According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) soil is one of the world’s most

fragile resources. In the past 150 years the there has been a global loss of half of the

world’s soil. Brazil’s Amazon river have been the site to gold mining and the exploitation

of oil, contributed to water contamination and soil degradation.

What causes soil loss is the increase dependency of natural resources often from

deforestation. As, land is cleared of any vegetation, so is the soil making soil erosion

likely. Among deforestation, overgrazing and over chemicals degrades the soil.

Lands often loose fertile soil without the presence of trees, because of the

agricultural crops that cannot hold fertile soil. Crop producers continue to look for new

land to deforest. Agricultural plants cannot hold fertile soil and eventually, once topsoil is

exposed soil will dry out or run into rivers. The reduction of land exposes the topsoil to

wind and rain reduces the plant’s ability to grow; and the harm to microbes in the soil.

Pesticides and other harmful chemicals disrupt the balance of the microorganisms in the

soil. Although farmers have substantial yields in bringing about crops, the use of

pesticides brought about the growth of damaging bacteria.

The loss of fertile soil means the loss of arable lands making it impossible for

agriculture. Due to deforestation and pesticides, sedimentation runs off into rivers,

damaging the marine ecology and the human community dependent of the river and

increasing the likelihood for flooding. Any converted land from a forest or flood plain is

less likely to hold water, making flooding more possible.

Pick an historic collapse of a civilization related to the failure of soils and write a brief

summary.

- or –
Pick an historic collapse of an ecosystem related to the disruption of a biogeochemical

cycle and write a brief summary.