adapting this species to its fluctuations and changes.

RULE J.ODUM - with a constant flow of energy through the food web, smaller terrestrial organisms with a higher specific metabolism create less biomass than larger ones.

THE RULE OF MAXIMUM "LIFE PRESSURE" - organisms multiply at an intensity that provides the maximum possible number of them. The "pressure of life" is limited by the capacity of the environment and the operation of the rules of mutual adaptation, internal consistency and conformity of the environment with the organism's genetic predetermination.

MAXIMUM PERMISSIBLE ENVIRONMENTAL LOAD - maximum level the impact of anthropogenic factors, which preserves the functional integrity of ecosystems.

GF GAUSE EXCLUSION PRINCIPLE (Gause's theorem) - two species cannot exist in the same locality if their ecological needs are identical, that is, they occupy the same ecological niche.

ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH PROGRAM (UNEP) is an intergovernmental program initiated by the UN (1973) to study the problems of environmental crises - desertification, deforestation, soil loss, pollution of the World Ocean, etc. It was carried out with the active participation of the USSR (currently the Russian Federation).

SPECIFIC LIFETIME - the average maximum age reached by individuals of a given species under the most favorable conditions of existence, that is, limited only by the genetic characteristics of individuals.

EXPECTED LIFE LIFE - the number of years that a representative of a given generation will have to live on average, assuming that the mortality of representatives of this generation when moving from one age group to another will be equal to the current level of mortality in these age groups.

PRODUCER (la t. production - producing) - an organism that produces organic substances from inorganic components. There are photo- (helio-) and chemosynthetics. Wed Consumer, Reducer.

PRODUCTION-NEKO-EVOLUTIONARY METHOD OF INTERACTION OF SOCIETY AND NATURE - a method based on a productive economy, Neolithic principles of nature management, which are increasingly destroying the natural environment.

NEED - the need for something necessary for the maintenance of life and human development.

PERSISTENT ( lat. persisto - I persist) - organisms that remain unchanged in the process of evolution, the so-called living fossils, passing from one geological era to another without significant changes.

KNOWLEDGE is the process of creative activity of people who form their knowledge, on the basis of which the goals and motives of human actions arise. There are scientific, aesthetic, religious and other types of knowledge.

PRODUCTION FUND - a set of means of labor and objects of labor necessary for material production.

DESIGN - drawing up, development of a plan, a program for creating a future man-made or any artificial object.

PROFIT - the amount by which income exceeds costs.

PACT ( lat. pactum - contract) is an international treaty of great political significance.

THE CONSIGNMENT ( lat. pars (patis) - part, group) - a group of people united by some common interests, gathered for some purpose.

PSYCHE ( Greek psychikos - spiritual) - a property of the brain, which consists in the active reflection of the environment and determines on this basis the motives of behavior and activity.

POLICY (Greek politika - state or public affairs) - the sphere of human activity associated with participation in public affairs, the conquest, retention of power.

PROCESS ( lat. processus - passage, advancement) - the course, the development of some phenomenon, the successive change of states of development.

TRIBE - a type of social organization of people, including two or more clans.

NATURE - in the broad sense of the word, the whole world, the whole Universe, including man and society. The understanding of nature as a set of natural conditions for the existence of human society is also widespread.

ECOLOGICAL BALANCE - conditional equality of incoming and outgoing natural processes, leading to a long-term (conditionally infinite, in fact, during an individual or evolutionary period of development) existence of an ecosystem of a given type, i.e. with certain properties. There are component R.E., based on the balance of ecological components within one ecosystem, and territorial R.E., which occurs with a certain ratio of the sizes of intensively and extensively exploited plots, as well as areas withdrawn from traditional use (for example, plowed fields, forests and meadows together with nature reserves). With the territorial form of R.e. it is actually supported by ecological supersystems.

RASA - a group of people with common stable features, historically formed under the influence of natural conditions. These features include the color of the skin, eyes, hair, body proportions, shape of the nose, lips, etc. Three large racial groups are distinguished: the Negroid-Australian (it includes the peoples living in Central and South Africa, in southern India, the indigenous inhabitants of Australia); European-Asian (peoples of Europe, North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, North India, Asia Minor); Asian American (peoples of Asia and Native Americans).

REGION - a certain territory on the surface of the Earth, characterized by relative integrity, uniformity of geological, physico-chemical properties, some commonality of bio- and ecosystems. A region can be part of the territorial structure of one or more countries.

REGIONAL POLLUTION - environmental pollution, which manifests itself within a large territory (region). Regional pollution is formed on the basis of local pollution with an increase in their number or spatio-temporal scales.

REDUCER(S) ( lat. reduction - returning) - species, mainly microorganisms and fungi, in the course of life, converting organic residues into inorganic substances. Synonymous with destructors.

RENEWABLE RESOURCES - all natural resources that are within the biospheric circulation of substances, capable of self-recovery within a period commensurate with the rate of human economic activity.

NON-RENEWABLE RESOURCES - that part of natural resources that is not self-regenerating in the process of the circulation of substances in the biosphere over a time commensurate with the pace of human economic activity.

REFLECTION - reflection, introspection, analysis of one's own thoughts.

ROMAN CLUB is an international non-governmental organization. It arose in 1968 at the initiative of the Italian economist, public figure, businessman A. Peccei (1908-1984). Since 1984, A. Peccei was replaced by the French scientist A. King. Research projects gained wide popularity, having received conceptual completeness in the reports: “The Limits to Growth”, 1972 (headed by D. Meadows); "Humanity at the Turning Point", 1974 (headed by M. Mesarovich and E. Pestel); "Goals for Humanity", 1977 (headed by E. Laszlo); "There are no limits to learning", 1979 (headed by J. Botkin, M. Elmanjara, M. Malitsa); "The Third World: Three Quarters of the World", 1980 (headed by M. Guernier); "Routes leading to the future", 1980 (headed by B. Gavrylyshyn); "The First Global Revolution", 1987 (headed by A. King, B. Schneider). Since the mid 80s. figures R.K. began to move to the promotion of various programs for the transformation of society, systems for improving the political institutions of power.

Saprophage - an organism that feeds on organic residues.

SACRED - sacred, consecrated by the highest heavenly
forces.

SECULARIZATION - here: the liberation of concepts and ideas from sacredness in the process of scientific study of their origins and content.

"BLUE MOVEMENT" - public movement "For the social ecology of man through mass creativity." It originated in Moscow in 1981. Supporters and participants in the Blue Movement believe that they are developing the ideas of “Russian cosmism” and the teachings of V.I. Vernadsky about the noosphere (“the sphere of reason”), believing that humanity is entering the era of the noosphere, when the further evolution of the planet will be guided by reason.

