The increase in density and a decline of macro-porosity in a soil that impairs the functions of both the top- and subsoil, and impedes roots penetration and water gaseous exchanges. (FAO. 2022. The State of the World’s Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture – Systems at breaking point. Main report. Rome. https://doi.org/10.4060/cb9910en)
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Affected soils become less able to absorb rainfall, thus increasing runoff and erosion. Plants have difficulty in compacted soil because the mineral grains are pressed together, leaving little space for air and water, which are essential for root growth. Burrowing animals also find a hostile environment, because the denser soil is more difficult to penetrate.
Soil conservation is a combination of all methods of management and land use that safeguard the soil against depletion or deterioration by natural or human-induced factors. It most often attempts to ensure that soil does not erode and wash into streams and lakes or blow away in the wind, but it also involves the protection of the soil from damage by machinery (e.g., compaction) or by harmful changes to its chemistry (e.g., acidification or salinization). (Acton, D., et al. (2015) Soil Conservation. Encyclopédie canadienne [Consulté le 14/03/25] https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/soil-conservation)
A sufficiently large volume of soil containing a large number of pores, such that the concept of mean global properties is applicable. (http://web.ead.anl.gov/resrad/datacoll/soildens.htm)
Soil fertility: the ability of a soil to sustain plant growth by providing essential plant nutrients and favourable chemical, physical, and biological characteristics as a habitat for plant growth. (The international Code of Conduct for the sustainable use and management of fertilizers, FAO 2019 http://www.fao.org/3/ca5253en/CA5253EN.pdf)
The knowledge, skills, competencies and attributes embodied in individuals that facilitate the creation of personal, social and economic well-being. (TEEB. 2018. TEEB for Agriculture & Food: Scientific and Economic Foundations Report. Geneva, Switzerland, UN Environment. https://teebweb.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Foundations_Report_Final_October.pdf)
Good management of soils assures that mineral elements do not become deficient or toxic to plants, and that appropriate mineral elements enter the food chain. (http://www.fao.org/soils-portal/about/all-definitions/en/)
The process of creating genetically identical organisms by nuclear transplantation. (FAO. 2015. The Second Report on the State of the World’s Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, edited by B.D. Scherf & D. Pilling. FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture Assessments. Rome (available at http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4787e/index.html).)
In mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of stochastic processes, a harmonic function is a twice continuously differentiable function f : U → R, where U is an open subset of Rn, that satisfies Laplace's equation. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_function)
Thiobarbituric acid is an organic compound and a heterocycle. It is used as a reagent in assaying malondialdehyde (the TBARS assay of lipid peroxidation). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiobarbituric_acid)
The study of the behaviour of both soils and surface rocks, especially in relation to the foundations of buildings. (UNBIS. 2025. SOIL MECHANICS http://metadata.un.org/thesaurus/1006023)
Cell culture is a collection of techniques and resources in which cells that were part of an organism are growth in an artificial controlled environment. (Arango MT, Quintero-Ronderos P, Castiblanco J, et al. Cell culture and cell analysis. In: Anaya JM, Shoenfeld Y, Rojas-Villarraga A, et al., editors. Autoimmunity: From Bench to Bedside [Internet]. Bogota (Colombia): El Rosario University Press; 2013 Jul 18. Chapter 45. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK459464/)
