Soil erosion
Soil erosion is the denudation or wearing away of the
Human activities have increased by 10–50 times the rate at which erosion is occurring world-wide. Excessive (or accelerated) erosion causes both "on-site" and "off-site" problems. On-site impacts include decreases in
Intensive agriculture, deforestation, roads, acid rains, anthropogenic climate change and urban sprawl are amongst the most significant human activities in regard to their effect on stimulating erosion.[5] However, there are many prevention and remediation practices that can curtail or limit erosion of vulnerable soils.
Physical processes
Rainfall and surface runoff
In splash erosion, the
The distance these soil particles travel can be as much as 0.6 m (two feet) vertically and 1.5 m (five feet) horizontally on level ground.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 (sediment) down the slope.[10] Sheet erosion is the transport of loosened soil particles by overland flow.[10]
Rivers and streams
Valley or stream erosion occurs with continued water flow along a linear feature. The erosion is both
Bank erosion is the wearing away of the banks of a stream or river. This is distinguished from changes on the bed of the watercourse, which is referred to as scour. Erosion and changes in the form of river banks may be measured by inserting metal rods into the bank and marking the position of the bank surface along the rods at different times.[17]
Thermal erosion is the result of melting and weakening
Floods
At extremely high flows,
Wind erosion
Wind erosion is a major
Wind erosion is of two primary varieties: deflation, where the wind picks up and carries away loose particles; and abrasion, where surfaces are worn down as they are struck by airborne particles carried by wind. Deflation is divided into three categories: (1) surface creep, where larger, heavier particles slide or roll along the ground; (2) saltation, where particles are lifted a short height into the air, and bounce and saltate across the surface of the soil; and (3) suspension, where very small and light particles are lifted into the air by the wind, and are often carried for long distances. Saltation is responsible for the majority (50–70%) of wind erosion, followed by suspension (30–40%), and then surface creep (5–25%).[24][25] Silty soils tend to be the most affected by wind erosion; silt particles are relatively easily detached and carried away.[26]
Wind erosion is much more severe in arid areas and during times of drought. For example, in the Great Plains, it is estimated that soil loss due to wind erosion can be as much as 6100 times greater in drought years than in wet years.[27]
Mass movement
Mass movement is the downward and outward movement of rock and sediments on a sloped surface, mainly due to the force of gravity.[28][29]
Mass movement is an important part of the erosional process, and is often the first stage in the breakdown and transport of weathered materials in mountainous areas.[30] It moves material from higher elevations to lower elevations where other eroding agents such as streams and glaciers can then pick up the material and move it to even lower elevations. Mass-movement processes are always occurring continuously on all slopes; some mass-movement processes act very slowly; others occur very suddenly, often with disastrous results. Any perceptible down-slope movement of rock or sediment is often referred to in general terms as a landslide. However, landslides can be classified in a much more detailed way that reflects the mechanisms responsible for the movement and the velocity at which the movement occurs. One of the visible topographical manifestations of a very slow form of such activity is a scree slope.[31]
Slumping happens on steep hillsides, occurring along distinct fracture zones, often within materials like clay that, once released, may move quite rapidly downhill. They will often show a spoon-shaped isostatic depression, in which the material has begun to slide downhill. In some cases, the slump is caused by water beneath the slope weakening it. In many cases it is simply the result of poor engineering along highways where it is a regular occurrence.[32]
Surface creep is the slow movement of soil and rock debris by gravity which is usually not perceptible except through extended observation. However, the term can also describe the rolling of dislodged soil particles 0.5 to 1.0 mm (0.02 to 0.04 in) in diameter by wind along the soil surface.[33]
Tillage erosion
Tillage erosion is a form of soil erosion occurring in cultivated fields due to the movement of soil by tillage.[34][35] 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[36][37][38] A signature spatial pattern of soil erosion shown in many water erosion handbooks and pamphlets, the eroded hilltops, is actually caused by tillage erosion as water erosion mainly causes soil losses in the midslope and lowerslope segments of a slope, not the hilltops.[39][34][36] Tillage erosion results in soil degradation, which can lead to significant reduction in crop yield and, therefore, economic losses for the farm.[40][41]
Factors affecting soil erosion
Climate
The
In some areas of the world (e.g. the
In other regions of the world (e.g. western Europe), runoff and erosion result from relatively low intensities of stratiform rainfall falling onto previously saturated soil. In such situations, rainfall amount rather than intensity is the main factor determining the severity of soil erosion by water.[43]
Soil structure and composition
The composition, moisture, and compaction of soil are all major factors in determining the erosivity of rainfall. Sediments containing more clay tend to be more resistant to erosion than those with sand or silt, because the clay helps bind soil particles together.[44] Soil containing high levels of organic materials are often more resistant to erosion, because the organic materials coagulate soil colloids and create a stronger, more stable soil structure.[45] The amount of water present in the soil before the precipitation also plays an important role, because it sets limits on the amount of water that can be absorbed by the soil (and hence prevented from flowing on the surface as erosive runoff). Wet, saturated soils will not be able to absorb as much rainwater, leading to higher levels of surface runoff and thus higher erosivity for a given volume of rainfall.[45][46] Soil compaction also affects the permeability of the soil to water, and hence the amount of water that flows away as runoff. More compacted soils will have a larger amount of surface runoff than less compacted soils.[45]
