Soil Erosion
John Tatarko (USDA)
Author
01/13/2019
Added
7
Plays
Description
In this video clip, the impacts of wind erosion are demonstrated.
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- [00:00:03.560]Soil -- A collection of minerals, organic matter, nutrients,
- [00:00:07.396]gases and water, soil is responsible for the production of
- [00:00:11.106]the vast majority of the world's food supply.
- [00:00:14.720]Soil is a virtual necessity for civilizations to thrive,
- [00:00:18.859]but soil isn't of any use if it blows away substantial portions of Asia.
- [00:00:24.160]The Middle East and North Africa were once fertile land supporting prosperous
- [00:00:28.463]populations, but through soil exhaustion and Bruin,
- [00:00:31.332]they changed to their present barren state.
- [00:00:34.720]In many countries, soil erosion by wind has depleted the
- [00:00:38.155]fertility of the soil, and in some it has transformed fertile
- [00:00:41.893]lands into sandy deserts.
- [00:00:44.880]In North America, relatively little wind erosion occurred
- [00:00:48.552]while the land was under natural vegetation through over grazing and
- [00:00:52.920]cultivation of the land.
- [00:00:54.440]The stage was set for wind erosion during dry periods or droughts,
- [00:00:58.186]especially in the Great Plains.
- [00:01:00.560]During the 1930's, the farming of marginal lands in the
- [00:01:03.768]Great Plains, combined with a prolonged drought
- [00:01:06.519]culminated in dust storms and soil destruction of disastrous proportions.
- [00:01:11.280]This.
- [00:01:12.000]Known as the Dust Bowl, inflicted great hardships on the people
- [00:01:15.419]and the land and has been called our nation's greatest ecological disaster.
- [00:01:23.120]Even today, the threat of wind erosion has not gone
- [00:01:25.972]away, especially on agricultural land in arid
- [00:01:28.495]and semi arid regions in the United States and throughout the world.
- [00:01:33.000]On 75,000, 000 acres of land in the United States
- [00:01:35.955]alone it is still a dominant problem with four to 5,000,
- [00:01:39.325]000 acres moderately to severely damaged each year.
- [00:01:43.440]Wind erosion damages the soil by physically removing the most fertile part,
- [00:01:48.205]lowering water holding capacity, degrading soil structure,
- [00:01:51.904]and increasing soil variability across the field,
- [00:01:55.040]resulting in reduced crop production.
- [00:02:00.920]It also causes plant damage from abrasion, blowouts, and deposition.
- [00:02:09.000]In addition, some soil enters the atmosphere where it
- [00:02:12.785]obscures visibility, pollutes the air and water,
- [00:02:16.220]causes automobile accidents, fowls, machinery, and imperils animal,
- [00:02:20.987]plant and human health.
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