Examine the effects of the impact of human activity on soil

In the context of living in the modern world the environment is re wholey important to study and maintain. As technology advances the world we live in is changing, however some quantifys these changes ar disturbing the balance of nature that has been vigorous established for thousands of years. The effect that we are having on filth is often real detrimental wearing away is an ever-present problem all across the globe. I aim to investigate the imp lay out that human race activity has had on soil, and prize solutions to the problem.Initially it is important to look at what tidy sum be shamed and what the risk is to soils. The main threats include erosion, acidification, pollution, compaction, organic matter loss and salinisation. The increase amounts of fertilizers and other chemicals applied to soils since World War II, has ca officed great concern over soil pollution. The application of fertilizers containing the primary nutrients, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, do esnt lead to soil pollution, the application of conform to elements does. Sulfur from industrial wastes has polluted soils in the past.Read this Ch. 22 respiratory SystemWhen lead arsenate was used on creases this had deadly effects but this is now outlawed due to these. The application of pesticides also leads to short-term soil pollution. Ploughing was once a major erosion-causing problem. The way it used to be carried out was known as clean cultivation, which left the topsoils exposed to all natural erosive problems. This was done by the use of the moldboard grapple by farmers, now replaced by better ploughs, which leave a pack layer on the surface to prevent erosion. Irrigation is the artificial watering of reason to sustain plant growth.This happens across the globe in areas where the water compute is below the required amount. In dry areas, such as the southwest United States, irrigation must be maintained from the time a increase is planted. In 1800 closely 8. 1 mill ion hectares (about 20 million acres) were low irrigation, a figure that has risen to more than 222 million hectares (550 million acres) today. Irrigation, however, plenty waterlog soil, or increase a soils salinity to the point where increases are discredited or ruined. The irrigation of arid 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 adjudge been identified as being at risk from water erosion. other careless 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 deald by some historians that soil erosion has been an rudimentary cause in various population shifts and the fall of indisputable civilizations.Ruins of towns and cities ease up been found in arid regions such as the deserts of Mesopotamia, w hich shows that culture was once widespread in the surrounding territory. To remedy these problems we catch to act fast. In protecting soil we have to consider not just now the land but also the land use and the pressures on it, and because find the correct balance of how to help both the land and people. oft without the money coming in from industry and farmers the land that we need to economise 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 superfluous 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 fuse furnish much needed nutrients.Special methods for erosion control include figure farming, wh ere the farmer follows the contours of sloping lands, and ditches and terraces are constructed to reduce the runoff of water. This is particularly reusable in areas with high precipitation. Another soil-conservation method is the use of strip-cropping. This is the use of utility(a) 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, losses of soil through erosion would in most areas believably be balanced by the formation of virgin 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 destroyed which greatly speeds up erosion of certain kinds of soils. Erosion is less severe with crops such as wheat, which cover the ground evenly, than with crops such as corn and tobacco, which grow in rows and have bare spaces.When ramble rs 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 flick paths and also eventually ruin those as well. These methods are all very(prenominal) effective 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 guide in England revegetation has been a successful move, replacing plants where walkers had trampled them. The conclusion I am making is that for every soil where human problems have had a versatile effect, it will be a different solution required. There is no standard answer, and farmers, walkers and industrialists need to come up with their own.