Erosion control strategies? Soil erosion is a gradual process of movement and transport of the upper layer of soil (topsoil) by different agents – particularly water, wind, and mass movement – causing its deterioration in the long term. In other words, soil erosion is the removal of the most fertile top layer of soil through water, wind and tillage. What Is Soil Erosion? A Soil Erosion Scientific Definition: According to a Pereira and Muñoz-Rojas (2017) synthesis, soil erosion is one of the major causes, evidence of, and key variables used to assess and understand land degradation. Soil erosion is a consequence of unsustainable land use and other disturbances, such as fire, mining, or intensive agricultural uses. The loss of soil may have serious impacts on the quantity and quality of soil ecosystem services, with serious economic, social, and political implications.
Water is nature’s most versatile tool. For example, take rain on a frigid day. The water pools in cracks and crevices. Then, at night, the temperature drops and the water expands as it turns to ice, splitting the rock like a sledgehammer to a wedge. The next day, under the beating sun, the ice melts and trickles the cracked fragments away. Repeated swings in temperature can also weaken and eventually fragment rock, which expands when hot and shrinks when cold. Such pulsing slowly turns stones in the arid desert to sand. Likewise, constant cycles from wet to dry will crumble clay.
Continued deflation of loose particles from landforms leaves behind larger particles that are more resistant to deflation. Wind action transports eroded material above or along the surface of Earth either by turbulent flow (in which particles move in all directions) or by laminar flow (in which adjacent sheets of air slip past one another). The transportation of wind-eroded material continues until the velocity of the wind can no longer sustain the size particle being transported or until the windblown particles collide with or cling to a surface feature. Find extra info at what is erosion website.
Soil erosion by water is linked to desertification processes. Its severity is prone to increase as a consequence of changes in the amount of precipitation as well as in its temporal and spatial distribution under prospective climate scenarios (IPCC 2014a). This will exert further pressure on ecosystems water balance and calls thus for adequate soil protection and conservation practices in the framework of ecosystems management (Coutinho and Antunes 2006; Jones et al. 2011; Panagos et al. 2015b, 2015c; Anaya-Romero et al. 2016; Seidl et al. 2016).
Perimeter Runoff Control : This is the practice of planting trees, shrubs, and ground cover around the perimeter of your farmland which impedes surface flows and keeps nutrients in the farmed soil. Using the grass way is a specialized way of handling perimeter runoff that uses surface friction to channel and dissipate runoff. Rows of tall trees are used in dense patterns around the farmland and prevent wind erosion. Evergreen trees can provide year-round protection but deciduous trees can be adequate as long as foliage is apparent during the seasons when the soil is bare.