SILUR is the third system from the bottom of the Paleozoic group, corresponding to the third period of the Paleozoic era of the geological history of the Earth.

SYNERGISM (SYNERGETIC EFFECT) - the combined effect of two or more factors, characterized by the fact that the combined effect significantly exceeds the effect of each of the components separately and their simple sum.

SYNCRETISM - fusion, indivisibility, unity of the sides of a phenomenon.

Shintoism is a religion widespread in Japan. It is based on the cult of the deities of nature and ancestors.

ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY SYSTEM - a set of legislative, medical and biological measures aimed at maintaining a balance between the biosphere and anthropogenic, as well as natural external pressures.

CLOSE CLOSURE (of the population) - 1) an objective concept - increased against traditionally or legally accepted norms, population density; 2) objectively - the density of the population, causing the deterioration of his health.

GATHERING - one of the forms of human economic activity, consisting in collecting wild-growing edible roots, fruits, berries, honey, as well as mollusks, insects suitable for food
etc.

COMMUNITY - a set of interdependent individuals, interconnected species within a certain space. It may consist of some producers, consumers or decomposers.

COMMUNITY LONG-DERIVATED - a set of interconnected and interdependent species within a certain naturally limited volume of viable space (biotope), the main environment-formers of which have several generations during the existence of such a set. For example, several generations of pine trees in the process of changing from pine forest to spruce forest in the north of the European plain.

A SHORT-TERM DERIVATIVE COMMUNITY is an analogue of a long-term derivative community, but, as a rule, with one generation of the main environment-formers. For example, a birch or aspen forest, which in one generation of these tree species is replaced by a pine forest during forest succession in the north of the European plain.

NODAL COMMUNITY - conditionally the final phase of succession (see) in conditions of anthropogenic disturbance of the natural environment to such an extent that in the process of development the community cannot reach a climax (see), but nevertheless develops to a state that is in equilibrium with this environment. For example, forest clearings that are not capable of afforestation.

SORPTION - absorption by a solid or liquid of a substance from the environment.

SOCIONATURAL SYSTEM - SOCIOECOSYSTEM - dynamic self-developing system "human society - nature".

SOCIETY - 1) a territorial community of people living together in several closely located settlements (or one large settlement - a city) and therefore contacting each other much more often than with residents of other settlements; 2) a community of people living together in some territory and entering into mutual contacts statistically significantly more often than with other neighbors; 3) a social system, a society with some peculiarities of the social structure (colloquial).

SOCIAL ECOLOGY - a line of research at the intersection of social and natural sciences, studying the processes and patterns of interaction between society (and its individual systems) and nature. Social ecology thus focuses only on ecosystems, where the subject is social systems, including the individual. In the future, social ecology should focus on solving the problems of the ecological survival of mankind and the formation of an ecological civilization (econosphere), ensuring natural conditions of life worthy of a person.

Social ecology is formed as complex science, investigating the relationship between society and the natural environment in order to form, depending on the specific circumstances, the optimal nature-forming strategy of society. Social ecology studies complex and multi-valued relationships in the "society - man - technology - natural environment" system, discovers general laws of interaction and ways to optimize and harmonize relations in the "society - nature" system.

SMOG - 1) a combination of dust particles and fog drops; 2) a term used to denote visible air pollution of any nature.

METHOD OF INTERACTION OF SOCIETY AND NATURE - the unity of economic and environmental characteristics of the development of society, expressing its attitude to nature and, above all, to the biosphere. In the history of society, there are three main ways of interaction between society and nature: Paleolithic (co-evolutionary-gathering), Neolithic (production-non-coevolutionary) and noospheric (intensively co-evolutionary), which humanity has to switch to for ecological survival.

SPIRITUALISM is a philosophical doctrine that recognizes the spiritual principle as the essence of the world.

ABIOTIC ENVIRONMENT - all the forces and phenomena of nature, the origin of which is not directly (and often indirectly) connected with the vital activity of living organisms (including humans).

ANTHROPOGENIC ENVIRONMENT - the natural environment, directly or indirectly, intentionally or unintentionally changed by people.

ENVIRONMENTAL STABILITY - the ability of an ecosystem to withstand internal abiotic and biotic environmental factors, including anthropogenic impacts.

STAGNATION - 1) developmental delay, stagnation in production, trade, etc.; 2) naturally occurring oxygen deficiency in the reservoir.

STATION ( lat. station - location, location) - 1) a part of the habitat of the species (see), characterized by special environmental conditions and used by it either for a limited time (seasonally, part of the day), or for limited purposes - for nutrition, reproduction, experiencing adverse situations (seasonal S., S. experiences, etc.); 2) a section of space characterized by a set of living conditions (relief, climate, availability of food, shelters, etc.) necessary for the existence of a given species (population) of animals (the term is usually not used in botany), i.e. topographical part of the species range, suitable for the habitation of organisms of a given species (part of the range populated by the species).

STRESS ( English stress - tension) - 1) the state of stress of the body - a set of physiological reactions that occur in the body of animals and humans (possibly in plants) in response to the influence of various adverse factors (stressors): cold, hunger, mental and physical trauma, radiation, blood loss , infections - or, conversely, exceptionally favorable: joy, sexual arousal, etc.; 2) the stressed state of an ecosystem experiencing the damaging effects of unusual natural and anthropogenic factors, which manifests itself in changes in energy processes, nutrient cycling and community structure.

STOICISM is one of the directions of ancient Greek philosophy (it arose at the end of the 4th century BC). The Stoics considered the human soul to be part of the world soul, indifferent to everything except good and evil. The ethical ideal of the Stoics is the achievement of "apathy", i.e. insensitivity to everything external.

SUBJECTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY - individual, society, biosphere, state, civilization as a whole.

SUCCESSION ( lat. succession - succession, inheritance) - a consistent system of biocenoses that successively arise in the same territory as a result of the influence of natural factors or human influences; now, as a rule, it is also the result of a complex interaction of natural and anthropogenic causes.

SCIENTISM is a worldview position based on the idea of ​​scientific knowledge as the highest cultural value and a sufficient condition for a person's orientation in the world. The ideal for scientism is not all scientific knowledge, but primarily the results and methods of natural science knowledge.

TAXON - a group of discrete objects, connected by one or another degree of generality of properties and characteristics, and due to this, giving grounds for assigning them a certain taxonomic category.

TAXONOMY ( gr. taxis - location in order + gr. nomos - law) - a section of systematics, the doctrine of the evolutionary subordination of groups of organisms - from subspecies and species to systematic (classification) kingdoms of nature (shotguns, fungi, plants and animals).

