Soil conservation 1

Soil conservation
Soil conservation is a set of management strategies for prevention of soil being eroded from the earth’s surface or
becoming chemically altered by overuse, acidification, salinization or other chemical soil contamination. It is a
component of environmental soil science.

Crops and conservation

Decisions regarding appropriate crop rotation, cover crops, and planted windbreaks are central to the ability of
surface soils to retain their integrity, both with respect to erosive forces and chemical change from nutrient depletion.
Crop rotation is simply the conventional alternation of crops on a given field, so that nutrient depletion is avoided
from repetitive chemical uptake/deposition of single crop growth.
Cover crops serve the function of protecting the soil from erosion, weed establishment or excess evapotranspiration;
however, they may also serve vital soil chemistry functions[1] . For example, legumes can be ploughed under to
augment soil nitrates, and other plants have the ability to metabolize soil contaminants or alter adverse pH. The
cover crop Mucuna pruriens (velvet bean) has been used in Nigeria to increase phosphorus availability after
application of rock phosphate[2] . Some of these same precepts are applicable to urban landscaping, especially with
respect to ground-cover selection for erosion control and weed suppression. soil is one of the three main natural
resources alongside with water and air.

Windbreaks
Windbreaks are created by planting sufficiently dense
rows or stands of trees at the windward exposure of an
agricultural field subject to wind erosion[3] . Evergreen
species are preferred to achieve year-round protection;
however, as long as foliage is present in the seasons of
bare soil surfaces, the effect of deciduous trees may
also be adequate.

Erosion barriers on disturbed slope, Marin County, California

Soil conservation 2

Erosion prevention

Practices

There are also conventional practices that farmers have

invoked for centuries. These fall into two main
categories: contour farming and terracing, standard
methods recommended by the U.S. Natural Resources
Conservation Service , whose Code 330 is the common
standard. Contour farming was practiced by the ancient
Phoenicians, and is known to be effective for slopes
between two and ten percent[4] . Contour plowing can
increase crop yields from 10 to 50 percent, partially as Contour plowing, Pennsylvania 1938. The rows formed slow water
a result from greater soil retention. run-off during rainstorms to prevent soil erosion and allows the water
time to settle into the soil.
There are many erosion control methods that can be
used such as conservation tillage systems and crop rotation.
Keyline design is an enhancement of contour farming, where the total watershed properties are taken into account in
forming the contour lines. Terracing is the practice of creating benches or nearly level layers on a hillside setting.
Terraced farming is more common on small farms and in underdeveloped countries, since mechanized equipment is
difficult to deploy in this setting.
Human overpopulation is leading to destruction of tropical forests due to widening practices of slash-and-burn and
other methods of subsistence farming necessitated by famines in lesser developed countries. A sequel to the
deforestation is typically large scale erosion, loss of soil nutrients and sometimes total desertification.

Perimeter runoff control

Trees, shrubs and groundcovers are also effective perimeter treatment for soil erosion prevention, by insuring any
surface flows are impeded. A special form of this perimeter or inter-row treatment is the use of a “grassway” that
both channels and dissipates runoff through surface friction, impeding surface runoff, and encouraging infiltration of
the slowed surface water[5] .

Salinity management
The ions responsible for salination are: Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+ and Cl-.
Salinity is estimated to affect about one third of all the earth’s arable
land[6] . Soil salinity adversely affects the metabolism of most crops,
and erosion effects usually follow vegetation failure. Salinity occurs on
drylands from overirrigation and in areas with shallow saline water
tables. In the case of over-irrigation, salts are deposited in upper soil
layers as a byproduct of most soil infiltration; excessive irrigation
merely increases the rate of salt deposition. The best-known case of
shallow saline water table capillary action occurred in Egypt after the
Salt deposits on the former bed of the Aral Sea
1970 construction of the Aswan Dam. The change in the groundwater
level due to dam construction led to high concentration of salts in the
water table. After the construction, the continuous high level of the water table led to soil salination of previously
arable land.
Soil conservation 3

Use of humic acids may prevent excess salination, especially in locales where excessive irrigation was practiced.
The mechanism involved is that humic acids can fix both anions and cations and eliminate them from root zones. In
some cases it may be valuable to find plants that can tolerate saline conditions to use as surface cover until salinity
can be reduced; there are a number of such saline-tolerant plants, such as saltbush, a plant found in much of North
America and in the Mediterranean regions of Europe.

