Erosion On The Soil A Huge Problem To Any Living Habitat

Source:istock

My dearest people of Hive, I greet you all!

It's a pleasure to be here today in this moment of crises and injust/corrupt government manipulations. It's a sunny Saturday here in Southeastern part of the country called Nigeria. I wish you a happy new month of October 2021. Once again, happy peaceful and enjoyable weekend. I
To be plain, my aim here is to enlighten us on the causes and effect of the displacement seen on the top layer of the soil as it explains the main topic of the day which I titled "erosion on the soil a huge problem to any habitat around the globe". As a result of the course of study, we are going to concentrate on soil erosion.

         INTRODUCTION

For proper understanding of this topic, I would start by defining some key words with regards to the course of study. Let's look at the term 'Erosion'. In a simple term, erosion could be defined as a washing away of a layer of something either rocks, soil,cliff etc. Another term 'Soil' can be defined as any material that has a mixture of sand,mineral natural resources and organic matters and can support the lives of living organism. Therefore Erosion on the soil means degradation on the soil through the displacement of the soil surface. The occurrence of the erosion of the soil is naturally processed by some agents like human, animals and climate changes like when wind,animal and plants respectively. The displacement here means the carrying away of loosed particles of sand/rocks to another geographical location. Displacement here means when the force of gravity causes the movement of rock to sediment to a different surface downwardly or outwardly.

Source:istock

##HUMAN ACTIVITIES THAT INCREASES EROSION ON THE SOIL

A lot of human activities has in one way or the other caused erosion on the soil and some led to a very higher increase in erosion. Below are some of them;

       ROAD AND URBANIZATION

Source:istock
The process involved in urbanism compact soil while constructing roads and drainage system. This is done by covering the land with concrete and this increase larger runoff of water to local waterways and can causes water bank erosion. as this there is an

          LAND DEGRADATION

This happens when there's steadily application of fertilizer on the soil leads as it can lead to soil pollution because it prevents the land from regenerating.

          DEFORESTATION

Source:istock
Deforestation is a man-made activities that causes and encourages soil erosion. Man in his quest for timber and plywood,cuts down timber trees with large canopies that protects the soil from excessive sunlight as well reduces the intensity of rainfall not to get to the soil directly. The absence of these trees in turn increases soil tillage and degradation.

      AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES

Source:istock
Aside the natural phenomenon, some man-made activities and operations also contributes largely to the erosion of the soil. The basic proponent of the soil erosion is the tillage of land by man during farming Man tills land in order to cultivate his or her crops and farm inputs. Prior to our present day where larger mechanized equipment are used to carry out this farming activities, the use of farm machines such as tractors,bulldozers etc bring up the a problem as it goes deep into the ground and carries out a large part of the soil. This now presents the lossed soil for carriage by natural agents like water,wind etc. Agricultural activities like pesticides and fertilization also kills some organisms that helps to hold the soil together.

      CLIMATIC CHANGE

Climatic changes refers to the condition of the atmosphere at a particular period of time for example: if there is an increase in rainfall for a longer period of time, there will be soil erosion as there's increase in rainfall and it will continue to wash away the loosed upper layer of the soil. Erosion can said to occur then through flooding.

         ∆CONTROLS OF SOIL EROSION∆

The entire public should be conscious of the need to prevent or rather provide a remediation to curb the rate at which erosion has eaten deep into our environment. Without wasting your time, below tells us some possible means to prevent erosion on the soil. They are:

ENCOURAGING AFFORESTATION

Source:istock
Afforestation means the planting of new trees other than cutting down trees. By encouraging it, trees with high and larger canopies would at least reduce the rate at which rain falls directly to the soil.

TERRACING
To terrace means to create or build something either with wood,hard grasses or concretes. The building structure is built-in a slanting or slope form to allow easy drainage. So, terracing helps to prevent erosion.

MATTING

Source:istock
Matting is just like mulching but it is a process of covering the ground using some biodegradable materials. Materials like thick wood backs and some wood fibres etc are used for matting. This process encourages the increase in fertility of the soil.

MULCHING

Source:istock
In this practice covering of the soil is involved but, materials used are vegetative covers like shrubs and trees with large higher canopies. The canopies prevents winds and water(rainfall). Thus, mulching helps to prevent erosion.

           EFFECTS OF EROSION IN OUR ENVIRONMENT

Erosion has caused more harm to our environment than good and the following are some effects:

It causes water pollution.
It reduces soil fertility as it washes away some top nutrients above the soil.
It causes the loss of topsoil.
It reduces soil acidity level.
It reduces soil organic matter.
It can cause breakage and tillage of soil rocks.
It can cause earthquake.

          CONCLUSION

Erosion has been and is one of the major problems facing our society today. In some parts of the world today, the government pays little or no attention to the problems caused by erosion especially those in the rural areas of her country. But with the knowledge on the causes of erosion and some possible means to prevent it, either a lay man or even an informed man of any society can adopt some local means or measures on how to prevent and control erosion. Hence, practice them without waiting or minding the behaviour of her government. Have a nice weekend my people. Thank you for Reading❤️🥰❤️
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