'Examine the effects of the impact of human activity on soil\r'

'In the context of living in the modern world the environment is truly important to study and master(prenominal)tain. As technology advances the world we live in is changing, solely or sotimes these changes be disturbing the counterbalance of nature that has been well established for thousands of years. The solution that we are having on modify is some(prenominal) actually detrimental; wearing away is an reconcile problem all across the globe. I aim to investigate the imp subprogram that compassionate activity has had on primer coat, and evaluate solutions to the problem.\r\n ab initio it is important to look at what shag be damaged and what the find is to collys. The main threats include erosion, acidification, pollution, compaction, organic matter neediness and salinisation. The increasing amounts of fertilizers and other chemicals applied to soils since primer War II, has baffled great concern everyplace soil pollution. The application of fertilizers contai ning the primary nutrients, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, doesnt racetrack to soil pollution, the application of trace elements does. mho from industrial wastes has polluted soils in the past.\r\n involve this Ch. 22 Respiratory System\r\nWhen leadership arsenate was substance ab uptaked on harvest-festivals this had deadly make just now this is now prohibitedlawed ascribable to these. The application of pesticides also leads to short-term soil pollution. Ploughing was once a major erosion-causing problem. The way it used to be carried out was known as clean cultivation, which left field the topsoils exposed to all natural blistering problems. This was done by the use of the moldboard plow by farmers, now replaced by better ploughs, which leave a litter layer on the surface to foreclose erosion. Irrigation is the artificial watering of priming to rear programmet pay offth.\r\nThis happens across the globe in areas where the water budget is below the necessi tate amount. In dry areas, such as the southwestern United States, irrigation must be haveed from the time a crop is planted. In 1800 al almost 8. 1 billion hectares (about 20 one thousand million acres) were under irrigation, a figure that has risen to more than 222 million hectares (550 million acres) today. Irrigation, however, foot waterlog soil, or change magnitude a soils salinity to the point where crops are damaged or softened. The irrigation of arid kingdoms practically leads to pollution with salts.\r\nThis problem is now jeopardizing about one- tertiary of the worlds irrigated land. About a third of all soils in England and Wales go been determine as being at risk from water erosion. other(prenominal) careless erroneousness of human kind is to let overgrazing to occur. Overgrazing, which in time batch change grassland to desert, can be seen causing great problems in the USA. The dustbowl effect is evidence of this. It is believed by some historians that soil erosion has been an underlying cause in various population shifts and the retort of certain civilizations.\r\nRuins of towns and cities have been found in arid regions such as the desolate of Mesopotamia, which shows that agriculture was once widespread in the surrounding territory. To remedy these problems we have to act fast. In protecting soil we have to consider not only the land but also the land use and the pressures on it, and then find the chasten balance of how to help both the land and people. Often without the money coming in from industry and farmers the land that we need to carry on would have gone to waste anyhow and there money is preserving it already.\r\nFarmers have been expression for solutions for centuries, and in the Middle Ages in Britain and to present day crop rotation was a possible solution. This is where with various seasons contrary crops were used, and sometimes the field was left stark to recuperate. In modern rotation systems soil-building p lants are used. These crops hold and protect the plants during growth, and also when sundry(a) in to the realm provide much needed nutrients.\r\nSpecial methods for erosion get wind include contour farming, where the farmer follows the contours of slant lands, and ditches and terraces are constructed to reduce the runoff of water. This is especially useful in areas with high precipitation. Another soil-conservation method is the use of strip-cropping. This is the use of set up strips of crop and fallow land. This method is invaluable for make of wind erosion on semiarid lands that need to lie crop-free for goodly crop production.\r\nWithout human activities, losses of soil through erosion would in most areas probably be balanced by the formation of untested soil. On new land a layer of phytology protects the soil. When new industry is formed in an area the protective canopy of trees that would justification the ground from a lot of rainwater is destroyed which greatly s peeds up erosion of certain kinds of soils. Erosion is less dangerous with crops such as wheat, which cover the ground evenly, than with crops such as corn and tobacco, which grow in rows and have bare spaces.\r\nWhen ramblers go out in the countryside they cause another problem, trampling. Through repeated trampling the ground gets ruined and so do the plants, until walkers use alternate paths and also eventually ruin those as well. These methods are all very effective in combating erosion. They are rent into five categories, revegetation, erosion control, crop management, run-off control and soil reclamation. The latter is done through drainage. I believe the easiest of these to use is good crop management. This would mean a well-stratified plan to the use of the land b the farmer.\r\nIt is the cheapest to do, as no alterations to the land are required. It can be done globally but in poorer areas there may be too much pressure to maintain this. At Kinder Scout in England reveget ation has been a successful move, replacing plants where walkers had trampled them. The conclusion I am making is that for every soil where human problems have had a various effect, it will be a different solution required. There is no monetary standard answer, and farmers, walkers and industrialists need to come up with their own.\r\n'