TAXONOMICAL CATEGORIES - concepts used in taxonomy to designate subordinate groups, objects-taxons; for a certain sphere of reality, a system of such categories is built, which should give a complete description of this reality from the point of view of its hierarchical structure (for example, the taxonomy of animals or plants).

TERATOGEN(S), TERATOGENESIS ( gr. terrace, genus. pad. teratos - monster, freak + gr. genesis - origin) - biological effects (intrauterine diseases, etc.), chemicals and physical agents that cause deformities in organisms in the course of their individual development.

TECHNOLOGY - a set of mechanisms and machines, as well as a system for managing, extracting, storing, processing matter, energy and information created for the purpose of production and servicing the non-productive needs of society.

TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENT OF NATURE - the creation of an additional system of connections between various natural phenomena, which is able to limit or direct the action of certain laws in the way that a person needs. As a result, natural objects or some combinations of them serve as a means of objectifying human goals.

TECHNOLOGY - 1) a set of methods of processing, manufacturing, changing the state, properties, form of raw materials, material or semi-finished products in the production process; 2) the science of methods of influencing raw materials, materials, etc. appropriate tools of production.

TECHNOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT - a scientific direction focused on the development of a system of methods, approaches that allow a comprehensive assessment of new technology and a reasonable choice of actions at various levels of decision-making.

TECHNOSPHERE - a part of the biosphere transformed by people with the help of direct and indirect impact of technical means in order to best meet the socio-economic needs of mankind. Technosfsra is buildings, various kinds of structures, communication systems, production equipment, vehicles, etc.

THEOLOGY - theology, systematics of religious teachings.

TERATOGEN(S) - substances whose impact on the body leads to anomalies in its development, the occurrence of deformities.

TOLERANCE - the ability of organisms to endure deviations of environmental factors from the optimal ones relatively painlessly.

TRANSBOUNDARY POLLUTION - the entry into the environment of an additional amount of pollutants from the territory of neighboring states (carried by air flows, transit rivers, etc.).

TROPHIC LEVEL - a set of organisms that occupy a certain position in the general food chain. The distance of organisms from producers is the same. They are characterized by a certain form of organization and utilization of energy. Organisms of different trophic chains that receive food through an equal number of links in the trophic chain are at the same trophic level.

URBANIZATION - 1) the growth and development of cities; 2) the acquisition by the countryside of the external and social features characteristic of the city; 3) the process of increasing the role of cities in the development of society.

LEVEL OF HIERARCHY, ORGANIZATION - the functional place of a system of given complexity in the general "system of systems" of the material world.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT - development that ensures a proper balance between the solution of socio-economic problems and the preservation of the environment, the satisfaction of the basic vital needs of the present generation while maintaining such opportunities for future generations.

FACTOR - the driving force of ongoing processes or the condition affecting these processes.

ANTHROPOGENIC FACTOR - a factor that owes its origin to human activity.

BIOGENIC FACTOR - a group of factors associated with both direct and indirect influence of living organisms on the living environment now and in past eras (a set of biological, biotic and biocenotic factors).

ENVIRONMENTAL FACTOR, ECOLOGICAL - any environmental condition, the driving force of ongoing processes, to which the living reacts with adapted reactions, and the inert - with certain changes in its own structure.

FACIE is a term used in landscape science, geology, biology, etc. For example, biogeographic facies - areas with minor differences in living conditions within the same biotope. Facies can be: botanical, geological, soil, physical and geographical.

PHENOLOGY (gr. Faino - I reveal and gr. logos - word, concept, doctrine) - a branch of science that studies periodic phenomena in nature, usually living.

PHYTONCIDES are biologically active substances formed by plants that kill or inhibit the growth and development of pathogens and play a role in plant immunity.

Phytophagous - animals that feed on plants.

PHYTOCENOSIS - a community of plants included in the biogeocenosis (see).

LIFE FORM - a type of adaptation of different species to similar environmental conditions or one species to its various modifications, for example, adaptations of plants to the conditions of the North or one species of plants to the environment of alternating landscape zones (to life in the tundra, taiga, forest-steppe, etc.).

PHOTOSYNTHESIS ( gr. phos, genus. pad. photos - light + gr. synthesis - connection, combination, composition) - the conversion of green plants and photosynthetic microorganisms of the radiant energy of the Sun into energy chemical bonds organic matter (plant body, microorganism). F. occurs with the participation of light-absorbing pigments, primarily chlorophyll. The F. mechanism consists of a complex chain of phases and redox reactions.

FLORA - a set of plant species that grow in a certain area.

FLUCTUATION - a random deviation of a quantity characterizing a system of a large number of particles from its average value.

FRONTOLISIS - blurring or disappearance of the atmospheric front, a process reverse to photosynthesis. Occurs under the influence of certain air movements, usually in the process of cyclonic activity.

CHEMOSYNTHESIS - the process of formation by some microorganisms of organic substances from carbon dioxide due to the energy obtained from the oxidation of inorganic compounds (ammonia, hydrogen, sulfur compounds, ferrous iron), i.e. intracellular chemical reactions without the direct participation of solar energy.

CHRONOBIOLOGY is a science that studies the regularities of the implementation of the processes of the body's vital activity in time.

CENOSIS - any community (biocenosis, zoocenosis, phytocenosis
and so on.).

FOOD CHAIN ​​(trophic food chain) - a number of species or groups, each previous link in which serves as food for the next.

CERES - 1) one of the largest (transverse approx. 1000 km) minor planets (No. 1), discovered by G. Piazzi (Italy, 1801). The distance of Ceres from the Sun varies from 2.55 to 3.03 AU; 2) in Roman mythology, the Goddess of agriculture and fertility. Corresponds to the Greek Demeter.

CIVILIZATION ( from lat. term civitos denoting: city, urban community, state.) ¾ Some identify it with the level of culture, others consider it as a step historical development. The concept of civilization was established in the 18th century.

BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLE - the circulation of chemicals from inorganic nature through plant and animal organisms back to the inorganic environment.

EVOLUTIONARY HUMANISM - at the center of "evolutionary humanism" lies the idea that it is necessary to reconsider the view of the status of man in the system of the universe. It has just begun to evolve, and a new organization of thought, a new humanism, a new system of moral values ​​should be associated with the thesis: in relation to nature, one should be guided by the biblical principle: “treat it the same way as you treat yourself.”

HEURISTICS - 1) science, studying creative activity; 2) herself creative activity; moral heuristics is moral creativity: rule-making, approval of new ideals, substantiation of new values.

