Soil Degradation & Management

Soil Degradation & Management www.i-study.co.uk

Tasks • What is soil? (260) • The importance of time in soil formation? • What are leaching & salinisation? • What is alluvium? • What are: pastoral & arable farming? www.i-study.co.uk

Soil degradation • What is soil degradation? • Causes of soil degradation including examples • deforestation (where, why, effect) • overgrazing (where, why, effect) • Monocultures (what & why, examples, problems) • Irrigation & salinisation. www.i-study.co.uk

Consequences of degradation • Loss of fertility  ↑ pressure on the land  over-use of land  depletion of nutrients  ↑ need for fertilisers: • ↑ costs for farming  ↑ food prices. •  environmental impact  leaching into water supplies  health issues & unintended impacts (eutrophication). • Loss of farmland  ↑ land prices in fertile areas & depletion of food supply  ↑ food prices  ↑ % of income spent on food (especially poor)  trapped in poverty & reliance on aid. www.i-study.co.uk

Degradation of soil  ↓ in farming in that area  less rural jobs  rural-urban migration & associated problems. • Loss of vegetation  rapid soil erosion & unstable slopes  landslides & problems of deposition of material elsewhere • Loss of productivity of land in LEDCs often leads to ↓ in dietary variety  malnutrition & possibly starvation. www.i-study.co.uk

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Tasks • Short notes about soil management: • Afforestation. • Crop rotation. • Draw a diagram & label it to explain how terraces protect the soil. • Organic material. • Strip farming. • Stone lines. • Case study: china – issues p.280 & solution p.283. www.i-study.co.uk

Soil Degradation & Management