Glossary of Scientific Terms
AC-soils - soils consisting of humic horizon A, developed directly on the
mother substrate - horizon C, e.g. black earth, rendzina, ranker.
Barrande "colonies" - blocks of younger rocks folded into older formations,
containing - contrary to ambient strata - younger fauna which Barrande
defined as colonies of species newly propagating amidst older communities.
[A] [B]
[C] [D] [E]
[F] [G] [H]
[I] [K] [L]
[M] [N] [O]
[P] [R] [Ř]
[S] [T] [V]
[X]
A
Acidophilous - organism requiring an environment, poor in basic substances,
in the first place calcium.
Allochthonous - non-indigenous, coming from another site, secondarily relocated,
such as cretaceous fossils relocated into younger alluvial deposits.
Alluvium - older term for Holocene (the period following the Ice Age);
in English and Russian literature the alluvial deposits of water courses.
Anthropic - influenced or generated by human activities.
Arboretum - specialized park comprizing a collection of various wood species.
Arenic - mostly consisting of particles of sand size (0.05 - 2 mm).
Archeophyte - plant transferred to our territory in prehistoric time and
either domesticated or grown wild.
Aspect - in plant ecology the appearance of a plant community in a certain
period. For instance, in a leaf tree wood the Spring aspect is determined
by the early blossoming plants such as the snow drop, hollow-root birth-wort
or lesser celandine which disappear entirely in other seasons and are replaced
with the species with lower insolation requirements, such as Prenanthes
purpuresa, the ragwort (Senecio nemorensis) or the stinging nettles.
Autochthonous - indigenous, original, originated on the spot (antonym:
allochthonous).
B
Biocentre - site or group of sites in the landscape the state and scope
of which enables a permanent existence of a natural or near-nature ecosystem;
its purpose is to conserve biodiversity (biofund, gene fund) of the given
landscape (see also diversity, gene fund).
Biocoenosis - set of organisms interconnected by mutual links and bound
with a certain environment (site).
Biospheric reserve - usually a large-area protected territory incorporated
into the international UNESCO network; its purpose is the protection and
research of samples of conserved landscapes, both natural and marked by
human activities (in the Czech Republic e.g. the protected landscape area
of Křivoklát, Pálava, Třeboň); it is not a category protected under the
Act No. 114/1992 CoL.
Biotope - area with uniform environment inhabited by a homogenous set of
organisms (a biocoenosis).
C
Calcareous tufa - sediment consisting of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) incrustations
precipitated from calcareous springs and spring brooks. If forming a strong
porous rock, it is called travertine.
Calcareous tufa cascade - a floodplain or slope step consisting of loose
calcareous tufa, possibly partly of travertine, precipitated from calcareous
waters.
Climax - balanced community (biocoenosis) the composition and function
of which are in dynamic equilibrium with inanimate environment.
Coenosis - community of organisms interconnected by mutual relations and
inhabiting a certain area (see also: (biocoenosis).
Cultivar - artificially cultivated variant of a decorative or utilitarian
plant.
Cultural - influenced or generated by purposive human activities, e.g.
settled landscape with fields, settlements and woods.
D
Dealpine - denomination of the species which receded into high mountains
after the Ice Age (in Holocene) and have been preserved on lower elevations
only on isolated sites (in shaded and cold environment) as relics; initially
high mountain species driven into lower elevations by the Ice Age.
Deluvium - slope substances, usually loams with rock fragments, accummulated
as the foot of slopes and in depressions due to slope transport.
Discordance - discordant position of superimposed formations resulting
from discontinued sedimentation, e.g. the horizontally placed Cretaceous
formations on top of folded Palaezoic rocks (Vidoule, Petřín).
Disharmonic folding - mutually different deformations of the strata of
different physical properties, originated in the framework of the same
folding process, such as the intensively folded platy Lochkov limestones
on top of the rough bank Slivenec limestones showing minor deformations
only (Radotín valley, Barrandov rocks, etc.).
Diversity - variety, differentiation, diversification of landscapes, sites,
species; wealth of natural components in a certain area; at present it
is dropping due to human activities resulting in the disappearance of certain
species and certain site types, such as wetlands, river pools, etc.