Eutraphycation - excessive enrichment of water bodies with organic substances.

ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY - the state of the natural environment, in which there is no threat of disruption of the natural balance in the physicochemical, biological contacts of the biosphere, as well as the destruction of ecological systems under the influence of one or another type of technogenic or other anthropogenic impact, as well as from natural disasters.

ECOLOGICAL INTERACTION - a complex of interactions (material, energy, informational) of a certain system (taken as a "central object") with a combination of other factors that make up the environment and determine the conditions for its existence.

ECOLOGICAL EDUCATION is a purposeful process of formation in a person by various means (scientific, artistic, etc.) of an attitude towards a careful attitude to the natural environment, an understanding of the inherent value of nature's resources.

ECOACTIVITY - the material activity of people to preserve and improve the environment, the greening of production and the creation of ecological production, i.e. ecological consciousness. Environmental activities primarily include activities for the rational use of natural resources, the creation of environmentally friendly technology, waste-free and recyclable production cycles and other activities aimed at preventing damage to the environment.

EICUMENE (OYCUMENE) - a set of inhabited regions of the globe.

ECOMONITORING - monitoring the state of the human environment and warning about emerging critical situations that are harmful or dangerous to the health of people and other living organisms.

ECOLOGICAL NICHE - a set of all environmental factors in the area under which the existence of a certain species is possible.

ECOLOGY ( comes from the Greek words oikos - house, dwelling + logos - teaching) - literally means the doctrine of the house, the living conditions of the inhabitants of this house. For the first time, this term was used by the German naturalist E. Haeckel to denote a direction in biology that studies the connections and relationships of biological organisms and populations with the external environment.

1) science (bioecology), which studies the relationship of organisms and their systemic populations (individuals, populations, biocenoses, etc.) and their environment; includes the ecology of individuals and the species composed by them (autoecology), populations (population ecology, dedemecology) and communities - biocenoses (synecology); 2) a set of scientific disciplines that study the relationship of systemic biological structures (from a macromolecule to the biosphere) with each other and with their environment, biocenoses and other ecosystems; 3) a discipline that studies the general laws of the functioning of ecosystems of various hierarchical levels; 4) complex science, investigating the habitat of living beings; 5) study of the position of man as a species in the biosphere of the planet, his connections with ecological systems and the impact on them; 6) the science of survival in the environment.

ECOLOGIZATION - the process of conscious penetration of environmental factors and approaches into various areas of social activity in order to solve environmental problems.

ECOLOGICAL CULTURE - appears as a new way of connecting a person with nature, reconciling him with it on the basis of a deeper knowledge of it. The most important sign of ecological culture is the rejection of naive anthropocentrism and the transition to a system of views that is built biospherocentrically.

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION is a continuous learning process aimed at acquiring systematized knowledge about the environment, the skills and abilities of environmental protection, and the formation of a common environmental culture.

ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY (ECONOOSPHERE) - the state of civilization following the information society, which will eliminate ecological crisis and guarantees the survival and further development of mankind in an environmentally friendly form.

ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARD - the threat of destruction of the human habitat, plants and animals associated with it as a result of uncontrolled economic development, technological lag, natural and anthropogenic accidents and disasters, as a result of which the adaptation of living systems to the conditions of existence is disrupted and their death may occur.

ENVIRONMENTAL APPROACH (or ecological option systems approach) - consists in representing any object under consideration in the form of a "central system" that is in interaction with a certain environment.

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY - a system of measures related to the impact of society on nature, is carried out in three areas: 1) protection of individual objects of nature; 2) organization of rational use of natural resources; 3) protection of the human environment. An important element of this policy is environmental education.

ECO DEVELOPMENT - development of the ecosystem as a whole, i.e. systemic change (including results) of both the subject (central term) and the object (environment). Eco-development can be progressive, neutral and regressive, depending on the direction and “weight” of changes in the components of the ecosystem.

ENVIRONMENTAL RISK - the ratio of the magnitude of possible damage under the influence of an environmental factor (in a given intensity) and the probability of this impact.

ECO ENVIRONMENT - the same as the external environment, but applied to living organisms or objects with the participation of the living.

ECOSYSTEM - 1) any community (biocenosis) of living beings and its habitat, united into a single functional whole, arising on the basis of interdependence and cause-and-effect relationships that exist between individual environmental components; 2) a synonym for biogeocenosis.

ECOLOGIZATION OF THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM - a tendency for ideas, concepts, principles, approaches of ecology to penetrate into the structure of training specialists of various profiles (engineers, economists, doctors, etc.).

ECOSPHERE ( gr. eikos - house, sphere¾ ball) is an ecological sphere, a biological system that includes living organisms and their environment with which they interact.

ECOSOPHY - the main question of ecosophy is what should be the harmonious communication of a person with wildlife, i.e. search for a harmonious relationship between man and natural systems.

ENVIRONMENTAL FRIENDLY OF TECHNICAL OBJECTS - a property of technical objects that characterizes the degree of their interaction with the natural environment.

ENVIRONMENTAL FUNDS - a system of extra-budgetary funds (federal, republican, regional, regional and local) formed from funds received from enterprises, organizations and citizens (charges for emissions, fines, etc.) and intended to solve urgent environmental problems.

ECOCID is the deliberate criminal destruction of the habitat of all living things, including the destruction of the human habitat over a vast territory for military purposes.

HUMAN ECOLOGY is a scientific direction that studies the patterns of interaction between a person and his natural and social environment, issues of maintaining and developing health, the possibility of improving the physical and mental capabilities of human populations, the population of certain regions.

EXTENSIVE PATH OF DEVELOPMENT - a form of social, primarily industrial, development, focused on the use of quantitative factors and development parameters, expanding the field of activity.

ENTROPY (gr. entropo - rotate inward, wrap) is a measure of the orderliness of a system that, according to the second law of thermodynamics, tends to increase to a state of physical equilibrium (complete uniformity of the distribution of matter and energy), which is irreversible. Living systems and systems with the participation of the living to reduce E. do work and for the time being remain negentropic. Death leads to the "dissolution" of the organism in the environment.

ESTUARY - 1) a semi-enclosed coastal reservoir at the confluence of the river into the sea, having free communication with the sea; 2) a single-arm funnel-shaped mouth of the river, expanding towards the sea; 3) a wide mouth of a river flowing into a lake, sea or ocean in places where the adjacent part of the sea (lake, ocean) has great depths, and sediments brought by the river are constantly removed by sea currents.

