Subject Guides: Plant & Soil Sciences: Background Information

General Information and Terminology

Use these resources, as well as dictionaries and encyclopedias, to learn about a topic and to find keywords and subject terms to use when searching indexes and databases.

AGROVOC Thesaurus
A searchable thesaurus of over 32,000 concepts related to agriculture, forestry, fisheries, food and related subjects. Developed by FAO and the Commission of the European Communities.
Compendium of Pesticide Common Names
A compendium of ISO (International Organization for Standardization) assigned names. Information includes chemical names, molecular formulae and Chemical Abstracts Registry Numbers.
Glossary of Soil Science Terms
Soil Science Society of America
On-line Glossary of Technical Terms in Plant Pathology
Edited by Dr. Phil A. Arneson, Department of Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology, Cornell University. Brief definitions, in many cases, accompanied by audio pronunciations.
Potato Variety Database
Compiled by the British Potato Council.