What is erosion with erosion control information? Soil erosion is a complex process that depends on soil properties, ground slope, vegetation, and rainfall amount and intensity. According to Montgomery, modifications in land use are one of the most impactful ways of accelerating soil erosion. These changes then have a cascade effect as the loss of fertile topsoil cover sends millions of tons of sediments into lakes and reservoirs, changing ecosystems and impacting agricultural production and water quality. This has been the case with the Bo River in Vietnam. Despite these types of soil erosion, as we have briefly mentioned above, if it wasn’t for human activities, today’s soils would be less susceptible to erosion and more resilient. What are the human causes behind soil erosion then?
Bits of sand are picked up and carried off by the wind, which can then blast the sides of nearby rocks, buffing and polishing them smooth. On the seashore, the action of waves chips away at cliffs and rakes the fragments back and forth into fine sand. Plants and animals also take a heavy toll on Earth’s hardened minerals. Lichens and mosses can squeeze into cracks and crevices, where they take root. As they grow, so do the cracks, eventually splitting into bits and pieces. Critters big and small trample, crush, and plow rocks as they scurry across the surface and burrow underground. Plants and animals also produce acids that mix with rainwater, a combination that eats away at rocks.
In rivers and estuaries, the erosion of banks is caused by the scouring action of the moving water, particularly in times of flood and, in the case of estuaries, also by the tidal flow on the ebb tide when river and tidewater combine in their erosive action. This scouring action of the moving water entrains (that is, draws in and transports) sediments within the river or stream load. These entrained sediments become instruments of erosion as they abrade one another in suspended transport or as they abrade other rock and soil as they are dragged along the river bottom, progressively entraining additional sediments as long as the river’s volume and velocity of the stream continues to increase. As the velocity of the river decreases, the suspended sediments will be deposited, creating landforms such as broad alluvial fans, floodplains, sandbars, and river deltas. The land surface unaffected by rivers and streams is subjected to a continuous process of erosion by the action of rain, snowmelt, and frost, the resulting detritus (organic debris) and sediment being carried into the rivers and thence to the ocean. Find more details at what is erosion guide.
Soil erosion, that is, the process that transforms soil into sediments, is one of the major and most widely spread forms of land degradation (Lal 2014; Weil and Brady 2017). It encompasses the destruction of the physical structure that supports the development of plant roots. Moreover, surface soil removal may result in substantial nutrient and water losses, as well as in the decrease of productivity and the increase of pollution of surface waterways. Soil erosion impacts thus the sustainability of ecosystems and the provision of ecosystem services. Soil conservation efforts address concerns with these impacts and meet the increasing needs for food and raw materials (Hurni et al. 2008).
Green manures are a few different crops that can be grown, not for produce or food usage, but grown in order to fertilize the farmland on which it grows. This method can improve the soil structure and suppresses the growth of weeds. When water evaporates from the soil, it leaves behind its salt. This can lead to damage to soil and nutrient loss. Using humic acids can prevent this or growing crops like saltbush can rejuvenate the soils and replace lost nutrients. High levels of salt in the soil can often be caused by changes made to the water table by damming and other causes.