EFFECT GREENHOUSE (GREENHOUSE) - gradual warming of the climate on the planet as a result of the accumulation of anthropogenic carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which is similar to the greenhouse cover, passing short-wave solar rays, prevents long-wave thermal radiation from the Earth's surface.

UNEP - in accordance with the recommendations of the Stockholm Conference (1972), the UN Environment Program was created - UNEP - the main international body for environmental activities in the world. UNEP was tasked with the following tasks: 1) environmental assessment and organization of a global environmental monitoring, the exchange of information in this area; 2) global environmental management; 3) supporting measures covering the areas of education, public information, training and retraining of personnel, maintenance, etc.

ANTHROPOGENIC PHENOMENON - an event, directly or indirectly caused by the economic activity of a person or his behavior.

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Ecology(from the Greek "oikos" - dwelling, "logos" - science) - the science of the laws of the relationship of organisms, species, communities with the environment.
External environment - all conditions of animate and inanimate nature under which an organism exists and which directly or indirectly affect the state, development and reproduction of both individual organisms and populations.
Environmental factors(from Latin "factor" - cause, condition) - individual elements of the environment that interact with the body.
Abiotic factors(from the Greek "a" - negation, "bios" - life) - elements of inanimate nature: climatic (temperature, humidity, light), soil, orographic (relief).
Biotic factors - living organisms interacting and influencing each other.
Anthropogenic factor(from the Greek "anthropos" - a person) - the direct impact of a person on organisms or impact through a change in their habitat.
The optimal factor the most favorable intensity of the environmental factor for the organism (light, temperature, air, humidity, soil, etc.).
Limiting factor - environmental factor that goes beyond the endurance of the organism (beyond the permissible maximum or minimum): moisture, light, temperature, food, etc.
Endurance limit - the boundary beyond which the existence of an organism is impossible (icy desert, hot spring, upper atmosphere). For all organisms and for each species, there are boundaries for each environmental factor separately.
Ecological plasticity - the degree of endurance of organisms or their communities (biocenoses) to the effects of environmental factors.
Climatic factors - abiotic environmental factors associated with the influx of solar energy, the direction of the winds, the ratio of humidity and temperature.
photoperiodism(from the Greek "photos" - light) - the need of organisms for a periodic change of a certain length of day and night.
Seasonal Rhythm - the response of organisms to changes in the seasons regulated by photoperiodism (with the onset of a short autumn day, leaves fall from the trees, animals prepare for overwintering; with the onset of a long spring day, plants begin to renew and the vital activity of animals is restored).
The biological clock - the reaction of organisms to the alternation during the day of a period of light and darkness of a certain duration (rest and activity in animals, daily rhythms of the movement of flowers and leaves in plants, the rhythm of cell division, the process of photosynthesis, etc.).
Hibernation - adaptation of animals to the transfer of the winter season (winter sleep).
Anabiosis(from the Greek "anabiosis" - revival) - a temporary state of the body, in which life processes are slowed down to a minimum and there are no visible signs of life (observed in cold-blooded animals in winter and in the hot period of summer).
winter calm - adaptive property of a perennial plant, which is characterized by the cessation of visible growth and vital activity, the death of above-ground shoots in herbaceous life forms and leaf fall in woody and shrubby forms.
Frost resistance - the ability of organisms to endure low negative temperatures.

ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS

Ecological system - a community of living organisms and their habitats, constituting a single whole based on food relations and ways of obtaining energy.
Biogeocenosis(from the Greek "bios" - life, "geo" - earth, "tsenoz" - general) - a stable self-regulating ecological system in which organic components are inextricably linked with inorganic ones.
Biocenosis - a community of plants and animals inhabiting the same territory, interconnected in the food chain and influencing each other.
population(from the French "population" - population) - a set of individuals of the same species occupying a certain area, freely interbreeding with each other, having a common origin, genetic basis and, to one degree or another, isolated from other populations of this species.
Agrocenosis(from the Greek "agros" - field, "cenosis" - general) - a biocenosis artificially created by man. It is not able to exist for a long time without human intervention, does not have self-regulation, and at the same time is characterized by high productivity (yield) of one or more species (varieties) of plants or animal breeds.
Producers(from lat. "producentis" - producing) - green plants, producers of organic matter.
Consumers(from Latin "consumo" - to consume, spend) - herbivorous and carnivorous animals, consumers of organic matter.
decomposers(from Latin "reducer" - reduction, simplification of the structure) - microorganisms, fungi - destroyers of organic residues
Food chains- chains of interconnected species that sequentially extract organic matter and energy from the original food substance; each previous link is food for the next.
Nutritional level - one link in the food chain, represented by producers, consumers or decomposers.
Power supply networks complex relationships in the ecological system, in which different components consume different objects and themselves serve as food for various members of the ecosystem.
Ecological pyramid rule - the pattern according to which the amount of plant matter that serves as the basis of the food chain is about 10 times greater than the mass of herbivorous animals, and each subsequent food level also has a mass 10 times less.
Self-regulation in biogeocenosis- the ability to restore internal balance after any natural or anthropogenic influence.
Population fluctuation - a successive increase or decrease in the number of individuals in a population, which occurs due to changes in the season, fluctuations in climatic conditions, fodder yields, natural disasters. Due to the regular repetition, fluctuations in population size are also called life waves or population waves.
Population regulation - organization of measures to regulate the number of individuals by their extermination or breeding.
Disappearing population - a population in which the number of species has declined to an acceptable minimum.
Commercial population - population, the extraction of individuals of which is economically justified and does not lead to the undermining of its resources.
Population overcrowding - a temporary state of a population in which the number of individuals exceeds the value corresponding to the conditions of normal existence. Most often associated with a change in biogeocenosis.
Density of life - the number of individuals per unit area or volume of a tone or other medium.
Self-regulation of numbers - limiting action of the ecological system, reducing the number of individuals to an average norm.
Change of biogeocenoses - the successive natural development of an ecological system, in which some biocenoses are replaced by others under the influence of natural environmental factors: swamps form in place of forests, and meadows in place of swamps. A change in biogeocenoses can also be caused by natural disasters (fire, flood, windfall, mass reproduction of pests) or human influence (deforestation, drainage or irrigation of land, earthworks).
Restoration of biocenosis - it is more natural to develop a sustainable ecological system capable of self-healing, which takes place in several stages over decades (after cutting or fire, the spruce forest is restored in more than 100 years) -
Restoration of biocenosis artificial - a set of measures to ensure the renewal of the former biocenosis by sowing seeds, planting tree seedlings, returning extinct animals.
Phytocenosis(from the Greek "phyton" - plant, "cenosis" - general) plant community, historically formed as a result of a combination of interacting plants in a homogeneous area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe territory. It is characterized by a certain species composition, life forms, layering (aboveground and underground), abundance (frequency of occurrence of species), placement, aspect (appearance), vitality, seasonal changes, development (change of communities).

