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Soil erosion is the denudation or wearing away of the upper layer of soil. It is a form of soil degradation. This natural process is caused by the dynamic activity of erosive agents, that is, water, ice (glaciers), snow, air (wind), plants, and animals (including humans).
Biological diversity: soil degradation may involve perturbation of microbial communities, disappearance of the climax vegetation and decrease in animal habitat, thus leading to a biodiversity loss and animal extinction. [9] Economic loss: the estimated costs for land degradation are US$44 billion per year. Globally, the annual loss of 76 ...
Common attributes of soil degradation can be salting, waterlogging, compaction, pesticide contamination, a decline in soil structure quality, loss of fertility, changes in soil acidity, alkalinity, salinity, and erosion. Soil erosion is the wearing away of topsoil by water, wind, or farming activities. [54]
Eroded hilltops due to tillage erosion. Tillage erosion is a form of soil erosion occurring in cultivated fields due to the movement of soil by tillage. [1] [2] There is growing evidence that tillage erosion is a major soil erosion process in agricultural lands, surpassing water and wind erosion in many fields all around the world, especially on sloping and hilly lands [3] [4] [5] A signature ...
Despite the inevitability of soil retrogression and degradation, most soil cycles are long. [117] Soil-forming factors continue to affect soils during their existence, even on stable landscapes that are long-enduring, some for millions of years. [117] Materials are deposited on top [123] or are blown or washed from the surface. [124]
Overgrazing typically increases soil erosion. [7]With continued overutilization of land for grazing, there is an increase in degradation. This leads to poor soil conditions that only xeric and early successional species can tolerate. [8]
[22] [ambiguous] Calculations have suggested soil loss of up to 0.5 metres (20 in) caused by human activity will change previously calculated denudation rates by less than 30%. [23] Denudation rates are usually much lower than the rates of uplift and average orogeny rates can be eight times the maximum average denudation. [24]
If the soil is saturated, or if the rainfall rate is greater than the rate at which water can infiltrate into the soil, surface runoff occurs. If the runoff has sufficient flow energy, it will transport loosened soil particles down the slope. [15] Sheet erosion is the transport of loosened soil particles by overland flow. [15]