The Effects Of Soil Management On Environmental Quality And Production Of Agriculture

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

Franklin D Roosevelt once said, “the history of every Nation is eventually written in the way in which it cares for its soil.” The United States began seeing sustainable management practices in farms, and healthier soil through this act. In 1982 through 2007, the United States soil erosion had declined by 43%” (Montanarella, 2015). Every year the United States loses about $400 billion dollars due to crop soil that is eroded. Soil is a limited resource and the largest resource for growing food, accommodating diverse ecosystems, and providing food resources. Therefore laws, acts, and provisions are necessary to protect this natural resource.

On the other hand, soil properties are very difficult to determine because in comparison to steel and concrete, it is a lenient material, which makes it very difficult to acquire samples for testing that will produce laboratory results on the same level as its everyday behaviour. Other problems are; the type of soil affects the ability to collect representative samples eg. stiff clay is more difficult to sample than soft clay. Differences in sampling techniques in laboratories further complicate the problem. Additional complicating factors are that soil material properties are stress dependent, and the soil profile will in practice consist of layers of materials with different material properties, because of this, the true properties of

Thus, in conclusion, this essay has considered: the definition of soil, identifying the components of, and its contribution to soils unique properties, and the critical roles in which soils play to sustain life on Earth. Soil, therefore, coincides with life on our

Soil is the most important element for agricultural ecosystems. Healthy soil comes with beneficial microbes and insects. Unfortunately, these are often killed off by the abuse of pesticides. Healthy soil can produce strong crops that are less vulnerable to pests. Damaged soils often need strong fertilizers application to produce a high amount of crops. Soil quality can be amplified in many ways, including leaving crop remainders in the field after harvest and adding composted plant material (Union of Concerned Scientists) Compared to industrial agriculture, companies continue to damage and consume natural soil. While intensive plowing and monocrop (does not rotate) agriculture systems have caused nutrient exhaustion and soil erosion. Excessive application of fertilizers and pesticides has contaminated soils and polluted waterways (Grace Communications Foundations)

Doran, J.W., and T.B. Parkin. "Soil Quality Indicators: Measures of Soil Functional State." Soil Quality: Indicators. SSSA, Inc., 1996. Web. 08 Sept. 2015.

“On the global basis, the soil degradation is caused by over grazing (35%), agriculture activities (28%), deforestation (30%), over exploitation of land to produce fuel wood (4%), and industrialization (4%).” 100% of what causes soil degradation is caused by humans and animals. 35% of the blame goes to the animals for over grazing, but the other 65% of the blame goes to the humans for agriculture activities and chopping down trees. Another example is, David Pimentel also states, “The bottom line on soil production is that it takes (on average) about 100 years to generate a millimeter of soil. This is about a human lifetime.” Although it is stated that animals contribute to land degradation, it’s only a small portion (35%). The main reason for loss of arable land is human development. Forests are cut down for farming space, fuel wood, or space to build some kind of industry. When land is being used and used, and no one manages it, it can become deplete; which means, the land is dried out and unable to grow vegetation. Soil production takes a long time, on average, it takes 100 years. 100 years is too long to wait for new soil to plant food.

According to the European Union’s Joint Research Center, soil contains nearly one third of all living organisms, but only about one percent have been identified. Another study in 2003 featured in the journal Ecosystems estimated that 5% of the United State’s soil biodiversity was “in danger of substantial loss, or complete extinction, due to agriculture and urbanization.” (Robbins) The damage comes from multiple sources. Paving or building over soil effectively blocks out the air, water, and light needed to have a functioning soil biome meaning that roads, cities, sidewalks, houses, and businesses have destroyed the soil beneath it. Agricultural practices remove organic material, decreasing food, and then allows fallowed land to become dry and exposed to the elements. Household, industrial, and agricultural toxins can also sterilize soil if not disposed of

There are many aspects soil that can be observed and measured in order to determine the quality of the lands condition. One property of soil that can be looked at is the color. 2Soil color can determine its composition and fertility. Soil that is pale in color usually suggest low organic contents and even leaching, while soil that is dark browns and black in color often suggest higher organic content and richness (Withgott & Lapostata, 2014, p. 220). Soil pH is another property that helps

Soil is everywhere but it is easy to ignore . There are so many types of soils . Soil contains very many fungi and microbes . Soil is also used for recycling by breaking down the leftover of the plant when it dies. It also breaks down the remaining animals after it

Land and soil quality is important to agriculture, but so is plant and the animal systems. The can be defined as ecosystems, and agriculture is an agroecosystem. The ecosystem links between the function of soil, water, and air. Changing concepts have been made from management of a single-resource, single species approach to making it a multiple management approach that would involve the structure, composition, and function of the entire ecosystems. Soil quality can be defined as the capacity of soil that is to function with ecosystem boundaries to sustain biological productivity that will maintain environmental quality, and promote plant and animal health (CEQ, 1993).

A. There a many different test that are chemical and physical that we could use for our soil sample. One physical test that can be performed is a particle size distribution of a soil sample. For this test, you get your sample of soil and place it in a jar. You then add water, a drop of soap, and shake the jar. After a length of time the contents of soil will develop into layers. You would then see the makeup of your soil with sand being at the bottom, silt in the middle, and clay at the top. You can then find the distribution of the soil and determine the soil texture. This soil test could help a cooperative extension service to determine if they need to add more contents like sand, silt, or clay so it will increase the growth of plants on that particular area where the soil is growing. A chemical test that can be preformed is a PH test to get the acidity of the soil. You test this by placing PH paper in soil concentration and the color change will indicate the PH of the soil. The a high PH shows the level of the base while the low PH will show how acidic the soil is. This is important to a recommendation because the PH can affect nutrients, minerals and growth.

Soil is the basis for the natural ecosystems and a living thing, it sustains life on Earth and works as a natural recycling facility with nutrients to the plants. However, many people do not know about the good benefits that soil gives to our lives and how humans hurt the conditions of soil with chemicals. Soil is often times mistreated due to the misconception of soil as dirt. Nevertheless, Professor Asmeret Berhe highlighted during the lecture, Soil, that soil is a place of full of life that supports living thing. The living organism depends on the conditions of soil because soil delivers nutrients to plants. For instance, improving the conditions of the soil increases the harvest of crops. Unhealthy soil will not be able to do its job as a natural recycling facility, and not be able to give a good amount of nutrients to plants to abundantly grow. Therefore, conditions of soil are very important in agriculture. Furthermore, having organic soils can conserve the amount of water used for irrigation. Soil is main supply of water to all land and plants because it holds the water for organisms. Organic soil can hold few amounts of water for a long time so it helps farmers to reduce the agricultural water consumption. Soil is very important to out lives than what we imagine and think. The global awareness of soil preservation is less significant to people than other conservation efforts like reducing the amount of plastic used, but soil preservation is very significant to our earth system. Therefore, it is very important for humans to help the Earth healthy sustain life by stop mistreating soil as dirt and treating it as a living thing that holds full of

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