Glossary of basic agroecological terms, Chapter IV

Glossary of basic agroecological terms, Chapter I

Glossary of basic agroecological terms, Chapter II

Glossary of basic agroecological terms, Chapter III

Without further ado let's get started!

• Agricultural pollution: when this term is used, it refers to the imbalance caused in natural ecosystems due to the indiscriminate use of toxic substances, which also generates negative effects on the biodiversity present in these natural spaces.

• Pollutant: this term refers to the substance or compound that can negatively affect ecosystems, these pollutants can be non-degradable as plastic containers or degradable as organic waste.

• Biological control: when talking about biological control, reference has been made to the use of organisms to control pests, for example, to control insect pests, other insect species that are natural controllers or microorganisms such as fungi and bacteria can be introduced into the ecosystem that you can control said pest through different mechanisms.

• Predation: with this term we do not refer to the action that some organisms have on others, for example, as one insects can feed on others, some these insects can become a biologic control mechanism when they attack others that cause damage to crops.

• Decomposition: generally this term is used within agriculture to indicate the transformation of organic matter to inorganic compounds that can be easily used by plants.

• Decomposers: when we talk about decomposers are those organisms that have the ability to transform a compound into others, until they transform them into simple substances, an example of this are soil microorganisms such as bacteria that transform organic matter into nutritious substances for plants.

• Greenhouse effect: this term refers to the increase in the temperature of the earth to keep it warm, it is a natural process where gases such as carbon dioxide, methane among others act, the high temperatures that are recorded today is due to the excessive accumulation of these gases which causes the earth to warm more.

• Liming: this term is used when agricultural lime is applied to the soil to reduce the acidity levels it presents and provide some lime to the crops.

• Epiphyte: this term is used to refer to plants that live on others using them as a support, without generating any type of competition that can cause them harm, an example of this are orchids, which develop very well on trees without competing for nutrients.

• Fertilization: this term refers to an agronomic practice that consists of the contribution of nutrients to the soil through the application of some products of organic origin or by default synthetic, this practice depending on the type of product, provides the soil with important organic matter also to maintain or improve the soil structure.

• Fertilizer: when the word fertilizer is mentioned, it is to refer to the product of organic or synthetic origin that will be applied to the soil, to supplement the nutrient deficiencies that the soil presents, these products can be compound or simple, for example the compounds are what contains several nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, known as NPK and the simple ones are those that contain a single nutrient.

• Phytophage: this term is used to refer to insect organisms that feed exclusively on plant species, sometimes crops are affected by the attack of these insects.

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• Duran, F. (S.f). Biological pest control. Latin group. Colombia.

• Mazparrote, S. and Delascio, F.(1998). Botany. Editorial Biosfera. Caracas: Venezuela.

• Mazparrote, S. and Padilla, L. (2005). Dictionary of Ecology. Biosphere. Caracas: Venezuela.

• School of Agroecology (2009). Compendium on agroecology. Volume II. Venezuela.

• Urbano, T. (2008). Engineering of plant production. Mundi-Press. Madrid: Spain.