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Home , Biological organisation

Synthetic Glossary

by Elena Giglio

Entries or abbreviations , quality or measure Definition or short explanation Adaptive Physics System able to modify itself and to define its proper of environmental pertaining perturbation, specifying the admissibility of the different environmental constraints Alliance Phytosociology Taxonomic level superior to association Allometry Forestry The quantitative relation between the size of a part and the whole in a series of related differing in size Association Phytosociology Vegetational— or : a plant presenting a defined floristic composition in relation to specific climatic and edaphic conditions. It represents a vegetation type having a taxonomic name with the Latin suffix—etum Attractor A geometrical object towards which the trajectory of a dynamic system converges in the course of Biological spectrum The whole of the hierarchic levels of organisation on . Approached by four different points of view, completely and unified by landscape bionomics Biomass, plant Ecology pB. The dry weight or the volume above ground of the individuals of a plant in a given area Bionomics Bionomics Synonymous of “biological-integrated ecology.” The study of the biological- environmental laws of as a of hyper-complex BTC Bionomics [Mcal/m2/year] Biological territorial capacity of vegetation. The flux of that a system dissipates to maintain its equilibrium state and its organisational level. Proportional to the state of metastability of the system BTC Classes Bionomics (I to IX) Nine standard ranges of BTC values, corresponding to different sets of vegetation formations, available to indicate the landscape and functions CBSt Bionomics Concise bionomic state of vegetation. It relates the maturity level and the bionomic quality to check the bionomic efficiency of phytocoenosis (continued)

V. Ingegnoli, Landscape Bionomics Biological-Integrated Landscape Ecology, 425 DOI 10.1007/978-88-470-5226-0, # Springer-Verlag Italia 2015 426 Synthetic Glossary

Entries or abbreviations Field, quality or measure Definition or short explanation CLD Bionomics Complex landscape diversity. Synthetic index obtained by multiplying the three main indexes (structural  functional  apparatus) of the landscape Complex LU Bionomics Interacting disposition of simple, recurring and structuring LU (see), the origin of which pertains to the same geomorphic group of processes Copying and... The first portion of the processes necessary to beget a new living entity, related to hereditary characters for an individual, and to propagule banks and ecological memory for an ecocoenotope ...Coding Biology The second portion of the processes necessary to beget a new living entity, essential to transfer significance, not only information: they give the rules of semantics, of reciprocity, etc. to be applied to the copied genetic sequences or some landscape transformation processes to express the life Deterministic chaos Mathematics Non-random systems highly sensitive to initial conditions which lead to diverging outcomes Determinism Philosophy Principle establishing that the dynamic state of a system in a certain time is completely defined by its dynamic state at a given initial moment and by its interaction with the environment. Causality Dynamics (of a system) Physics, ecology System dynamics, or movement of a system. The shift of a system from a state condition A (at time t) to a state condition B (at time t1) within its proper of the phases (that is its field of existence) Disturbance Ecology Synonymous with perturbation. A process, or event, able to direct the structuring of an ecological system and to be incorporated by it Ecocoenotope Bionomics Multifunctional entity, representing the elementary unit of integration of the community, the and the microchore (spatial contiguity characters) in a definite geographic locality. Part of the territory that is uniform throughout its extent in landform, soil and vegetation. Tessera of the basic mosaic Ecoiatra Bionomics Physician of the from the landscape level up to the whole Earth, expert connoisseur and researcher on their health state and on the Laws of Nature. To be understood in a Hippocratic sense (continued) Synthetic Glossary 427

