Soil Erosion Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Soil is e s sental for life. It is the top cover of the earth and home to numerous plants and animals. In addition, it is a very important food and mineral resource for humans. The soil covering the surface of the earth has taken millions of years to form. Soil appears to last forever, but every day soil particles are loosened by a process called erosion. Erosion is the displacement of solid particles from land, rocks, and minerals by the agents of water, ice, wind, and or gravity causing the soil to deteriorate. This process must be distinguished from weathering, which is the process of disintegration of soil and rock through direct or indirect contact with the atmosphere.

One of the most important types of soil erosion is water erosion-the removal of particles from the land by water. There are four steps in the water erosion process. The first step is splash erosion, which is the movement of small soil particles caused by the impact of raindrops on soil. The second step is sheet erosion, which is the result of heavy rain on bare soil where water flows as a sheet down any gradient, carrying soil particles; where precipitation rates exceed soil infiltration rates, runoff occurs and transports particles dislodged by the impact of raindrops. The third step is rill erosion, which results when surface runoff concentrates form small channels called rills. The fourth step in water erosion is gully erosion, which occurs when concentrated flows of water, formed by the coalescence of many rills, scour along a linear depression to create a trench or gully.

Another important type of soil erosion is wind erosion-the removal of soil particles from the surface by the force of wind. Fine material can be transported and deposited over long distances. This process of wind erosion, also known as eolian erosion, includes three stages that frequently occur at the same time. The first stage is suspension, which happens when fine soil particles are carried into the air and become atmospheric dust. The second stage is saltation, where dislodgement and movement of medium-sized particles is caused by their bouncing over the surface initiated by wind uplift and turbulence at the soil surface. The third and final stage is surface creep, where the largest or heaviest soil particles are rolled across the surface by wind force and by impacts from saltating processes.

Soil erosion is a natural process that is often healthy for the ecosystem, but it has been increased by human activities that make it occur much faster than under natural conditions, contributing to soil degradation. Soil erosion mostly due to over farming may cause two opposite events. On one hand, it can cause floods in intermediate zones of river valleys as well as reduction of downstream flow. However, in arid and semiarid areas, soil erosion due to over farming can result in drought and desertification-a process that implies great biodiversity loss and puts at risk the more than one billion people worldwide who are dependent on these lands for survival.

Activities such as construction, urbanization, grazing, forestry, agriculture, and surface mining modify the environment and contribute to soil erosion. One of the environmental impacts of these practices is the loss of vegetation cover. When vegetation and forests are removed, the soil is exposed to wind and water making it vulnerable to accelerated erosion and loss of fertility. The vegetation cover also acts as a sponge, retaining water from precipitation in order to gradually release it later, thus minimizing downstream floods as well as drought conditions. If the absorbent vegetation cover is removed, excess precipitation causes large runoff that can lead to floods.

The movement of equipment and the storage of materials on a construction site can compact the soils resulting in the loss of topsoil, minerals, and nutrients, and causes ugly cuts and gullies in the landscape. Plants also often have more difficulty growing in these sites because water from absorption by tree roots and soil aeration may be reduced.

The intensive use of soil for agriculture purposes often increases its erosion and, therefore, its sedimentation. In farming, soil erosion signifies a loss of the most fertile part of the soil, which contains most of the organic matter, and that means lost agricultural productivity. Moreover, agricultural irrigation techniques can contribute to soil salination because water contains salts that are left behind in the soil. In regions where overirrigation is practiced, these salts accumulate and concentrate, which causes soil degradation.

Another consequence derived from poor land use practice is contamination. Soil used for agricultural practices contains insecticides, herbicides, and pesticides that percolate and decrease the biodiversity within. These chemicals infiltrate in the soil and are taken up by the roots of the target plant, and the excess can be carried away by surface water or the wind.

