Erosion control information? Soil erosion is a complex process that depends on soil properties, ground slope, vegetation, and rainfall amount and intensity. According to Montgomery, modifications in land use are one of the most impactful ways of accelerating soil erosion. These changes then have a cascade effect as the loss of fertile topsoil cover sends millions of tons of sediments into lakes and reservoirs, changing ecosystems and impacting agricultural production and water quality. This has been the case with the Bo River in Vietnam. Despite these types of soil erosion, as we have briefly mentioned above, if it wasn’t for human activities, today’s soils would be less susceptible to erosion and more resilient. What are the human causes behind soil erosion then?
Bits of sand are picked up and carried off by the wind, which can then blast the sides of nearby rocks, buffing and polishing them smooth. On the seashore, the action of waves chips away at cliffs and rakes the fragments back and forth into fine sand. Plants and animals also take a heavy toll on Earth’s hardened minerals. Lichens and mosses can squeeze into cracks and crevices, where they take root. As they grow, so do the cracks, eventually splitting into bits and pieces. Critters big and small trample, crush, and plow rocks as they scurry across the surface and burrow underground. Plants and animals also produce acids that mix with rainwater, a combination that eats away at rocks.
The abrasive action of sand and pebbles washed against shorelines is probably the most significant wave erosional activity. Particles are dragged back and forth by wave action, abrading the bedrock along the coast and abrading each other, gradually wearing pebbles into sand. Wave erosion creates retrograde, or retreating, shorelines with sea cliffs, wave-cut benches at the base of the sea cliffs, and sea arches—curved or rectangularly shaped archways that result from different rates of erosion due to varied bedrock resistance. Besides the back-and-forth transportation of materials by wave action, sediments are transported by the lateral movement of waves after they wash ashore (beach drifting) or by shallow-water transport just offshore, known as longshore currents. These transportational movements lead to deposition and the formation of prograde, or advancing, shorelines, bars, spits, bayhead beaches (a bayhead beach is formed between two headlands), and barrier beaches (a barrier beach parallels the shore). See more info on erosion control guide.
Local climate change scenarios will contribute to water erosion processes, mostly by rainfall erosivity increase. Different forest management models provide varying levels of soil protection by trees, resulting in distinct soil loss potential. Results confirm the suitability of the proposed approach to address soil erosion concerns in forest management planning. This approach may help foresters assess management models and the corresponding silvicultural practices according to the water-related services they provide.
Cover crops such as turnips and radishes are rotated with cash crops in order to blanket the soil all year- round and produce green manure the replenishes nitrogen and other critical nutrients. Using cover crops can also suppress weeds. A mixture of farming methods intending the mimic the biology of virgin land. These practices can be used to prevent erosion and even restore damaged soil and encourage plant growth. Eliminating the use of nitrogen fertilizer and fungicides can increase yields and protect crops from drought and flooding.