Soil percent hydrogen (pH)

Soil pH levels in Lake Titikaka tend to crop growth can occur naturally in some regions; it can also be induced by
acid rain or soil contamination from acids or bases. The role of soil pH is to control nutrient availability to
vegetation. The principal macronutrients (calcium, phosphorus, nitrogen, potassium, magnesium, sulfur) prefer
neutral to slightly alkaline soils. Calcium, magnesium and potassium are usually made available to plants via cation
exchange surfaces of organic material and clay soil surface particles. While acidification increases the initial
availability of these cations, the residual soil moisture concentrations of nutrient cations can fall to alarmingly low
levels after initial nutrient uptake. Moreover, there is no simple relationship of pH to nutrient availability because of
the complex combination of soil types, soil moisture regimes and meteorological factors.
See also : acid sulfate soil and alkaline soil

Soil organisms
Promoting the viability of beneficial soil organisms is an element of soil conservation; moreover this includes
macroscopic species, notably the earthworm, as well as microorganisms. Positive effects of the earthworm are
known well, as to aeration and promotion of macronutrient availability. When worms excrete egesta in the form of
casts, a balanced selection of minerals and plant nutrients is made into a form accessible for root uptake. US research
shows that earthworm casts are five times richer in available nitrogen, seven times richer in available phosphates and
eleven times richer in available potash than the surrounding upper150 mm of soil. The weight of casts produced may
be greater than 4.5 kg per worm per year. By burrowing, the earthworm is of value in creating soil porosity, creating
channels enhancing the processes of aeration and drainage[7] .
Soil conservation 4

Microorganisms

Soil microorganisms play a vital role in macronutrient wildlife.

For example, nitrogen fixation is carried out by free-living or
symbiotic bacteria. These bacteria have the nitrogenase enzyme
that combines gaseous nitrogen with hydrogen to produce
ammonia, which is then further converted by the bacteria to make
other organic compounds. Some nitrogen fixing bacteria such as
rhizobia live in the root nodules of legumes. Here they form a
mutualistic relationship with the plant, producing ammonia in
exchange for carbohydrates. In the case of the carbon cycle,
carbon is transferred within the biosphere as heterotrophs feed on
other organisms. This process includes the uptake of dead organic
material (detritus) by fungi and bacteria in the form of
fermentation or decay phenomena.

Mycorrhizae
Yellow fungus, a mushroom that assists in organic
Mycorrhizae are symbiotic associations between soil-dwelling decay. This file has an uncertain copyright status and
may be deleted. You can comment on its removal.
fungi and the roots of vascular plants. fungi helps increase the
availability of minerals, water, and organic nutrients to the plant,
while extracting sugars and amino acids from the plant. There are two main types, endomycorrhizae (which
penetrate the roots) and ectomycorrhizae (which resemble 'socks', forming a sheath around the roots). They were
discovered when scientists observed that certain seedlings failed to grow or prosper without soil from their native
environment.

Some soil microorganisms known as extremophiles have remarkable properties of adaptation to extreme
environmental conditions including temperature, pH and water deprivation.

Degradation and contamination

The viability of soil organisms can be compromised when insecticides and herbicides are applied to planting
regimes. Often there are unforeseen and unintended consequences of such chemical use in the form of death of
impaired functioning of soil organisms. Thus any use of pesticides should only be undertaken after thorough
understanding of residual toxicities upon soil organisms as well as terrestrial ecological components.
Killing soil microorganisms is a deleterious impact of slash and burn agricultural methods. With the surface
temperatures generated, virtual annilation of soil and vegetative cover organisms are destroyed, and in many
environments these effects can be virtually irreversible (at least for generations of mankind). Shifting cultivation is
also a farming system that often employs slash and burn as one of its elements.
Systems, most of which have an adverse effect upon soil quality and plant metabolism. While the role of pH has
been discussed above, heavy metals, solvents, petroleum hydrocarbons, herbicides and pesticides also contribute soil
residues that are of potential concern. Some of these chemicals are totally extraneous to the agricultural landscape,
but others (notably herbicides and pesticides) are intentionally introduced to serve a short term function. Many of
these added chemicals have long half-lives in soil, and others degrade to produce derivative chemicals that may be
either persistent or pernicious. One alternative to chemicals in agriculture is soil steaming. Steam sterilizes the soil
by killing almost all beneficial and harmful micro organisms. However no harmful remains are left. Soil health may
even increase since steam unlocks nutrients in the soil which may lead to better plant growth after the thermal
treatment.
Soil conservation 5

Typically the expense of soil contamination remediation cannot be justified in an agricultural economic analysis,
since cleanup costs are generally quite high; often remediation is mandated by state and county environmental health
agencies based upon human health risk issues.

Mineralization
To allow plants full realization of their phytonutrient potential, active mineralization of the soil is sometimes
undertaken. This can be in the natural form of adding crushed rock or can take the form of chemical soil supplement.
In either case the purpose is to combat mineral depletion of the soil. There are a broad range of minerals that can be
added including common substances such as phosphorus and more exotic substances such as zinc and selenium.
There is extensive research on the phase transitions of minerals in soil with aqueous contact[8] .
The process of flooding can bring significant bedload sediment to an alluvial plain. While this effect may not be
desirable if floods endanger life or if the eroded sediment originates from productive land, this process of addition to
a floodplain is a natural process that can rejuvenate soil chemistry through mineralization and macronutrient
addition.

