abiotsust

Abiotsust is a neologism used in environmental science and policy discussions to describe a framework for evaluating and guiding the sustainable management of abiotic components of ecosystems. The term blends abiotic, referring to nonliving elements such as air, water, minerals, soil, climate, and energy, with sustainability, emphasizing long-term viability and responsible stewardship.

Origin and usage have been informal and regional, with some scholars employing abiotsust to foreground the nonbiological basis of ecosystem health. It is not widely standardized in major scientific lexicons, but it appears in policy briefs, interdisciplinary reports, and academic discussions as a way to separate abiotic considerations from biotic factors in sustainability analysis.

Scope and indicators commonly associated with abiotsust include soil quality and mineral nutrient cycles, groundwater and surface water integrity, atmospheric conditions and climate stability, energy inputs and resource stocks, and the accumulation or reduction of abiotic stressors such as pollution and radiation. Proposed indicators aim to capture abiotic stock and flow dynamics, resilience of nonliving systems, and the dependency of living communities and human infrastructure on stable abiotic conditions.

Applications involve urban planning, water resource management, land use and mining policy, energy strategy, and climate adaptation planning. Critics note that abiotsust can overlap with existing sustainability and resilience frameworks and risk oversimplifying complex socioecological interactions or challenging measurement in practice.

See also: sustainability, resilience, ecosystem services, environmental accounting, geoscience.