Vegetative cover
Topography
The topography of the land determines the velocity at which surface runoff will flow, which in turn determines the erosivity of the runoff. Longer, steeper slopes (especially those without adequate vegetative cover) are more susceptible to very high rates of erosion during heavy rains than shorter, less steep slopes. Steeper terrain is also more prone to mudslides, landslides, and other forms of gravitational erosion processes.[48][49][50]
Human activities that aid soil erosion
Agricultural practices
Unsustainable agricultural practices increase rates of erosion by one to two
Deforestation
In an undisturbed
Deforestation causes increased erosion rates due to exposure of mineral soil by removing the humus and litter layers from the soil surface, removing the vegetative cover that binds soil together, and causing heavy soil compaction from logging equipment. Once trees have been removed by fire or logging, infiltration rates become high and erosion low to the degree the forest floor remains intact. Severe fires can lead to significant further erosion if followed by heavy rainfall.[63]
Globally one of the largest contributors to erosive soil loss in the year 2006 is the
Roads and human impact
Human Impact has major effects on erosion processes—first by denuding the land of vegetative cover, altering drainage patterns, and compacting the soil during construction; and next by covering the land in an impermeable layer of asphalt or concrete that increases the amount of surface runoff and increases surface wind speeds.[65] Much of the sediment carried in runoff from urban areas (especially roads) is highly contaminated with fuel, oil, and other chemicals.[66] This increased runoff, in addition to eroding and degrading the land that it flows over, also causes major disruption to surrounding watersheds by altering the volume and rate of water that flows through them, and filling them with chemically polluted sedimentation. The increased flow of water through local waterways also causes a large increase in the rate of bank erosion.[67]
Climate change
The warmer atmospheric temperatures observed over the past decades are expected to lead to a more vigorous hydrological cycle, including more extreme rainfall events.
Studies on soil erosion suggest that increased rainfall amounts and intensities will lead to greater rates of soil erosion. Thus, if rainfall amounts and intensities increase in many parts of the world as expected, erosion will also increase, unless amelioration measures are taken. Soil erosion rates are expected to change in response to changes in climate for a variety of reasons. The most direct is the change in the erosive power of rainfall. Other reasons include: a) changes in plant canopy caused by shifts in plant biomass production associated with moisture regime; b) changes in litter cover on the ground caused by changes in both plant residue decomposition rates driven by temperature and moisture dependent soil microbial activity as well as plant biomass production rates; c) changes in soil moisture due to shifting precipitation regimes and evapo-transpiration rates, which changes infiltration and runoff ratios; d) soil
Studies by Pruski and Nearing indicated that, other factors such as land use unconsidered, it is reasonable to expect approximately a 1.7% change in soil erosion for each 1% change in total precipitation under climate change.[72] In recent studies, there are predicted increases of rainfall erosivity by 17% in the United States,[73] by 18% in Europe,[74] and globally 30 to 66%[75]
Global environmental effects
Due to the severity of its ecological effects, and the scale on which it is occurring, erosion constitutes one of the most significant global environmental problems we face today.[3]
Land degradation
Water and wind erosion are now the two primary causes of land degradation; combined, they are responsible for 84% of degraded acreage.[2]
Each year, about 75 billion tons of soil is eroded from the land—a rate that is about 13–40 times as fast as the natural rate of erosion.[78] Approximately 40% of the world's agricultural land is seriously degraded.[79] According to the United Nations, an area of fertile soil the size of Ukraine is lost every year because of drought, deforestation and climate change.[80] In Africa, if current trends of soil degradation continue, the continent might be able to feed just 25% of its population by 2025, according to UNU's Ghana-based Institute for Natural Resources in Africa.[81]
Recent modeling developments have quantified rainfall erosivity at global scale using high temporal resolution (<30 min) and high fidelity rainfall recordings. The results is an extensive global data collection effort produced the Global Rainfall Erosivity Database (GloREDa) which includes rainfall erosivity for 3,625 stations and covers 63 countries. This first ever Global Rainfall Erosivity Database was used to develop a global erosivity map [82] at 30 arc-seconds(~1 km) based on sophisticated geostatistical process. According to a new study[83] published in Nature Communications, almost 36 billion tons of soil is lost every year due to water, and deforestation and other changes in land use make the problem worse. The study investigates global soil erosion dynamics by means of high-resolution spatially distributed modelling (c. 250 × 250 m cell size). The geo-statistical approach allows, for the first time, the thorough incorporation into a global soil erosion model of land use and changes in land use, the extent, types, spatial distribution of global croplands and the effects of different regional cropping systems.