GLOSSARY OF ENVIRONMENTAL TERMS

Abiotic factors - inorganic environmental factors (temperature, humidity, air pressure, relief, etc.), which together with rhetorical factors determine the conditions for the existence of organisms in a particular area.

Abrasion- the process of destruction of the shores of the seas, lakes, reservoirs by waves and surf.

Autotrophs- organisms that synthesize organic substances from inorganic substances in the process of photosynthesis or chemosynthesis.

Agrobiogeocenosis - a set of organisms living on agricultural land.

Agroindustry- agricultural production on an industrial basis.

Agroforestry - a system of measures to create forest plantations in order to increase the productivity of agricultural land, to involve in the economic circulation the so-called inconvenient waste lands (sands, ravines, steep slopes, washed-out lands), as well as to improve the conditions of water and land transport and the general mitigation of the hydroclimatic conditions of arid districts.

Agrocenosis(from the Greek "agros" - field, "cenosis" - general) - a biocenosis artificially created by man. It is not able to exist for a long time without human intervention, does not have self-regulation, and at the same time is characterized by high productivity (yield) of one or more species (varieties) of plants or animal breeds.

Adaptation- the process of developing adaptations of organisms to the conditions of existence.

Aquaculture- a system of measures for the artificial breeding of various food and industrial plants and animals in water bodies.

Acclimatization- adaptation of plants or animals to new or changed conditions of existence, in which they go through all stages of development and give viable offspring.

Allen's rule- in animals inhabiting colder parts of the range, the protruding parts of the body (limbs, tail, auricles, etc.) are smaller than in representatives of the same species of species close to them from warmer areas.

Anabiosis- a temporary state of the body, in which life processes are slowed down to a minimum and all species signs of life are absent (observed in cold-blooded animals in winter and in the hot period of summer).

anaerobic organisms - organisms that can live and develop in the absence of oxygen in the environment.

Anthropogenic factor (from the Greek "anthropos" - a person) - the direct impact of a person on organisms or impact through a change in their habitat.

Anthropogenic landscape - a landscape formed as a result of human impact on the natural landscape.

Anthropogenic press - the impact of human economic activity on nature and its resources.

area- part of the earth's surface within which a given species or taxon of a higher rank is distributed.

arid regions- desert, semi-desert and other arid regions of the globe.

Atmosphere- a shell of air around the earth, protecting all living things from the destructive effects of space.

Aerobic organisms - organisms that can live and develop only in the presence of oxygen in the environment.

Aeroplankton- microscopic organisms that live in the atmosphere.

Aeroponics- growing plants without soil in the air.

Aerotanks- special facilities for biological wastewater treatment by filtering them through coarse-grained materials replaced by aerobic microorganisms.

Bergman's rule - in animals of the same species or in a group of related species, body sizes are larger in the cold parts of the range and smaller in its warmer parts (body sizes increase with latitude).

Biogeocenosis(from the Greek "bios" - life, "geo" - earth, "cenosis" - general) - a stable self-regulating ecological system in which organic components are inextricably linked with inorganic ones.

Biological control methods - the use of predators and pathogens to control plant pests.

biological balance - the desire to preserve the dynamic stability of natural complexes (biogeocenoses).

Biome- a set of plant and animal species of any region (tundra, taiga, broad-leaved forests, deserts, etc.).

Biomass- the mass of the living matter of an organism, population or aggregate of populations of a species in a particular territory (water area).

Biotechnology- a system of measures aimed at increasing the number of game animals and improving their living conditions (feeding, arranging watering places, improving nesting and protective conditions, disease control, predator control, selection, etc.).

Bioticcirculation of substances - the constant circulation of substances between the soil, flora and fauna and microorganisms.

The biological clock - the reaction of organisms to the alternation of a day of a period of light and darkness of a certain duration (rest and activity in animals, daily rhythms of the movement of flowers and leaves in plants, the rhythm of cell division, the process of photosynthesis, etc.).

Biotic potential - theoretically the maximum rate of increase in the population of a species.

Biotope- a section of the earth's surface occupied by one or another biocenosis of the same environmental conditions.

Biocenosis- a community of plants and animals inhabiting the same territory, interconnected in the food chain and influencing each other.

household emissions- household waste entering the biosphere and polluting water, air and soil.

View- a set of populations, individuals capable of interbreeding with the formation of fertile offspring, inhabiting a certain area, having a number of common morphophysiological features and types of relationships with the abiotic and biotic environment and separated from other similar groups of individuals by the almost complete absence of hybrid forms.

Externalenvironment - all conditions of animate and inanimate nature under which an organism exists and which directly or indirectly affect the state, development and reproduction of both individual organisms and populations.

Water industry - a group of sectors of the national economy involved in the accounting, use and protection of water resources.

Biocenosis restoration - the natural development of a sustainable ecological system capable of self-healing, which takes place in several stages over decades (after cutting or fire, the spruce forest is restored in more than 100 years).

Restoration of biocenosis artificial - a set of measures to ensure the restoration of the former biocenosis by sowing seeds, planting tree seedlings, returning extinct animals.

gene pool- in a broad sense, the totality of genetic information of the entire species diversity of flora and fauna.

herbicides- chemicals for the destruction of weeds and other unwanted vegetation.

Heterotrophs- organisms that feed on autotrophs, since they themselves are not able to synthesize organic substances from inorganic ones.

Hydroponics- growing plants without soil, while their roots are immersed in aquatic environment containing essential nutrients.

Hydrosphere- the water shell of the planet (rivers, lakes, seas, oceans, etc.).

Gloger rule- geographical races of animals in warm and humid areas are more pigmented than in cold and dry ones.

Humid areas wet regions of the world.

Humus- soil organic matter.

Demography- a science that studies the population, the patterns of its development, composition, distribution, reproduction and socio-historical conditioning.

Detritus- dead organic matter (usually animals or plants), partially mineralized, suspended in the water column or settled to the bottom.

Deflation- wind erosion.

Defoliation- removal of leaves with the help of chemicals. It is used for deleafing before harvesting cotton, fruit seedlings for drying seed plants of vegetable crops, alfalfa.

life form- a group of plant or animal species of similar appearance, caused by the same adaptations to the conditions of existence. Species of the same life form can be related to varying degrees (belonging to different genera, families, orders).

Reserves- areas of nature where for a number of years (or constantly) in certain seasons or all year round certain species of plants, animals or parts of the natural complex are protected. The economic use of other resources is allowed in a form that does not cause damage to the protected object.