Entries or abbreviations Field, quality or measure Definition or short explanation Ecological control of human Bionomics Control exerted in many cases—even culture when the process seems to have other origins, so trough an unconscious transmission of needs— on human culture, on human way of thinking or taking strategic decision (etc.), by natural Laws to balance some strong changes affecting directly or indirectly Nature itself Part of the ecocoenotope concerning the functional relations between its component communities and the abiotic factors of their environment Ecotissue Bionomics The ecological of the landscape, as the weft and the warp in weaving or the cells in a histologic tissue. Multidimensional conceptual structure representing the hierarchical intertwining, in past, present and future, of the ecological upper and lower biological levels and of their relationships in the landscape Ecotissue model Bionomics The iterative integration of all the simple and complex mosaics (the vegetational one being the basis), of correlated arguments, bonds and information concerning the landscape, at different spatial and temporal scales, guided and hierarchically ordered by the biological laws governing each specific landscape Ecotope Bionomics The smallest unitary landscape element, multidimensional, that owns all the structural and functional characters and properties of the concerned landscape. Minimum system of interdependent ecocoenotopes determined by the topographical recurrence, the geomorphologic origin, the functional configuration and role within the landscape Emerging property principle Physics, bionomics Principle asserting that “...an organic whole/system (a living entity too) is more complex than the sum of its parts...” and that “...the characters of the system are the consequence of the way in which its elements organise themselves”. Already cited by EP Odum but not yet understood completely, becoming one of the mainstay of the scientific concept of landscape (continued) 428 Synthetic Glossary

Entries or abbreviations Field, quality or measure Definition or short explanation Environmental rehabilitation Bionomics Updating of the concepts of sustainability strategy (of a status quo), mitigation and restoration (of a status quo ante) related to an human action in a landscape. It consists of the elaboration of a therapeutic course for a LU (or portion) —through the hierarchical compatibility and integration of landscape health needs and human needs—focused on the rehabilitation of one/more functions Epistemology Philosophy The study of the human knowledge. From the Greek episte¯me¯ (“knowledge”) and logos (“reason”). Along with metaphysics, logic and ethics, it is one of the four main branches of philosophy. In Europe mainly related with the philosophy of science (the) fittest vegetation (for...) Bionomics The most suitable or suited vegetation to the specific and geomorphic conditions of a certain, limited, period of time in a certain defined place, for the main range of incorporable disturbances (including man’s), in natural and not natural conditions. Patchy in a landscape HH Bionomics Human . Area when human live and work permanently, limiting the self-regulation capability of natural systems. Limited to human and semi-human LU, ecotopes and apparatuses, may contain a small percentages of natural habitat. Not to be intended and measured as in geographical and urban planning sense Incompressible information Mathematics The term “information” might be misleading, as it depends on the concept of “compressibility.” In the Algorithmic Information Theory, the information content of a string is equivalent to the length of the shortest possible “self- contained representation” (i.e. a program) of that string. Following this theory, the complex specified information (CSI) is the “incompressible” information, which cannot be synthetised in a more simple form or rule Integration (hierarchical) Bionomics Combination of data, simple and complex elements, models and information related to a living system, ordered on the biological basis of their different degree of importance within a defined contest. For each system it need its history + its scale + its context to be known (continued) Synthetic Glossary 429

Entries or abbreviations Field, quality or measure Definition or short explanation LaBiSF Bionomics Landscape bionomic survey of . The new bionomic method proposed to study the component, currently seeing as two cornerstones: the study of faunal sensitivity and the study for SHf, similar to what is already in depth for human populations LaBiSHH Bionomics The new bionomic method to analyse the main components and characters linked with the concept of human habitat LaBiSV Bionomics Landscape bionomic survey of vegetation. The new bionomic methodology able to determine the state of normality of the ecological parameters of different types of vegetation, to compare the ecological status of natural and man-made vegetated tesserae and to measure the concept of biodiversity at the landscape level (diversity of biological organisation of the context) Landscape Bionomics A proper level of the of life organisation between the ecocoenotope level and the ecoregion level, thus a concrete living entity Landscape apparatus Bionomics Complex configuration of multifunctional patches (set of tesserae and/or ecotopes, even not connected) performing a principal dominant within the ecotissue Living entity Biology, bionomics System presenting the main characters of life. It is synonymous of and it is valid at all scales Living system Biology It includes both biological systems and environmental systems. An ecological system can be considered a hybrid concept in this sense LTpE Bionomics Landscape type evaluation. The bionomic index able to classify the landscape types in relation to HH, NH, Carrying capacity, BTC and agriculture + forestry elements LU (simple) Ecology, bionomics Landscape unit. Eco-bio-noo-geodistrict, or portion of the landscape, owning peculiar structural/functional properties and well-defined (even if sometimes as functional gradient) boundaries, within the entire landscape; not always recognisable and delineable without appropriated structural and/or functional studies. Integrated set of organised ecotopes Metastability , ecology, bionomy State of a system oscillating around a central position but susceptible to being diverted to another (metastable) equilibrium state, always far from the zero when concerning living systems (continued) 430 Synthetic Glossary