The loss of
Sedimentation of aquatic ecosystems
Soil erosion (especially from agricultural activity) is considered to be the leading global cause of diffuse water pollution, due to the effects of the excess sediments flowing into the world's waterways. The sediments themselves act as pollutants, as well as being carriers for other pollutants, such as attached pesticide molecules or heavy metals.[85]
The effect of increased sediments loads on aquatic ecosystems can be catastrophic. Silt can smother the spawning beds of fish, by filling in the space between gravel on the stream bed. It also reduces their food supply, and causes major respiratory issues for them as sediment enters their
One of the most serious and long-running water erosion problems worldwide is in the
Airborne dust pollution
Soil particles picked up during wind erosion of soil are a major source of
Dust from erosion acts to suppress rainfall and changes the
Monitoring, measuring and modelling soil erosion
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (April 2012) |
Monitoring and modeling of erosion processes can help people better understand the causes of soil erosion, make predictions of erosion under a range of possible conditions, and plan the implementation of preventative and restorative strategies for erosion. However, the complexity of erosion processes and the number of scientific disciplines that must be considered to understand and model them (e.g. climatology, hydrology, geology, soil science, agriculture, chemistry, physics, etc.) makes accurate modelling challenging.[94][95][96] Erosion models are also non-linear, which makes them difficult to work with numerically, and makes it difficult or impossible to scale up to making predictions about large areas from data collected by sampling smaller plots.[97]
The most commonly used model for predicting soil loss from water erosion is the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE). This was developed in the 1960s and 1970s. It estimates the average annual soil loss A on a plot-sized area as:[98]
- A = RKLSCP
where R is the rainfall erosivity factor,[99][100] K is the soil erodibility factor,[101] L and S are topographic factors[102] representing length and slope,[103] C is the cover and management factor[104] and P is the support practices factor.[105]
Despite the USLE's plot-scale spatial basis, the model has often been used to estimate soil erosion on much larger areas, such as watersheds, continents, and globally. One major problem is that the USLE cannot simulate gully erosion, and so erosion from gullies is ignored in any USLE-based assessment of erosion. Yet erosion from gullies can be a substantial proportion (10–80%) of total erosion on cultivated and grazed land.[106]
During the 50 years since the introduction of the USLE, many other soil erosion models have been developed.[107] But because of the complexity of soil erosion and its constituent processes, all erosion models can only roughly approximate actual erosion rates when validated i.e. when model predictions are compared with real-world measurements of erosion.[108][109] Thus new soil erosion models continue to be developed. Some of these remain USLE-based, e.g. the G2 model.[110][111] Other soil erosion models have largely (e.g. the Water Erosion Prediction Project model) or wholly (e.g. RHEM, the Rangeland Hydrology and Erosion Model [112]) abandoned usage of USLE elements. Global studies continue to be based on the USLE[75]
Prevention and remediation
The most effective known method for erosion prevention is to increase vegetative cover on the land, which helps prevent both wind and water erosion.
See also
- Badlands
- Biorhexistasy
- Bridge scour
- Cellular confinement
- Coastal sediment supply
- Food security
- Geomorphology
- Groundwater sapping
- Highly erodible land
- Ice jacking
- Lessivage
- Riparian zone
- Sediment transport
- Soil horizon
- Soil type
- Sphericity
- TERON (Tillage erosion)
- Tillage erosion
- Vegetation and slope stability
- Vetiver System
Notes
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Further reading
- Boardman, John; Poesen, Jean (2006). Soil erosion in Europe. ISBN 978-0-470-85910-0.
- Montgomery, David (October 2, 2008). Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations (1st ed.). University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-25806-8.
- Montgomery, David R. (2007) Soil erosion and agricultural sustainability PNAS 104: 13268–13272.
- Brown, Jason; Drake, Simon (2009). Classic Erosion. Wiley.
- Vanoni, Vito A., ed. (2006). "The nature of sedimentation problems". Sedimentation Engineering. ASCE Publications. ISBN 978-0-7844-0823-0.
- Mainguet M. & Dumay F., 2011. Fighting wind erosion. One aspect of the combat against desertification. Les dossiers thématiques du CSFD. N°3. May 2011. CSFD/Agropolis International, Montpellier, France. 44 pp. Archived 2020-12-30 at the Wayback Machine
- "Soil Erosion by Water - Wikibooks, open books for an open world". en.wikibooks.org. Retrieved 2018-10-24.