E
Enclave - separate area surrounded with different environment.
Endemite - organism occurring exclusively in a limited area, e.g. in a
certain mountain range.
Epigenetic - a valley started in less durable rocks and subsequently continuing
in different hard rocks regardless of their structure, such as the Šárka
Brook cut, at present penetrating the hard lydite rocks in the direction
once started in the upper Cretaceous strata.
Eubasic - rich in bases, especially calcium and magnesium.
Exposition - orientation to the four cardinal points incl. slope inclination,
i.e. all components influencing the quantity of incident solar radiation.
F
Facies - development, i.e. a set of rock characteristics conditioned by
the environment of its origin: for instance, the Cretaceous sandstones
appear both in the marine 200(salt-water) facies and in the limnic (fresh-water)
facies.
Forest management plans - instrument of forest owner, drafted for a period
of ten years, as a rule. The plan contains obligatory provisions regulating
the maximum total volume of tree felling and the minimum quota of improvement
and strenthening wood species in forest renovation. In case of State and
communal forests another obligatory indicator is the minimum area of improvement
interventions in the woods below 40 years of age. As 80% of specially protected
areas are situated on forest land, the forest management plans are of great
significance for nature protection in these areas.
Forest management unit - according to previous legislation a territorial
unit of organizational forest break-up for which a forest management plan
was drafted. The Forest Act No. 289/1995 does not use this term; it states
merely that a forest management plan may be drafted for the forests of
maximum area of 20 000 ha.
Fossil - extinct, conserved in fossilized state.
G
Gene fund - genetic fund, sum of genetic information provided by a set
of representatives of individual species in a certain territory; its conservation
is important for the cultivation e.g. of forest wood species.
Gley - soil permanently influenced by the fluctuation of the ground water
table; typical is its grey-green colour.
Gleyfication - characteristics of the soils due to frequent waterlogging
with ground water. 201
H
Hard floodplain wood - floodplain woods the skeleton of which consists
of oaks, ashes, limes, maples and above all elms, bound with a higher floodplain
level flooded only by very high waters, with a deeper ground water level
and well developed, usually brown soils of vega type. They are represented
by moist hornbeam and oak woods on the highest floodplain levels, possibly
on lower terraces.
I
Introduction - planting or transfer of a species of foreign origin to natural
environment. For instance, transfer of false acacia and musk rat from North
America to Europe.
Inversion - local climate influenced by the inversion of climatic zones;
moist and cold conditions prevail at the bottom of a deep valley, while
its upper edges are warm and dry.
L
Lithology - science of rocks concerned particularly with macroscopic properties
of sediments.
Lithostratigraphy - stratigraphy based on strata composition.
Lithostratigraphic scale - chronological sequence of lithostratigraphic
units.
M
Macrozoobenthos - macroscopic organisms inhabiting the floors of water
courses and water pools, such as shellfish.
Management - active care of protected areas, incl. e.g. the elimination
of undesirable wind-swept wood species. 202
Mezophyticum - region of flora between thermophyticum and oreophyticum;
characteristic plants include lady's smock (Cardamine sp.) and perennial
honesty (Lunaria sp.).
Mezotrophic - environment (soil, water) with medium nutrient content.
Micritic - very fine-grained limestone of particle size below 0.063 mm.
Mull - permanent form of humine soil chemically firmly bound with mineral
soil components, significant e.g. for black earths.
Mull rendzina - rendzina with incipient mull formation.
N
Neophyte - a plant brought to our territory in historical to present period
and gradually growing wild or domesticating here, such as the giant knotweed
(Heracleum mantegazzianum).
Nitrophilous - requiring higher nitrogen content in the soil, such as the
stinging nettles and numerous weeds.
O
Oligobasic - soils with low content of basic elements, such as calcium
or magnesium.
Oligotrophic - environment (soil, water) with low nutrient content.
P
Pararendzina - huminocarbonate AC-soil on mixed substrates with a marked
quota of carbonate lime, e.g. on sandy marlites or calcareous shales.
