Soil Conservation - How it works

billions of Years in the Making

Earth's present wealth of soil is the result of hundreds of millions of years' worth of weathering, erosion, and sedimentation. Once, long ago, there was no soil, only rock, and it took eons' worth of weathering to dislodge particles of those rocks. These rocks, when combined with organic materials, became the basis for soil, but before the soil could even begin to take shape, a number of things had to fall into place. Chief among these was the formation of something that, at first glance, at least, does not seem to have a great deal of bearing on the soil: the atmosphere.

In combination with water in the hydrosphere (e.g., streams and rivers) as well as water in the form of evaporated moisture and precipitation in the air itself, the blanket of gases we call our atmosphere has been essential to the formation and sustenance of Earth's soil. This importance goes beyond the obvious point that rain transports water to the soil, thus making possible the abundance of plant life that grows in it. Rain, of course, is of unquestionable importance, but it is only one of several factors associated with the atmosphere (including the water vapor it contains) that have a role in shaping soil as we know it.

To move weathered rocks from highlands to lowlands, where they can become sediment and eventually begin to form soil, it is necessary to subject the rocks themselves to a process of erosion. And erosion—aside from erosion caused by gravity, which usually is considered weathering—can take place only when an atmosphere exists, along with water in the air and on the land. The chief agents of erosion are wind, water (both flowing and in the form of precipitation), and frozen water in the form of icy glaciers, all of which depend on an atmosphere or water or both (see Glaciology).

Erosion transports not only rock sediment but organic material as well. Together, these two ingredients are as essential to making soil as tea bags and water are to making tea. Obviously, the greater the organic content, the richer the soil, and here again the air plays a part. It is important that deeper layers of soil receive a supply of air from the surface to sustain the life of subterranean organisms, who not only process nutrients through the soil but (by their burrowing activities) also aerate it, or make air available to it.

A Product of Its Environment

Soil, like most people, is a product of the environment in which it was formed. That environment has five major influencing factors: the nature of the "parent material," or the rock from which the soil was derived; the local climate; the presence of living organisms; local topography; and the passage of time.

Specific classes of mineral break apart in characteristic ways, and the size of the pieces into which the original weathered rock is broken has a great deal to do with the character of the soil that it forms. This does not mean, however, that relatively large rock pieces necessarily will yield the worst soils, since erosive forces will continue to work on the rock, pulling out its nutrient-rich mineral wealth and gradually acting to break it apart.

As for climate, it is clear that rain and sun are essential for the growth of plant matter, but, of course, too much of either or both is harmful. (See Soil for a discussion of soils in rainforests.) Plants aid the soil by dying and feeding it with more organic material, but they are not the only types of organism in the soil. Indeed, the soil constitutes an ecosystem in and of itself, a realm rich in biodiversity, in which various biogeochemical cycles are played out, and through which energy flows as part of the operation of the larger Earth system.

The underground world teems with creatures ranging from bacteria to moles and prairie dogs (in some regions), each of which fulfills a function. These functions include aerating the soil by burrowing; processing material though ingestion and elimination of waste, thus converting compounds into nutrients that the soil can use; and mixing organic material with minerals. Organisms' final contribution to the soil comes when they die, as their bodies become material that feeds the earth through decomposition.

Topography, or elevation, plays a major role in making possible erosion, itself a process that can be either beneficial or detrimental. The question of whether it is one or the other may be a matter of perspective, or rather elevation. From the standpoint of lowland areas, which receive the wealth of the upland areas in the form of nutrient-rich runoff carried by gravity or flowing media, such as wind or water, erosion is a good thing. Matters do not look as good from the viewpoint of the mountains, which lose much of their best soil to low-lying areas.

The influence of time in shaping soils—as well as much else about the soil itself—can be appreciated by studying soil horizons, the various strata, or layers, of soil that lie beneath the surface. The most basic division of layers is between the A, B, and C horizons, which differ in depth and physical and chemical characteristics as well as age.

SOIL HORIZONS.

