All about erosion, a comprehensive guide
Everything about erosion, a complete guide? Soil erosion is a complex process that depends on soil properties, ground slope, vegetation, and rainfall amount and intensity. According to Montgomery, modifications in land use are one of the most impactful ways of accelerating soil erosion. These changes then have a cascade effect as the loss of fertile topsoil cover sends millions of tons of sediments into lakes and reservoirs, changing ecosystems and impacting agricultural production and water quality. This has been the case with the Bo River in Vietnam. Despite these types of soil erosion, as we have briefly mentioned above, if it wasn’t for human activities, today’s soils would be less susceptible to erosion and more resilient. What are the human causes behind soil erosion then?
Bits of sand are picked up and carried off by the wind, which can then blast the sides of nearby rocks, buffing and polishing them smooth. On the seashore, the action of waves chips away at cliffs and rakes the fragments back and forth into fine sand. Plants and animals also take a heavy toll on Earth’s hardened minerals. Lichens and mosses can squeeze into cracks and crevices, where they take root. As they grow, so do the cracks, eventually splitting into bits and pieces. Critters big and small trample, crush, and plow rocks as they scurry across the surface and burrow underground. Plants and animals also produce acids that mix with rainwater, a combination that eats away at rocks.
Erosion, therefore, includes the transportation of eroded or weathered material from the point of degradation (such as the side of a mountain or other landform) but not the deposition of material at a new site. The complementary actions of erosion and deposition or sedimentation operate through the geomorphic processes of wind, moving water, and ice to alter existing landforms and create new landforms. Discover more information at erosion control guide.
Water-related forest ecosystem services include the provision, filtration and regulation of water, along with stream ecosystem support and water-related hazards control, e.g., soil protection from erosion and runoff (Bredemeier 2011). In this context, forest management practices that involve vegetation cover modifications may have a substantial impact on the provision of water-related ecosystem services (Ellison et al. 2012; Panagos et al. 2015b). Moreover, forest ecosystems interactions with water and energy cycles have been highlighted as the foundations for carbon storage, water resources distribution and terrestrial temperature balancing. Forest management may thus play a key role to meet climate change mitigation goals (Ellison et al. 2017).
Terracing is a method of carving multiple, flat leveled areas into hills. Steps are formed by the terraces which are surrounded by a mud wall to prevent runoff and hold the soil nutrients in the beds. More commonly found in lesser developed nations due to the difficulty of using mechanized farming equipment in the terraces. Very popular in Asia for planting rice. A more enhanced version of Contour Plowing, maximum water retention is achieved by taking into account all the watershed properties when making the contour lines. The Keyline refers to topographic features linked to water flow. This allows the water to run off to run directly into an existing water channel, and prevent soil erosion caused by the water.