Phenomenon - in ecology a set of specific processes and sites with characteristic
plant and animal species conditioned by a specific substrate and relief
of a certain area (see also: 203river phenomenon).
Phytophagous - living on plant food.
Phytogeography - science of geographic
propagation of plants.
Podzolization - soil-forming prodess, washing of all weathered and soluble
particles out of the upper soil horizon which finally comes to consist
of clearly washed particles of resistant minerals (chiefly quartz) only
and acquires a light ashy to whitish colour; at the top it is covered with
acid raw humus, at the bottom it is coloured brown with precipitated iron
hydroxide. The product of the process is the podzol, a soil type characteristic
of colder, moist regions with light sandy substrates (in the Czech Republic
in montane and some sandstone regions).
Protoranker - initial stage of ranker formation.
Protorendzina - initial stage of rendzina formation.
Pseudogley - soil influenced by repeated waterlogging with precipitations
water; it acquires brown colour with light grey and rusty marble pattern.
R
Ranker - soft AC-soil on top of non-calcareous rocks (analogy of rendzina).
Recent - species existing at present (opposite to extinct species the remains
of which are called fossils).
Refuge - a site enabling the survival of the species during a period with
unfavourable conditions, e.g. survival of thermophilous species during
the Ice Age.
Regional plans of forest development - a methodological instrument of State
forest policy, recommending the principles of forest management. They are
commissioned and 204approved by the respective Ministry. The necessary
prerequisite for their approval is the binding statement of the central
State administration authority for nature protection concerning the introduction
of geographically alien forest wood species.
Relic - animal or plant species surviving from earlier periods with different
conditions, such as the species which existed optimally in the Ice Ages
(the bramble Rubus chamaemorus) in the Giant Mountains). These species
were initially more widespread geographically, but their area has diminished
substantially.
Rendzina - humicarbonate AC-soil on limestones and dolomites with A-horizon
of dark colour, usually containing numerous fragments of the mother rock.
River phenomenon - a variagated set of specific plant and animal communities
conditioned by slope articulation, fresh outcops of various rocks and considerable
differences of microclimate in deeply cut valleys, typically developed,
e.g. in the valley of the Vltava and the Berounka (see also: phenomenon,
inversion).
Ruderal - plants and animals seeking rubbish dump and dust heap environment.
S
Soft floodplain wood - mostly willow and poplar floodplain woods bound
with lower, frequently flooded floodplain levels on less developed gley
and alluvial soils with a high ground water level.
Stratigraphic profile - exposure showing the sequence of strata and their
mutual relations.
Stratotype - basic point for the definition of formations or an accurate
determination of the boundary of two stratigraphic units valid on broader,
possibly universal scale. By way of example it is possible to mention the
stratotype of the Silurian/Devonian boundary on the Klonk in the Bohemian
Karst.
Subatlantic - species living in the maritime climatic zone of Western and
Northwestern Europe and extending to those parts of Europe which are influenced
by ocean climate.
Subcontinental - species living in the region of continental climate of
Eastern Europe, characterized by warm, dry summers and hard winters, extending
westwards to the lower regions of Central Europe the climate of which approaches
East European conditions.
Succession - strict sequence of individual biocoenosis until the definite
stage has been reached which is in equilibrium with the given environment
and remains more or less stable in the long run; by way of example it is
possible to mention the successive settlement of dumps by plant communities,
the overgrowing of fallow fields, unmown meadows, etc.
Synantropic - seeking sites heavily influenced by man.
T
Tectonics - interior structure of the earth crust.
Thermophilous - loving warm conditions.
Thermophyticum - area of thermophilous flora, characterized e.g. by the
occurrence of the hairy oak, the cornelian cherry, the burning bush or
Loranthus europaues.
Transgression - deposits of the sea successively flooding the land as a
result of which younger strata cover greater areas than older strata.
V
Vega - brown or reddish floodplain soil characteristic of hard floodplains
of major rivers, such as the "red soil" of the Elbe basin.
X
Xerothermal - loving dry and warm conditions.
Xylophagous - feeding on wood mass (e.g. the larvae of black insects).