Examine the effects of the impact of human activity on soil

In the context of living in the modern world the environment is very important to study and maintain. As technology advances the world we live in is changing, solely sometimes these changes are disturbing the balance of spirit that has been well established for thousands of years. The effect that we are having on soil is often very detrimental eating away is an ever-present problem completely across the ball. I aim to investigate the impact that human performance has had on soil, and evaluate resultants to the problem.Initially it is important to look at what can be damaged and what the risk of infection is to soils. The main threats include erosion, acidification, pollution, compaction, organic matter loss and salinisation. The increasing amounts of fertilizers and other chemicals applied to soils since World warfare II, has ca utilise great concern over soil pollution. The application of fertilizers containing the primary nutrients, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, doesn t lead to soil pollution, the application of lead elements does. Sulfur from industrial wastes has polluted soils in the past.Read this Ch. 22 Respiratory SystemWhen lead arsenate was social occasiond on crops this had deadly effects but this is now discoverlawed due to these. The application of pesticides besides leads to short soil pollution. Ploughing was once a major erosion-causing problem. The way it exercisingd to be carried out was know as clean cultivation, which left the topsoils exposed to all natural erosive problems. This was through with(p) by the use of the moldboard plow by farmers, now replaced by better ploughs, which leave a litter mold on the surface to prevent erosion. Irrigation is the artificial watering of land to sustain plant growth.This happens across the globe in areas where the water budget is below the required amount. In dry areas, such as the southwesterly United States, irrigation must be maintained from the time a crop is planted. In 1800 abo ut 8. 1 meg hectares (about 20 million acres) were under irrigation, a figure that has risen to more than 222 million hectares (550 million acres) today. Irrigation, however, can waterlog soil, or increase a soils salinity to the point where crops are damaged or ruined. The irrigation of desiccate lands often leads to pollution with salts.This problem is now jeopardizing about one-third of the worlds irrigated land. About a third of all soils in England and Wales hasten been identified as being at risk from water erosion. Another slapdash error of human kind is to let overgrazing to occur. Overgrazing, which in time can 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 cardinal cause in various population shifts and the fall of certain civilizations.Ruins of towns and cities arrive at been found in waterless regions such as the deserts of Mesopotam ia, 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 correct 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 conserve would have gone to waste anyway and there money is preserving it already.Farmers have been looking for solutions for centuries, and in the Middle Ages in Britain and to present day crop rotation was a possible solution. This is where through different seasons different crops were used, and sometimes the field was left bare to recuperate. In modern rotation systems soil-building plants are used. These crops hold and protect the plants during growth, and also when mixed in to the ground provide much needed nutrients.Special methods for erosion guarantee include contour farming, where the f armer follows the contours of sloping lands, and ditches and terraces are constructed to reduce the runoff of water. This is particularly useful in areas with game precipitation. Another soil-conservation method is the use of strip-cropping. This is the use of alternate strips of crop and fallow land. This method is valuable for control of wind erosion on semiarid lands that need to lie crop-free for efficient crop production.Without human activities, losings of soil through erosion would in most areas probably be balanced by the organization of new soil. On new land a layer of vegetation protects the soil. When new industry is form in an area the protective canopy of trees that would shield the ground from a lot of rainfall is undo which greatly speeds up erosion of certain kinds of soils. Erosion is less severe with crops such as wheat, which engender the ground evenly, than with crops such as corn and tobacco, which grow in rows and have bare spaces.When 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 powerful in combating erosion. They are split 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.It 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 revegetation has been a successful move, replacing plants where walkers had trampled them. The conclusion I am making is that for all soil where human problems have had a diverse effect, it will be a different solution required. There is no standard a nswer, and farmers, walkers and industrialists need to come up with their own.