Essay On Soil Degradation In Soil

The EPA agreed to clean up Nahant Marsh in 1999. It was estimated that the clean up would cost $2,000,000. The water level had to be lowered to remove lead pellets so a pipe was used to drain the marsh until a pump was required. Once the water level was low enough they brought in an excavator and excavated and hauled the soil to a stockpile area where it dried out and was hauled to the landfill. In order to render the metal insoluble found in the soil a phosphate-based stabilization chemical was mixed into the soil. After the soil was treated it was removed and then the ground was graded and smoothed so grasses could be

Poor soil management can lead to biological, chemical, and physical degradation, which can in turn negatively alter the activity of

The aim is to identify and associate landforms, rock types and soils to the natural environment and its plants and animals and also to investigate the history of the local environment, comprising human impacts over the last 50 years. The impact of human alterations to the environment includes increased soil erosion and changes in river flows.

These are soils consisting predominantly of unaltered mineral material that have no surface/sub-surface horizon attributed to soil forming processes (unless buried under a 730cm thick deposit from the Holocene) (Avery, 1980;). These soils do not normally have continuous vegetation cover (Avery, 1980). They occur in very recently formed soil and may have a superficial organic or organo-mineral layer less than 5cm thick. Sometimes they have a buried horizon below 30cm of depth. (Thompson, 2007; Jarvis, 1984).

Extracted soil samples indicate simultaneous reduction of rainfall and occasional erosion. Both soil and sediment features show establishment of marked

The cleanup is a three-phase plan, estimated to remove more than 99% of the PAH mass from the area, which has begun and will hopefully undo the previous generations of damage. Phase one is building a box to contain the contamination. Upon completion of the first phase, there will be a double steel-walled barricade surrounding contaminated sediment. Phase two involves of dredging the polluted deposits from the adjacent areas and placing them within the enclosure. The final phase of the project encompasses removing the water from the suppression area and placing a waterproof cap on the facility, which is anticipated to have a 200 year life span, to seal in the chemicals.

Bioremediators need to be able to grow in order to remediate the soil of pollutants. The purpose of this research is to determine whether the presence of Stropharia rugoso-annulata in the soil will support and accelerate the growth of ryegrass in a mutualistic symbiotic relationship. If the growth of the ryegrass is accelerated and supported, the combination of the two bioremediators could potentially accelerate the degradation of PAHs in the soil. Techniques such as soil washing, soil flushing, vitrification, etc., exist to remediate contaminated soil. Although, these techniques are effective, they also disturb the natural environment to some degree. Bioremediation is often accomplished in situ resulting in minimal environmental disturbance. This study is being performed because healthy soil is a limited resource that needs to be preserved and replenished. The state of soil can impact the health of humans, animals, and ecosystems, therefore, it’s important to be able to monitor and control the pollutants in

more outcome of the presence of LNAPL in the pore space of the soil is the decrease in

To examine whether or not there is a link between drought and water quality types of drought had to be examined in order to choose which drought index to use. A drought is deficiency in precipitation over some period of time. Water shortages can include impacts on vegetation, animals, and/or people. For this project, The Palmer Hydrological Index was chosen because it provides numerical classifications of drought. The PHDI includes standardized calculations for each location based on temperature and precipitation variability of the specific location. This type of calculation makes the data collection and analysis easier, as impairment can be compared to a numerical value and drought is calculated specifically based on the regions temperature and precipitation variability.

One of the key facts was that Alumina was found to have high concentration levels of Polynuclear Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH's) in their environmental expulsion standards after an evaluation by the EPA five years earlier. Since Alumina was out of compliance, a clean up was ordered by the EPA and Alumina acted in accordance to correct the problem and a subsequent test was in compliance (Simulation, 2007).

Results from the project were ambiguous. We were able to show a statistical correlation between drought and water impairments. However, these results were not always consistent due to the variation in the data. Impairment data is recorded every two years; however, the exact time during that year and weather conditions at that moment the samples are taken are not recorded. Other issues with this data were the lack of consistency in where the test stations are located from year to year. Weather data on the other hand is taken on a daily basis from consistent locations and drought data is compiled every month. Trying to merge or over lay these two types of data proved to be difficult. Due to these issues it is import to point out that correlation does not imply causation. Many other variables could affect water impairment at the time of a drought or

There will be a control group which will get soil from the wetland and well water. There will be three more groups. One getting inoculated soil and well water. A second getting inoculated soil and well water with 672 mg/L Ca(NO3)2 and 372 mg/L K2HPO4 as used by Picard (7). These additives are common fertilizers in an agricultural setting and dissolve easily in water. The third will get wetland soil and well water with 672 mg/L Ca(NO3)2 and 372 mg/L K2HPO4. Each group will be replicated 10 times to get comparative results.

Erosion removes the surface soils, containing most of the organic matter, plant nutrients, and fine soil particles, which help to retain water and nutrients in the root zone where they are available to plants. Thus it affects the productivity of plants. The remaining, the subsoil, tends to be less fertile, less absorbent and less able to retain pesticides, fertilizers, and other plant nutrients. There are over 17,000 soil types recognized worldwide. They vary widely in structure, erodibility, fertility, and ability to produce crops. A generalized soil profile for a humid, temperate climate is showed. When the natural vegetation is cleared for agriculture, soils become exposed to erosion and loss of soil fertility. The removal of the above-ground natural

A new model has been introduced which includes a set of strategies that has been developed to reduce soil erosion by planting vegetation in desertification hotspots. The model reproduces a wide range of patterns observed in water-limited regions, including drifting bands, spots, and labyrinths. It predicts transitions from bare soil at low precipitation to homogeneous vegetation at high precipitation, through intermediate states of spot, stripe and hole

The high water content of these soils causes the chemistry to be primarily reducing rather than oxidizing as it is in most other soils. Most of the reactions are mediated by biological activities. Such a chemical environment means that the rate of decomposition of organic matter is relatively slow. The reduced carbon in the organic matter of saturated soils is the source of energy and electrons to drive the redox reactions (Schipper et al, p. 923). Under slightly reducing conditions, the process of denitrification breaks down nitrate (NO3-) into N2 "through intermediates including nitrite (NO2) and N2O" (McBride, p. 265). Under strongly reducing conditions, some of the N2 is transformed into NH4- through plant enzyme-catalization in a process called nitrogen fixing. Reducing conditions also change sulfate (SO42- ) into H2S a noxious smelling gas. Much of the hydrogen sulfide is dissolved and dissociated in the water where the sulfide interacts with Fe2+ form iron sulfides. In more moderately reducing conditions the iron can be contained in siderite (Fe CO3). In both instances the solubility of iron is greatly reduced (McBride, p. 266). Saturated soils tend to decompose organic matter slowly, transform nitrates, and reduce the solubility of metals such as iron. The reduced iron results in gleying (greyish-green coloration) of the soil and in the case of fluctuating water levels mottles