58 of the ESS glossary’s terms, each with the part of the syllabus where you first meet it.
A for-profit company certified by the non-profit B Lab as meeting verified standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency.
The reading and analysis of published sources, theory and models carried out before an investigation, used to explain the environmental issue, justify the research question and support a prediction.
A graph that compares separate categories, such as countries or species, using bars of equal width with gaps between them, whose lengths show the value for each category.
A low dam or barrier with gates built across a river mouth or estuary, used to keep out seawater, store freshwater behind it or control flooding.
An international treaty, in force since 1992, that controls the movement of hazardous wastes between countries, especially from richer to poorer countries, and since 2019 covers plastic waste.
A survey of the environmental and social conditions of a site before a development begins, used to predict and later measure the project’s impacts and to suggest mitigation.
The storage of electricity as chemical energy in rechargeable cells, usually lithium-ion, so that it can be released to the grid very quickly when needed.
A graph that shows how a behaviour, such as smoking or meat eating, changes in a group over time, often annotated with the events or campaigns that may have influenced it.
Reproductive isolation caused by differences in courtship, mating calls, mating times or mate choice, so that populations living in the same area do not interbreed.
A transect along which quadrats are placed, either continuously or at regular intervals, to record abundance along an environmental gradient.
The value people place on passing a resource or ecosystem on intact to future generations.
A systematic distortion of data or results in one direction, arising from how samples are chosen, how questions are asked or how measurements are made.
A legally binding agreement between two states, often used to manage a shared river, lake, border region or migratory population.
The system of naming each species with two words, the genus name with a capital letter followed by the species name in lower case, both written in italics or underlined.
The increase in concentration of a persistent substance in an organism over its lifetime, because it is absorbed faster than it is broken down or excreted.
The capacity of a biologically productive area to generate an ongoing supply of renewable resources and to absorb its wastes; measured in global hectares.
The ethical view that all living organisms have intrinsic value and moral standing, because each pursues its own good through survival and reproduction.
The amount of dissolved oxygen consumed by microorganisms as they decompose the organic matter in a water sample, usually measured in mg per litre over five days at 20 °C.
The capacity of a material to be broken down by living organisms, mainly bacteria and fungi, into simple substances such as water, carbon dioxide, methane and mineral nutrients.
The total variety of life in an area or on Earth, studied at three levels: the diversity of habitats, the diversity of species and the genetic diversity within species.
A region with at least 1,500 endemic vascular plant species that has lost at least 70% of its original natural vegetation, making it both very rich and highly threatened.
A carbon removal method in which crops or trees are burned for energy and the carbon dioxide released is captured and stored underground, giving net removal from the atmosphere.
A fuel produced from recently living organic matter, such as wood, charcoal, crop residues, ethanol from sugar cane or maize, and biodiesel from vegetable oils.
The continuous movement of a chemical element such as carbon or nitrogen between living organisms and the atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere, which keeps the element available to living things.
A planetary boundary process covering human additions of nitrogen and phosphorus to the environment, mainly from fertilisers, which disrupt their natural cycles.
Waste that contains infectious agents or biological material that may harm humans, animals or the environment, such as used needles, dressings, blood and laboratory cultures.
The deliberate use of a living organism, such as a predator, parasite or pathogen, to reduce the population of a pest or invasive species.
The part of the circular economy in which biodegradable materials, such as food and wood, are cascaded into other uses and then returned safely to the soil by composting or anaerobic digestion.
The definition of a species as a group of organisms that can interbreed in nature and produce fertile offspring, and that are reproductively isolated from other such groups.
The increase in concentration of a persistent substance at each successive trophic level of a food chain, because biomass is lost in respiration while the substance is retained.
The mass of organic matter in an organism, population or trophic level, usually measured as dry mass per unit area, such as g m⁻² or kg m⁻².
A group of comparable ecosystems that have developed in similar climatic conditions in different parts of the world and so share similar vegetation structure and adaptations.
A change in where a biome occurs as the climate changes, generally a movement towards the poles and to higher altitudes as the climate warms.
An approach to designing buildings and urban spaces that increases people’s contact with nature, using living walls and roofs, plants, water features, natural light and natural materials.
The use of genetic resources or traditional knowledge from a country or community for commercial gain without their consent or a fair share of the benefits.
The part of the Earth where life exists, including the lower atmosphere, the oceans and fresh waters, and the soil and upper rocks; an ecological system made of individuals, populations, communities and ecosystems.
A sealed research facility in Arizona, USA, built to test a materially closed life-support system; its 1991–1993 mission showed how hard such a system is to keep in balance.
The state of the living part of the Earth system, including the diversity of genes and species and the ability of ecosystems to function; one of the planetary boundaries.
An area recognised by UNESCO that combines biodiversity conservation with sustainable development, divided into a protected core zone, a buffer zone and a transition zone.
A living component of an ecosystem that affects other organisms, such as food supply, predators, competitors, parasites, pathogens and mutualistic partners.
A scale that indirectly measures the quality of an environment, such as a river, from the pollution tolerance, diversity and relative abundance of the organisms living there.
Dark, light-absorbing particles of carbon (soot) from incomplete burning of fossil fuels and biomass, which warm the atmosphere and darken snow and ice when deposited on them.
The use of explosives to stun or kill schools of fish so they can be collected, a destructive and widely illegal method that shatters coral reefs.
A pattern of population change in which rapid growth overshoots the carrying capacity and is followed by a sudden crash, often because resources have been used up.
A biome of high mid-latitudes dominated by coniferous trees, with long cold winters, short mild summers and low productivity limited by temperature and the short growing season.
A garden where living plants are grown, labelled and studied for research, education and conservation, including collections of rare and threatened species.
A fishing method that drags a large cone-shaped net, weighted to stay in contact with the seabed, to catch fish and shellfish living on or near the bottom.
A graph showing the median, the lower and upper quartiles as a box, and the minimum and maximum (or outlier limits) as whiskers, used to compare distributions.
A highly concentrated salt solution, such as the waste water discharged by desalination plants, which is much saltier and denser than seawater.
A fertile, well-drained soil of temperate deciduous forest, with a deep, dark humus-rich A horizon mixed by earthworms over a brown, weakly leached B horizon.
The 1987 report Our Common Future by the UN World Commission on Environment and Development, chaired by Gro Harlem Brundtland, which gave the standard definition of sustainable development.
An area around the core of a protected area where activities compatible with conservation, such as research, education and ecotourism, are allowed, reducing pressure on the core.
The dry mass of soil per unit volume, including its pore spaces, usually in g cm⁻³; high values show compacted soil with little pore space.
Building low banks of earth or lines of stones along the contours of a field to trap run-off water and soil.
A high-capacity bus system with dedicated lanes, stations where passengers pay before boarding and level boarding, giving speeds and reliability close to a tram or metro at lower cost.
Meat from wild animals hunted for food, especially in tropical forests of Africa, Asia and South America, for household use or sale.
A model of the circular economy by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, showing materials looping back through a technical cycle on one side and a biological cycle on the other.
The unwanted animals caught unintentionally while fishing for a target species, such as juvenile fish, turtles, dolphins and seabirds, which are often discarded dead.