ENV100Y5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 26: Soil Retrogression And Degradation, Dust Bowl, Land Degradation

• School: UTM
• Department: Environment
• Course: ENV100Y5
• Professor: Barbara Murck

Document Summary

Chapter 7 - part 2. Sunday, november 8, 2015. Soil erosion (physical loss of soil) Transport and deposition (someplace else) of sediment. Natural process; often accelerated by human activities. Problem when it occurs faster than new soil is formed. Water erosion - splash, sheet (slope), rill (water follows path of least resistance), gully. Accelerated soil erosion and land degradation are global problems. Driving climate change, controlling water flows, create hard surfaces. 19 billion hectares of croplands worldwide suffer from accelerated or unsustainable erosion. Humans are the primary cause of erosion. Soil degradation over the next 40 years in africa could reduce crop yields by half. The on- farm cost of agricultural land degradation in canada is million/year (losses from poor management) 5- 7 million hectares of productive cropland lost annually to accelerated erosion and soil degradation. Pop growing, but vegetation decreasing. Soil degradation has many causes. Soil degradation results from deforestation, agriculture <= main problems, overgrazing, chemical contamination, etc.