See also
• Conservation biology
• Conservation ethic
• Conservation movement
• Ecology
• Environmentalism
• Environmental protection
• Environmental soil science
• Habitat conservation
• Keyline design
• Land degradation
• Microorganism
• Natural environment
• Natural capital
• Natural resource
• Renewable resource
• Restoration ecology
• Sediment transport
• Slash-and-burn
• Soil contamination
• Soils retrogression and degradation
• Soil steam sterilization
• Surface runoff
• Sustainability
• Sustainable gardening
• Sustainable landscaping
• Water conservation
• Sustainable agriculture
• Liming (soil)
Soil conservation 6

References
[1] Y.C. Lu, K. B. Watkins, J. R. Teasdale, and A. A. Abdul-Baki. Cover crops in sustainable food production,. Food Reviews International
16:121-157 (2000)
[2] B.O. Vanlauwe, C. Nwoke, J. Diels, N. Sanginga, R. J. Carsky, J. Deckers, and R. Merckx, Utilization of rock phosphate by crops on a
representative topo-sequence in the Northern Guinea savanna zone of Nigeria: response by Mucuna pruriens, Lablab purpureus and maize,
Soil Biology & Biochemistry 32:2063-2077. (2000)
[3] Wolfgang Summer, Modelling Soil Erosion, Sediment Transport and Closely Related Hydrological Processes entry by Mingyuan Du,
Peiming Du, Taichi Maki and Shigeto Kawashima, “Numerical modeling of air flow over complex terrain concerning wind erosion”,
International Association of Hydrological Sciences publication no. 249 (1998) ISBN 1-901502-50-3
[4] Predicting soil erosion by water, a guide to conservation planning in the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation, U.S. USDA Agricultural
Research Service, Agricultural handbook no. 703 (1997)
[5] Perimeter landscaping of Carneros Business Park, Lumina Technologies, Santa Rosa, Ca., prepared for Sonoma County, Ca. (2002)
[6] Dan Yaron, Salinity in Irrigation and Water Resources, Marcel Dekker, New York (1981) ISBN 0-8247-6741-1
[7] Bill Mollison, Permaculture: A Designer's Manual, Tagari Press, (1988). Increases in porosity enhance infiltration and thus reduce adverse
effects of surface runoff
[8] Arthur T. Hubbard, Encyclopedia of Surface and Colloid Science Vol 3, Santa Barbara, California Science Project, Marcel Dekker, New York
(2004) ISBN 0-8247-0759-1
Article Sources and Contributors 7

Article Sources and Contributors

Soil conservation  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=383222917  Contributors: ABF, Alan Liefting, Alansohn, Anlace, Ansell, Arakunem, Astral, Awickert, Batmanand, Bkell,
Boris Barowski, Capricorn42, Circeus, Clicketyclack, CommonsDelinker, Conscious, Courcelles, Covalent, CzarB, DS1953, Daven200520, Ddurant, Dinnerbone, DoubleBlue, Droll, Edgar181,
El C, Elockid, Fratrep, Gaudete, Gobonobo, Graham87, Gregbard, Gurch, Hooloovoo, IceCreamAntisocial, Igoldste, J.delanoy, JForget, Jarroyo3903, Jerry, Kaiba, Kappa, Larry balls, Ligulem,
Look2See1, Luna Santin, Mandarax, Maxis ftw, Melsaran, Mentifisto, Michael Devore, N5iln, Oatmeal batman, P.B. Pilhet, Paleorthid, Pengo, Pflatau, Phantomsteve, PoccilScript, Pollinator,
Priyank Faldu, Prodego, R.J.Oosterbaan, Rabacoa, RexNL, Ronhjones, Sam Blacketer, Severo, Sfahey, Sietse Snel, Simon12, SoSaysChappy, SoilMan2007, Spellmaster, Svick, Tbone55, The
Thing That Should Not Be, Tusharbhole, Urjanhai, VMS Mosaic, Versus22, Vgranucci, VirtualDelight, Vvneagleone, Woohookitty, Wtmitchell, Xp54321, Yeomansplowchris1, 219 anonymous
edits

Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors

Image:Mmerosionrazorback.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Mmerosionrazorback.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: Anlace
Image:Contour plowing.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Contour_plowing.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: DialUp, Monkeybait, 1 anonymous edits
Image:Aralship2.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Aralship2.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: User:Staecker
Image:K 1033CR08-9 Yellow fungus on stalk.jpeg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:K_1033CR08-9_Yellow_fungus_on_stalk.jpeg  License: GNU Free Documentation
License  Contributors: Jurema Oliveira, MGA73, Plugwash, Qualc1, Ranveig, Wst

License
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
http:/ / creativecommons. org/ licenses/ by-sa/ 3. 0/