Discover useful terms and what they mean in Dorset’s local nature recovery strategy.
Biodiversity refers to the variety and amount of all life on Earth, this includes plants, animals, bacteria and fungi. For our planet to stay healthy we need a large variety of plants and animals. Increasing biodiversity is a key aim of nature recovery, as well as restoring natural processes and functioning ecosystems. This means not just having pockets of nature-rich areas around the county, but having thriving natural habitats and ecosystems that support both people and wildlife.
Citizen science is when members of the public get involved in collecting and analysing data relating to the natural world, often as part of collaborative research projects with professional scientists.
Climate emergency refers to a declaration acknowledging the urgent need to act on the causes and impacts of climate change and prevent irreversible environmental damage.
Nature emergency refers to a declaration acknowledging the urgent need to restore and protect ecosystems to halt the decline in wildlife and natural habitats.
The climate and nature emergencies are closely linked. Climate change is accelerating the decline of nature while the loss of natural habitats makes it harder to combat climate change. Both emergencies have been caused by human activity, such as releasing emissions, damaging habitats, and using too many natural resources.
An ecological network is a system of interacting species within an ecosystem that are connected by various relationships. For nature recovery, connected nature areas are more valuable to the natural environment than individual, fragmented parts.
A nature network is an ecological network that also delivers ecosystem services for people. The Nature Recovery Network is a growing national network of wildlife-rich places to increase and restore nature in England.
Ecosystems are the interactions between a community of plants, animals plants, animals, bacteria and other organisms that live in an area, and their interaction with the non-living components of that place, like the climate, soil and water. People and wildlife are all part of ecosystems, and small changes from human activity can disrupt the whole ecosystem.
Ecosystem services are the benefits that humans derive from natural ecosystems, such as clean air, water, food, climate regulation, and recreation.
Food chains show how plants and animals get their energy, with arrows showing the flow of energy between each living things that eats the other. Food chains usually start with organisms, like green plants, that produce their own food, followed by animals or organisms that only eat plants, then predator animals that eat other animals are at the top of the chain.
Fragmentation is when habitats are broken up into smaller, isolated patches, which can make species movement difficult, reduce biodiversity, and be hard for nature to recover.
Habitats are where plants, animals, fungi and other organisms live. Habitats have the resources and conditions that a species needs, for example food, temperature, light and soils. Some individual species have very specific requirements, others can exist or even thrive in a range of different habitats. Broad habitat types, such as rivers and mixed woodland, are categories used to describe places with certain characteristics made up of vegetation and wildlife.
Semi-natural habitats are those that have been changed in some ways by human activity, but still retain much of their biodiversity and natural processes.
A layer is a set of information that is ‘layered’ over a map to allow us to view the information geographically, for example, county boundaries. Multiple layers can be stacked on top of each other and coloured differently to view different sets of information at once and see how they interact.
National landscapes are designated areas protected for the benefit of the nation and local people and wildlife. Dorset is covered by 2 national landscapes: Dorset National Landscape and Cranborne Chase National Landscape.
Natural capital refers to the natural assets, like soil, water, and biodiversity, which are essential for supporting ecosystems and driving nature recovery efforts.
Nature-based solutions are actions which sustainably use nature to provide environmental or societal benefits and ecosystem services, while also helping enhance or restore the natural assets and ecosystems.
Non-native species are animals and plants that have arrived in the UK from abroad through trade or accidental transport on planes and ships. Many are harmless, but invasive non-native species are those that spread and outcompete native species, threatening habitats and ecosystems.
Resilience in nature refers to the ability of ecosystems to withstand and recover from disturbances, such as extreme weather, pollution, or human activities.
Species are plants, animals, fungi and single-celled organisms that have similar characteristics and can reproduce. Similar species can be grouped into sub-groups called taxa. For example, humans, hedgehogs and horses are all different species but can be grouped together within the taxon of mammals.
Sustainable means being able to continue doing something for a long period of time, with little or no damage to the environment. Using nature’s limited resources sustainably is about meeting our current needs without harming wildlife or preventing future generations from meeting their needs.
Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) control surface water run off close to where it falls, combining a mixture of built and nature-based techniques to mimic natural drainage as closely as possible, and accounting for the predicted impacts of climate change. The type of system that would be appropriate will vary from small scale interventions such as permeable paving and soakaways that can be used in very small developments to larger integrated schemes in major developments.
Geodiversity is the variety of rocks, minerals, fossils, landforms, sediments and soils, together with the natural processes which form and alter them.
