Joshua Cayanong 3rd Year- BSC3A

STS 11

Chapter 4. Human Impact on Soil

Lesson 3. Soil erosion

1. Have a look at the picture below. What do you is this? What is your impression about the
photo? What do you think caused this? What do you think would be its impacts, if any?
Have you personally seen something similar to this (i.e., seen in real life and not just videos
or photos)? If so, kindly describe it.

As we look at the picture, the land or soil is left exposed to strong winds, hard rains and
flowing water that leaves it vulnerable to erosion. It may be caused by human activities like
deforestation for agriculture, overgrazing, logging, or construction. If the soil erosion occurs,
its impacts maybe include impaired soil productivity, desertification, land degradation, water
pollution and sedimentation, flooding, airborne dust pollution or damage to infrastrature. As
what happened near in our place, because of the overgrazing, most of the vegetation cover
reduces and the land partially damage that led to high rates of erosion during heavy rains.
Because of the serious damage of the land, the nutrients of the soil were being loss that
reduces the ability of the plants to grow. Until now, this place is prone to flooding.
2. Why should we be concerned about soil erosion? What is it and what are its impacts?

- Soil erosion is a serious problem and serious concern for agriculture. It removes the topsoil
and reduces the soil fertility that causes lower food production. If the soil erosion
continuously accelerates, it can impact the agricultural production because of the loss of
nutrients that affect the plant growth. It also leads to pollution and sedimentation in rivers
causing the declines of marine species. Because of the soil degradation, incapable of
sipping or holding the water will cause flooding which can cause serious damage to roads or
other infrastructures.

3. Why are forests important for the prevention of soil erosion?

- Forests play important roles in preventing and reducing soil erosion. The large canopies of
trees will help reducing the impact of the rain to the ground to prevent soil erosion. The large
groupings of trees help to reduce the amount of soil that is washed away because of their
leaves and branches. The presence of humus that absorbs the impact of raindrops as
having high infiltration capacities, their roots also hold the soil and stabilize the trees that
make the water drains into the ground. Their macropores also produced by their roots and
their rich soil fauna that have an ability to transmit large amount of water.

Lesson 4. Soil Conservation

1. (Reflection) In what ways are you contributing to the degradation of soil?

- There are many ways that I am contributing to the degradation of the soil. Based on my
experience and activities that I have done, the ways that I did to contribute to decrease soil
fertility or soil deterioration are burning garbage, making compost pit, pulling grass plant, and
cultivating.

2. What is soil conservation? Why is there a need to practice soil conservation?

- Soil conservation is practices used to protect the soil from degradation, treating the soil as
a living ecosystem and producing a fertile healthy environment. It also relates to water
supply and to have enough food in the future. It helps reducing climate change, providing
healthy ecosystems and ensuring healthy agricultural yields through sustainable farming
practices since soil is the foundation of plant life. However the most important of it is to
prevent soil erosion that causes soil deterioration or decrease soil fertility, pollutions or
flooding and to improve food security.

3. Do you know of an area where soil erosion is already a problem? Describe the area and
suggest which of the following soil conservation measures should be applied and why?

- As what I observed somewhere in our place, the soil erosion occurs because of the
overgrazing. Most of land was damaged and its vegetation cover was reduced. This place
prone to flooding since there were no tress and plant can absorb water and hold the soil.
The aide of this problem that should be applied among the following soil conservation
measures is the revegetation. Revegetation is the process by which is replanting and
rebuilding the soil. Through this process, the place can recover for having enough trees and
plants again. Because of this, it can have high infiltration capacities that absorb water and
hold the soil in preventing soil erosion and flooding.