Human activity triggering "global soil change"
source: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/02/080205-anthropocene.html
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- JanforGore
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Today about 50 percent of the world's soils are subject to direct management by humans. But global soil change is also occurring in more remote areas due to the spread of contaminants and alterations in climate, Richter's report says.
Worldwide, soils are being transformed by human activities in ways that we poorly understand, with possibly dire implications.
"Properties and processes in the soil are more dynamic and susceptible to change than we previously thought," Richter said.
"Only recently are we documenting how [many aspects of soil chemistry and composition] are all highly responsive to human activities."
Rattan Lal, of Ohio State University in Columbus, is a past president of the Soil Science Society of America.
He said that severe soil degradation is increasing globally at a rate of 12.4 million to 24.7 million acres (5 million to 10 million hectares) annually.
In parts of Africa and Asia where the problem is most severe, soils are simply put to too many uses, Lal said.
"Crop residue is taken away for competing uses, animal dung is used as cooking fuel rather than as soil amendment, topsoil is used for brick making, and nutrients are harvested and not replaced," he said.
Such local impacts are causing global problems. Soil degradation plays much a larger role in climate change, for example, than was previously suspected.
That's because organic matter in soils store vast amounts of carbon—more than is present in the atmosphere and in all land vegetation combined.
But heavily cultivated and degraded soils lose their carbon-storing ability as exposed organic matter breaks down, noted geologist Bruce Wilkinson of Syracuse University in New York.
"Over the past half century or so, global soils have lost approximately a hundred billion tons of carbon [in the form of carbon dioxide] to the atmosphere through such exposure," said Wilkinson, who was not involved in Richter's study.
Recent studies by Wilkinson and others also show that humans are now the predominant geological force operating on the planet.
Rates of sedimentation and erosion caused by human activities—mainly agriculture—are ten times higher those attributable to natural processes.
And on agricultural land, he says, soil is being lost ten times faster than it is being replaced.
"Humans are rapidly consuming the global soil reservoir," Wilkinson said. "In light of the growing global population, this is obviously a very serious change."
Worldwide, soils are being transformed by human activities in ways that we poorly understand, with possibly dire implications.
"Properties and processes in the soil are more dynamic and susceptible to change than we previously thought," Richter said.
"Only recently are we documenting how [many aspects of soil chemistry and composition] are all highly responsive to human activities."
Rattan Lal, of Ohio State University in Columbus, is a past president of the Soil Science Society of America.
He said that severe soil degradation is increasing globally at a rate of 12.4 million to 24.7 million acres (5 million to 10 million hectares) annually.
In parts of Africa and Asia where the problem is most severe, soils are simply put to too many uses, Lal said.
"Crop residue is taken away for competing uses, animal dung is used as cooking fuel rather than as soil amendment, topsoil is used for brick making, and nutrients are harvested and not replaced," he said.
Such local impacts are causing global problems. Soil degradation plays much a larger role in climate change, for example, than was previously suspected.
That's because organic matter in soils store vast amounts of carbon—more than is present in the atmosphere and in all land vegetation combined.
But heavily cultivated and degraded soils lose their carbon-storing ability as exposed organic matter breaks down, noted geologist Bruce Wilkinson of Syracuse University in New York.
"Over the past half century or so, global soils have lost approximately a hundred billion tons of carbon [in the form of carbon dioxide] to the atmosphere through such exposure," said Wilkinson, who was not involved in Richter's study.
Recent studies by Wilkinson and others also show that humans are now the predominant geological force operating on the planet.
Rates of sedimentation and erosion caused by human activities—mainly agriculture—are ten times higher those attributable to natural processes.
And on agricultural land, he says, soil is being lost ten times faster than it is being replaced.
"Humans are rapidly consuming the global soil reservoir," Wilkinson said. "In light of the growing global population, this is obviously a very serious change."
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SeaJade
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Yes, balanced solutions are indeed right at hand, if only humans could take their blind greed out of the equation - we might get somewhere....
- 2 years ago
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SeaJade
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JanforGore
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"Over the past half century or so, global soils have lost approximately a hundred billion tons of carbon [in the form of carbon dioxide] to the atmosphere through such exposure,"
Wow, can you wrap your head around that? The solutions to climate change are right before our eyes... and under our feet!
- 2 years ago
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JanforGore
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JanforGore
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'Dirt.'
- 2 years ago
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JanforGore
