Erosion control guides? 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.
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). Read extra info on erosion control guide.
Water-related forest ecosystem services include the provision, filtration and regulation of water, along with stream ecosystem support and water-related hazards control, e.g., soil protection from erosion and runoff (Bredemeier 2011). In this context, forest management practices that involve vegetation cover modifications may have a substantial impact on the provision of water-related ecosystem services (Ellison et al. 2012; Panagos et al. 2015b). Moreover, forest ecosystems interactions with water and energy cycles have been highlighted as the foundations for carbon storage, water resources distribution and terrestrial temperature balancing. Forest management may thus play a key role to meet climate change mitigation goals (Ellison et al. 2017).
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.