Reserve- a territory completely withdrawn from economic use in order to preserve and study the natural objects and processes existing there. It serves as a standard of biogeocenoses and a scientific laboratory in nature.

Salinization- accumulation in the soil of an excess amount of salts harmful to plants.

Land Fund of Russia - the whole land of Russia. Lands for economic purposes are part of the land fund of Russia.

Irrigated agricultural fields (AIP) - specialized ameliorative systems designed to receive pre-treated wastewater in order to use it for irrigation and fertilization of agricultural land, as well as post-treatment in natural conditions.

winter calm- adaptive property of perennial racestenia, which is characterized by the cessation of visible growth and vital activity, the death of above-ground shoots in herbaceous lifeforms and leaf fall in woody and shrubby forms.

Hibernation- adaptation of animals to the transfer of the winter season (winter sleep).

ZoophagesAnimals that feed on other animals.

Zoocenosis- a community of animals included in the biocenosis.

Insecticides- chemicals for destructionharmful insects.

Integrated plant protection method - complex method (agro-economic, physico-chemical, biological)control of pests and pathogens of plant diseases in order tosuppression of their numbers.

Introduction- intentional or accidental transfer of racesshadows or importation of animals and plants (introducers) to new paradisesareas where they did not previously inhabit, outside the natural areadistribution.

Infauna- a set of animals living in the thickness of the soil and water bodies.

Endangered population - population, number of speciesthe second fell to the accepted minimum.

quarantine service - a set of measures to protect the growthfrom the introduction and invasion of dangerous pests, diseases and weeds.

climatic factors - abiotic environmental factors associated with the influx of solar energy, the direction of windmoat, the ratio of humidity and temperature.

Combined wastewater treatment method - neutralization living and cleaning industrial, agricultural, communicationsdomestic sewage mechanical, physico-chemical andbiological methods.

Population fluctuation - a successive increase or decrease in the number of individuals in a population, which occurs due to changes in the season, fluctuations in climatic conditions, fodder yields, natural disasters. Thanks toregular repetition fluctuations in the population of nazathey are also life waves or population waves.

Consumers- (from the Latin "consumo" - to use, racewalk) - herbivores and carnivores, consumewhether organic matter.

contact insecticide - chemical toxic substances that kill insects on contact with their outer covers.

Red Book- Questionnaire list of endangered animals or plants.

xerophytization- desertification of the area. Xerophytes - plants living in arid areas (deserts, dry steppes, etc.).

Landscape- a natural-territorial complex with a predominance of one type of biogeocenosis, usually a small area (at least a few square kilometers).

Littoral- the coastal strip, the area of ​​high and low tide.

Lithosphere- the upper hard shell of the globe.

marginal lands - literally marginal lands. Land plots on which agricultural production is difficult due to soil, climatic and other conditions (semi-deserts, dry savannahs, etc.).

Reclamation- activities aimed at radical improvement of land.

habitat- a part of the natural environment in which one or another species of animals or plants lives.

Biological wastewater treatment method - mineralization of organic pollution of sewage with the help of aerobic (with oxygen access) biochemical processes in natural (irrigated agricultural fields) or artificial conditions.

Method of mechanical wastewater treatment - removal of heterogeneous undissolved impurities from wastewater with the help of special devices and structures.

Mechanical methods of pest control - extermination of pests (insects, rodents, etc.) using the simplest mechanical devices (baits, traps, barrage ditches) or manually.

Migration- movement of people, animals in space and along the soil profile.

Microclimate- the climate of small plots of land.

Monitoring- an integrated system of monitoring, evaluation andforecast of the state of the environment or its individual elements.

Frost resistance - the ability of organisms to endure low negative temperatures.

IUCN- International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.

Violatedlands - plots on which, as a result of economic activity, vegetation has been destroyed, the soil cover has been destroyed, the hydrological regime and terrain have been changed.

Noosphere- the stage of development of the biosphere, during which the use of natural resources occurs according to strictly scientific principles, which contributes to the harmonious existence of man and nature.

Afforestation of the sands - fixation of sands with trees and shrubs.

Circulating (closed) water supply cycle - reuse of water, reducing its consumption and the degree of pollution of wastewater.

limiting factor - an environmental factor that goes beyond the endurance of the organism (beyond the permissible maximum or minimum): moisture, light, temperature, food, etc.

Optimal Factor - the most favorable intensity of the environmental factor for the body (light, temperature, air, humidity, soil, etc.).

Ornithology- the science that studies the life of birds.

Wastewater treatment plant - engineering and technical structures and devices for the treatment of industrial, agricultural and domestic waste polluting the environment.

Monuments of nature - individual protected natural objects of great scientific historical and cultural significance.

pasture erosion - destruction of the soil as a result of unmoderate grazing without taking into account the norms of grazing.

MPC- maximum permissible concentrations of impurities of harmful substances in water, air, etc., which do not have a harmful effect on humans, animals, plants.

Pesticides- chemicals used to control unwanted economic, veterinary or medical organisms.

Population overcrowding - a harmful state of the population, in which the number of individuals exceeds the value corresponding to the conditions of normal existence. Most often associated with a change in biogeocenosis.

Food (trophic) chains - the transfer of food energy from its source (plants) through a number of organisms, occurring by eating some organisms by others.

nutritional level- one link in the food chain, represented by producers, consumers or decomposers.

Fertility- the ability of the soil to provide plants with water, nutrients, air.

density of life- the number of individuals per unit area or volume of a particular environment.

Protective afforestation - artificially grown forest plantations in order to preserve the fertility of arable land and protect crops from droughts, dry winds and erosion.

population(from French "population" - population) - a set of individuals of the same species occupying a certain area, freely interbreeding with each other, having a common origin, its genetic basis, to some extent isolated from other populations of this species.

soil formation - the process of soil development under the influence of natural factors and human production impact.

Ecological pyramid rule - a pattern according to which the amount of plant matter that serves backbone of the food chain, about 10 times more than the mass grow carnivorous animals, and each subsequent food level also weighs 10 times less.

endurance limit - the boundary beyond which the existence of an organism is impossible (icy desert, hot spring, upper atmosphere). For all organisms and for each species, there are boundaries for each environmental factor separately.

Natural resources - objects, conditions and processes of nature that are used or can be used in social production to meet the material, scientific and cultural needs of society.

natural national park ~ a piece of nature allocated for nature conservation and recreation.

Producers(from lat. "producentis" - producing) - green plants (autotrophs) that produce organic substances in the process of photosynthesis.

commercial population - a population, the extraction of individuals of which is economically justified and does not lead to the undermining of its resources.

