Glossary

Term	Definition
Anthropogenic Climate Change	Climate change caused or induced by human activity, usually associated with the release of greenhouse gases from industrial or agricultural activity.
Benthic	Ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water
Biosphere Integrity (Biodiversity Loss)	The capability of supporting and maintaining a balanced, integrated, adaptive community of organisms having a species composition, diversity, and functional organisation comparable to that of the natural habitat of the region.
Biogeochemical Flows	The flow of chemical elements and compounds between living organisms and the physical environment.
BP	Before Present.
Endorheic	Of or relating to interior drainage basins which do not flow to one of the Earth's major oceans, thus unlike normal basins that collect in rivers and flow to the ocean.
Freshwater Use	Generic term that groups all types of human uses of freshwater resources.
Isostasy	The equilibrium that exists between parts of the earth's crust, which behaves as if it consists of blocks floating on the underlying mantle, rising if material (such as an ice cap) is removed and sinking if material is deposited.
Land-system change	The spatial and temporal changes in the interplay of social and ecological systems in shaping land use and land cover.
NPP	Net Primary Production
Ocean Acidification	Refers to a reduction in the pH of the ocean over an extended period of time, caused primarily by uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere.
Phytoplankton	Phytoplankton, or microalgae, are similar to terrestrial plants containing chlorophyll and requiring sunlight in order to function. Most are buoyant and float in the upper part of the ocean
Regolith	A layer of loose material covering solid rock. It includes dust, soil, broken rock, and other related materials. It's present on Earth, Mars and other terrestrial planets and moons.
Stratospheric Ozone Depletion	Sometimes referred to as the 'Ozone Hole', it's the process of decline of ozone in the Earth's stratosphere (the ozone layer).