Defining Core Agricultural and Earth Science Terms

Key Agricultural and Geographical Concepts Explained

This document provides clear definitions for essential terms across agriculture, livestock management, and physical geography. Understanding these concepts is crucial for grasping land use, environmental systems, and global positioning.

Dehesa: Sustainable Agro-Pastoral System

An agricultural system characterized by large farm and livestock holdings, typically utilizing poor quality soils. It's a unique agroforestry system found in parts of Spain and Portugal, balancing grazing with tree cover.

Irrigation: Supplemental Water for Crops

A cultivation technique involving the artificial application of water to land or soil to assist in the growth of agricultural crops, landscapes, and the revegetation of disturbed soils, supplementing natural rainfall.

Farm: An Agricultural Holding

A set of agricultural plots or land units where agricultural products are cultivated, regardless of whether the land is owned or leased by the operator.

Sharecropping: Land Tenure System

An agricultural system of land tenure where a sharecropper, who works the land, gives a percentage of the crop yield to the landowner as rent, representing an indirect form of land ownership or tenancy.

Dispersed Rural Settlement

A form of rural settlement where individual houses or farmsteads are scattered across the landscape, each typically surrounded by its own fields of crops, forests, or grasslands, rather than clustered together in a village.

Fallow Land: Restoring Soil Fertility

In traditional farming practices, this refers to agricultural land left uncultivated for a variable period to allow the soil to recover its natural fertility and moisture content, often to prevent soil exhaustion.

Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is a common set of rules and subsidies governing agricultural activity within the member states of the European Union, aiming to ensure food security and support farmers.

Extensive Agriculture: Traditional Farming

A farming system characterized by the cultivation of large areas of land using traditional techniques and limited capital investment, typically resulting in lower yields per unit of land but often with less environmental impact.

Intensive Agriculture: High-Yield Farming

A farming system that utilizes modern techniques, such as fertilizers, advanced machinery, and improved crop varieties, to achieve high yields per unit of land, often requiring significant capital and resource input.

Extensive Livestock Farming

A stock farming system where animals are raised on large areas of natural pastures or rangelands, often utilizing stubble fields after harvest, common in regions like both wet and dry areas of Spain, emphasizing natural grazing.

Intensive Livestock Farming

A stock farming system characterized by raising a high density of animals in confined spaces, often utilizing specialized feed, modern veterinary techniques, and controlled environments to maximize production yields for food and other products.

Continental Shelf: Shallow Seabed Zone

The area of seabed that extends from the coast to a depth of approximately 200 meters, characterized by relatively shallow waters before the continental slope descends into the deep ocean, rich in marine life.

Fishing Ground: Productive Marine Areas

A specific area in a body of water, such as an ocean, lake, or river, known for its abundance of fish and other aquatic life, making it a productive location for fishing vessels to deploy their nets and gear.

Inshore Fishing: Coastal Techniques

The practice of catching fish using small-tonnage boats operating close to the coast, typically employing traditional or artisanal fishing techniques, often targeting species found in shallower waters.

Deep-Sea Fishing: Offshore Operations

The practice of catching fish using large-tonnage ships that operate far from the coast in open ocean waters, often employing modern and industrialized fishing techniques to target deep-water species.

Isthmus: Land Bridge Formation

A narrow strip of land with water on both sides, connecting two larger landmasses, such as two continents or a peninsula with a continent, often significant for migration and trade routes.

Parallels of Latitude: Earth's Horizontal Lines

Imaginary circles on the Earth's surface that run parallel to the Equator and are perpendicular to the Earth's axis. The main parallel, or 0°, is the Equator, which divides the Earth into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

Meridians of Longitude: Earth's Vertical Lines

Imaginary semicircles on the Earth's surface that extend from the North Pole to the South Pole. The Prime Meridian, or 0° longitude, passes through Greenwich, a town near London, serving as the reference for measuring east and west.

Latitude: Angular Distance from Equator

The angular distance of any point on Earth's surface, measured in degrees, north or south from the Equator, ranging from 0° at the Equator to 90° at the poles.

Longitude: Angular Distance from Prime Meridian

The angular distance of any point on Earth's surface, measured in degrees, east or west from the Prime Meridian (0° longitude), which passes through Greenwich, ranging from 0° to 180°.