Entries or abbreviations Field, quality or measure Definition or short explanation Multidimensionality Bionomics Concept used to express the numerousness of dimensions (spatial, temporal, configurative, thematic, thermodynamic, informative, hierarchical, of integration, etc.) involved in a hyper-complex system like a landscape Multifunctionality Landscape ecology Ability of any landscape element to perform more ecological functions, even if with different intensity NH Bionomics Natural habitat. Natural LU, ecotopes and apparatuses dominated by natural components and biological processes, without direct human influence, capable of normal self-regulation: admitting a small share of HH Non-equilibrium Physics, chemistry, bionomics Thermodynamics of not-reversible thermodynamics processes, following a time-oriented arrows, expressing the richness of behaviours within a coherent of metastable systems Operative LU Bionomics Portion of one or more LU (see), even belonging to different landscape types, in accordance with the particular problem or function that must be investigated. Merely work-based, often linked to administrative (and not bionomical) boundaries Order Physics, mathematics, bionomics The character of always better organised systems, so the principle permitting the even not in contrast to the second law of thermodynamics. We have to distinguish between energetic and information order Selection (natural) Biology, ecology Often regarded as virtually the sole process of evolutionary change in Nature, in reality only one of the maintenance processes necessary to minimise errors in processes of copying Self-organising system Biology System able to affect or determine its own internal structure, on the basis of information and semeiotics deriving from biological or technological processes, received as or energy SH Bionomics Standard Habitat per capita. Reciprocal function of the “specific density”; the real relative proper habitat surface, even of different habitat types, at a specific biological entity’s disposal. The theoretic standard habitat, SH*, represents the minimum optimal habitat surface needed to sustain the individual (human or animal) (continued) Synthetic Glossary 431

Entries or abbreviations Field, quality or measure Definition or short explanation Tessera Landscape ecology The smallest homogenous unit visible at landscape scale and composing an ecomosaic. In landscape bionomics it corresponds to the ecocoenotope ψ Bionomics Structural diversity of an ecotope/LU, on the basis of the relative dominance of the different ecocoenotope types τ Bionomics Functional diversity of an ecotope or LU, on the basis of the relative dominance of the BTC standard classes ω Bionomics Complex diversity of a LU, on the basis of the relative dominance of the diverse landscape apparatus types σ Bionomics Carrying capacity of a living system, relates the real standard habitat per capita with the theoretical Minimum SH*; equal to the ratio SH/SH* bQ Bionomics Bionomic quality. It can be measured after a survey of a phytocoenosis through a parametric standard form, in proportion to the theoretical optimum; bQ can be expressed in % CHG, CON, DIS, ETN, EXR, Bionomics Abbreviation of different landscape GEO, PRD, PRT, RNT, RPD, apparatuses, expressing different RSD, RSL, SBS, SOU, STB, functions g-LM Bionomics General landscape metastability. This synthetic landscape magnitude considers the functional diversity of distribution of the BTC in a given LU and the amount of information linked to that composition MtL Bionomics Maturity level of a vegetation formation. It can be measured following the LaBiSV methodology