Reacclimatization - settlement of animal or plant species within the area of ​​its past distribution.

Population regulation - organization of measures to regulate the number of individuals by their extermination or breeding.

decomposers(from the Latin "reducer" - reduction, simplification structures) - organisms that destroy and decompose dead racestenia and animals (many insects, worms, fungi, bacteria, etc.).

Reserve- protected areas of nature in a number of foreign countries close in terms of regime and purpose to Russian wildlife sanctuaries.

recreation- rest, recuperation, treatment using favorable natural conditions.

Land reclamation - restoration of disturbed landsvarious methods (mining, biological) for subsequent economic use.

Repellents- substances that repel animals. Usually used as ointments, creams or liquids to repel blood-sucking insects and mites. They are also used to scare away rodents, hares, ungulates from fruit and forest plantations, etc.

Sanitary protection zones - forest strips or plots of land separating enterprises and residential areas.

Self-regulation in the biocenosis - the ability to restore internal balance after any natural or anthropogenic influence.

Self-regulation of numbers - the limiting effect of the ecological system, reducing the number of individuals to an average norm.

Seasonal Rhythmis a photoperiod-controlled response. organisms to change the season (when the autumn short day comes, the leaves fall from the trees, the animals prepare for overwintering, when the long spring day comes, the renewal of plants and the restoration of the vital activity of animals begin).

sel- a mud or mud-stone stream that suddenly arises in the channels of mountain rivers due to a sharp flood, which has great destructive power and often causes damage to agricultural land and forests.

Serpentarium- a nursery for keeping poisonous snakes in order to obtain poison from them.

Power networks- complex relationships in the ecological system, in which different components consume different objects and themselves serve as food for various members of the ecosystem.

Sinanthropes- plants and animals whose way of life is associated with a person, his housing, the landscape created or modified by him.

synecology- a section of ecology that studies communities of organisms (biocenoses, ecosystems).

Change of biogeocenoses - successive natural development of the ecological system, in which some biocenoses are replaced by others under the influence of natural environmental factors: swamps form in place of forests, meadows in place of swamps. A change in biogeocenoses can also be caused by natural disasters (fire, flood, windfall, mass reproduction of pests) or human influence (deforestation, drainage or irrigation of land, earthworks).

Smog- thick fogs containing dust and harmful gases.

HabitatThe set of conditions in which an organism lives.

station- a section of space characterized by a set of conditions (relief, climate, food, etc.) necessary for the existence of a given species.

succession- change of one community of organisms (biocenosis) by another in a certain sequence.

Taxon- a group of organisms related by one degree or another of kinship, sufficiently isolated so that it can be assigned a certain taxocomic category of one rank or another - species, genus, etc.

Terrilogythe branch of zoology that studies mammals.

Trophic level - a set of organisms united by the type of food.

Ubiquists- species of plants and animals that can develop normally in a variety of conditions. The same as the cospo-polites.

Urbanization- the growth and development of cities associated with industrialization and the scientific and technological revolution.

Harvest on the vine- biological yield, that is, the amount of finished products before harvesting.

Disposal- the use of industrial waste in the national economy.

FAO- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Fauna- a set of animal species that live in a certain area.

Phenology is the science of seasonal natural phenomena.

Pheromones- biologically active substances secreted by animals to attract individuals of the opposite sex.

Phytomelioration- measures to improve land throughcrops and plantings.

Phytoncides- biologically active substances formed by plants that kill or inhibit the growth and development of pathogens and play an important role in plant immunity.

Phytophages- Animals that eat plants.

Phytocenosis(from the Greek "phyton" - plants, "cenosis" - general) - a plant community that has historically developed as a result of a combination of interacting plants in a homogeneous area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe territory. It is characterized by a certain species composition, life forms, layering (underground and aboveground), abundance (frequency of occurrence of species), location, aspect (appearance), vitality, seasonal changes, development (change of communities). (Or more simply: phytocenosis is a community of plants included in biogeocenosis (see).

Flora- a set of plant species that grow in a certain area.

photoperiodism(from the Greek "photos" - light) - the need of organisms for a periodic change of a certain length of day and night.

Photosynthesis- the formation of organic substances, carbon dioxide and water in the cells of green plants with the help of solar energy captured by chlorophyll.

Fumigants- preparations used for the destruction of pests and pathogens of plant diseases; act on the respiratory system.

Homing- attachment of animals to their habitat.

Food chains- chains of interconnected species that sequentially extract organic matter and energy from the original food substance; each previous link is food for the next.

Shelf- coastal area of ​​the sea, bordering the mainland withdepths from 0 to 200 m. The outer edge of the shelf is a continental slope, descending to the bottom of the sea.

eurybionts- Plants and animals that can exist with wide changes in environmental factors.

Eurythermal organisms - able to exist at large fluctuations in the temperature of the environment.

Eutrophication- excessive enrichment of water bodies with organic substances.

Ecology(from the Greek "oikos" - dwelling, "logos" - science) - the science of the laws of the relationship of organisms, species, communities with the environment.

Ecological valency - the degree of adaptation of species to changes in environmental conditions.

ecological niche - the totality of all environmental factors within which the existence of a species in nature is possible.

Ecological crisis - imbalance in the environment some systems and in the relationship of human society with nature.

Ecological plasticity - the degree of endurance of organisms or their communities (biocenoses) to the impact of environmental factors.

ecological system - community of living organisms their habitat, which is a single whole based on food ties and ways of obtaining energy.

Environmental factor - any environmental condition to which the willow organism reacts with adaptive reactions. Eco friendly sky factors are divided into abiotic, biotic, anthropogenic.

environmental education - the formation of a person's conscious attitude to the natural environment in order to protect and rationally use natural resources.

Endemics- plant or animal species not found anywhere elsede, except for the given locality (mainland, countries, regions, seas, etc.).

Entomology- the science of insects.

Entomophages- organisms that feed on insects.

Erosion- the process of destruction and beveling of soils by water and wind, leading to a decrease in their fertility and a violation of the role of soils in the circulation of substances in the biosphere.

Ethology- the science of the biological foundations of animal behavior.

UNEP- United Nations Environment Program. An intergovernmental program proclaimed by the UN Stockholm Conference on Environmental Protection (1972) and approved by the UN General Assembly in 1973. Focused on critical issues state of the art environment (combating desertification, protecting the oceans, tropical rainforests, etc.).

UNESCO- intergovernmental organization - a specialized agency of the United Nations for education, science and culture.

Layered- dismemberment of the plant community into th horizontal layers located at different heights above the ground.