Above the A horizon, or topsoil, lies humus, decomposing organic material that eventually will become soil. The A horizon itself contains a large amount of organic matter, and thus it may be black, or at least much darker than the soil below it. Between the A and B horizons is a sandy, silty later called the E horizon. Then comes the B horizon, or subsoil, which starts at a depth as shallow as 1 ft. (0.3 m) or deeper than 5 ft. (1.5 m).

Lacking a great deal of organic material but still rich in nutrients, the B horizon has a sizable impact on the A horizon. Minerals—both healthful and harmful—may rise up from the B to the A horizon, and the ability of the B horizon to hold in moisture from above greatly affects the moisture of the A horizon soil. (See Soil for a discussion of how salt deposits in the B horizon affect topsoil in deserts.) Together, A and B horizons constitute what is called the solum, or true soil.

The C horizon is called regolith. It is the home for the rocks of the parent material, which has given up much of its nutrient riches in fortifying the soil that lies above it. This far below the surface, there is no sign of plant or animal life, and below the C horizon is the R horizon, or bedrock—the top of the layers of rock and metal that descend all the way to the planet's core. Once again depths vary, with bedrock as shallow as 5-10 ft. (1.5-3 m) or as deep as 0.5 mi. (0.8 km) or more.

Differences Between Soils

The depth of the soil is a measure of wealth—wealth, that is, in terms of natural resources. A sheath over much of the solid earth, soil separates the planet's surface from its rocky interior and preserves the lives of the plants and animals

A CLOUD OF TOPSOIL IS PICKED UP BY THE WIND NEAR B OISE C ITY , O KLAHOMA , DURING THE DUST BOWL OF THE 1930 S . I N SOME CASES , WIND REMOVED 3-4 IN . (7.6-10.6 CM ) OF TOPSOIL , TURNING ACREAGE THAT ONCE RIPPLED WITH WHEAT INTO A DESERTLIKE WASTELAND . (

AP/Wide World Photos

. Reproduced by permission. )

that live on and in it. It receives rain and other forms of precipitation, which it filters through its layers, as we discuss later, in the context of leaching. Thus, it not only provides water to organisms above and below its surface but also helps prevent flooding by acting as a reservoir.

A great deal of soil's volume is air, for which it also acts as a reservoir. Underground creatures depend on this air and also help circulate it by burrowing. This circulation, in turn, provides oxygen to the roots of plants and makes the soil more hospitable to growth. Even though soil performs these and other life-preserving functions, it would be a mistake to assume that all soils are the same. In fact, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has identified 11 major soil orders, each of which is divided into suborders, groups, subgroups, families, and series.

The specificity of soil types, as reflected in the identification and naming of soil series, illustrates the complexity of what at first seems a very simple thing. In fact, soils can be extremely specific, with names that reflect local landmarks. If soils share enough similarities, they are grouped together in a soil series, but it is safe to say that there are thousands of individual soil types on Earth.

Conserving Soil

On a broad level, there are certain types of environment more or less favorable to the formation of rich soil. Some of these types are discussed in the essay Soil, and specific examples of environmental problems are provided later in this essay. Yet almost any environment can become unfavorable to plant growth if proper soil-conservation procedures are not observed.

The phrase soil conservation refers to the application of principles for maintaining the productivity and health of agricultural land by control of wind-and water-induced soil erosion. For the remainder of this essay, we examine the dangers involved in such erosion and the use of measures to prevent it. In so doing, we give the matter of soil conservation a somewhat larger scope than the preceding definition might suggest. Since soil affects the world far beyond farms, it seems only fitting to approach it not as a concern merely of agriculture but of the environment in general.

Erosion is spoken of here in a general sense, but for a more in-depth discussion of erosive processes, see Erosion. Mass Wasting examines dramatic erosion-related phenomena, such as landslides. Biogeochemical Cycles contains some discussion of erosion, inasmuch as it helps circulate life-sustaining chemical elements throughout the various earth systems. Indeed, it is important to remember that erosion is not always negative in its results; on the contrary, it is a valuable process by which landforms are shaped. The erosive processes we explore here, however, generally contribute to the loss of soil health and productivity.