Another source of soil contamination is derived from industry activities, which emit thousands of effluents that discharge directly into the soil without previous treatment. They infiltrate the soil and mix with groundwater. The most hazardous industrial emissions are: Mine emissions, which contain toxic sulphide and metallic elements; automobile industry emissions, which include petroleum hydrocarbons, oil and grease, compounds from gasoline, motor oil, antifreeze, and transmission fluids; and food industry emissions, which contain organic pollutants. Other industries create harmful soil-contaminating emissions that contain aluminum, cadmium, chromium, lead, and mercury.

Household waste can eventually contaminate the soil if it is not managed correctly. Some household wastes such as yard waste, newspapers, plastics, and food wastes are not necessarily considered hazardous, but should still be disposed of properly. However, other products such as batteries, pigments, paints, solvents, oils, cleaners, glues, and pesticides if they are not used, stored, or disposed of properly can contaminate soil.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that a significant quantity of high quality soil, mostly in Africa and Asia, will be degraded by 2010 unless better methods of land management based on sustainable, productive, and efficient use of soil are adopted. Preventing soil erosion requires political, economic, and technical changes. These have to be implemented taking into account the most effective and economical way of controlling such problems without disturbing the quality of the environment.

There are a lot of strategies that economic sectors can implement in order to reduce soil erosion and maintain life-giving nutrients that are found in the soil. On building construction sites, some practices are used to control erosion and sediment caused by soil compaction. Compaction, once it has occurred, is difficult and expensive to correct, but there are some prevention methods that are used to minimize its impact such as the reduction of traffic in the area, the use of barriers to filter coarse sediment, and locating the storage areas away from tress. Once compaction has occurred, mulching with wood chips or gravel can reduce its effect.

Agricultural and industrial sectors can also implement strategies to use clean technologies and reduce contamination by their operations. Industry can reduce soil erosion by controlling waste and toxic discharge, thus preventing soil infiltrations. In agricultural practices, soil erosion can be reduced by rotating crops, minimizing tillage, building terraces on hillsides, decreasing the use of chemicals, reducing synthetic nitrogen use, and keeping the soil rich in humus and nutrients by using compost and manure and encouraging water infiltration to reduce water runoff. The planting of trees and maintenance of a good vegetative cover is also imperative.

The removal of soil contaminants, combined with the preventative use of geotextiles and synthetic blankets, which provide a protective barrier impermeable to contaminants, are a few ways of reducing the levels of contamination in the soil. Another way of reducing contamination levels is the use of the soil vapor technique, which involves the installation of wells and pipes in the soil through which soil contaminants are extracted. Other biological techniques include microbial or phyto remediation, using microbes or plants in degrading contaminants, and using composting techniques.

Protecting soil from erosion is essential to prevent the loss of soil productivity through loss of nutrients, water storage capacity, and organic matter. It is necessary and possible to prevent, reduce, or halt erosion and degradation of the soil using sustainable and conservation practices. The implementation of these practices requires changes in the economic-political approach, society’s attitudes, and cultural practices.

Bibliography:

Hanna Licht Al Kaisi, Resources Conservation Practices: Soil Erosion and Water Quality (Iowa State University, 2003);
Rose Eric, Land Husbandry. Components and Strategies (Food and Agriculture Organization, 1996);
Food and Agriculture Organization, Assessing Soil A Reference Manual (Editorial Group, 2000);
Heinegg et , Soil Contamination and Urban Agriculture. A Practical Guide to Soil Contamination Issues for Individuals and Groups (McGill University, 2002);
F. Leys, “Erosion by Wind, Effects on Soil Quality and Productivity,” in Encyclopedia of Soil Science (Marcel Dekker, Inc., 2002);
Scott, R. Mohtar, and G. Steinhard, Sustaining the Global Farm (2001);
Preston Sullivan, Sustainable Soil Soil Systems Guide (NCAT, 2004);
Wall, C.S. Baldwin, and I.J. Shelton, Soil Erosion: Causes and Effects (Canadian Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs, 2003).