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physical - wind, rain, freezing and thawing chemical - reactions with water, acids, or other materials biological - organisms (such as lichens) break down the rocks
Effects of overgrazing
strips land and causes erosion animals trample and compact the soil
decreases fertility
Streamside ecosystem before and after cattle grazing - this is the same location!
Dust Bowl
occurred in 1930s - poor farming practices caused serious erosion problems drought made conditions worse thousands of farmers left their land and had to rely on governmental help dry soil, stripped of its vegetation, blew on wind traveling all the way across the country (people in New York City had houses filled with eroded dust)
shelterbelts (windbreaks)
- rows of trees or other tall, perennial plants that are planted along the edges of fields to slow the wind
roots of trees and other plants trap and hold soil particles when vegetation is stripped from an area, wind can blow the soil away and rain can wash soil into rivers and streams
Sustainable agriculture
contour farming plowing furrows across a hillside, perpendicular to the slope terraces - level platforms cut into steep hillsides
narrows human diet places world food security at risk - 90% of our food comes from only a few crop and animal species
Sustainable agriculture
crop rotation
alternating the crops grown field from one season or year to the next cover crops protect the soil when the main crops arent planted
Sustainable agriculture
intercropping planting different types of crops in alternating bands or other spatially mixed arrangements reduces pest populations and prevents erosion
Sustainable agriculture
it's easier and cheaper to prevent salinization than to fix it don't plant waterintensive crops in areas without enough rainfall irrigate efficiently supply only the water the crop requires drip irrigation targets water directly to plants
Fertilizers
inorganic fertilizer use has skyrocketed over-applying fertilizer can ruin the soil and cause water pollution nutrient runoff causes eutrophication of aquatic ecosystems nitrates leach through soil and contaminate groundwater
manure, crop residues, fresh vegetation compost = produced when decomposers break down organic matter
pesticides are expensive and not usually available to subsistence farmers pest populations develop resistance (review: natural selection)
also kills valuable, non-pest species (such as bees and other pollinators) pesticide residues are passed up through food chains, poisoning upper trophic levels (bioaccumulation)
Bioaccumulation of pesticides
IPM uses multiple techniques to suppress pests and minimize use of pesticides
using pesticides that are specific for particular insect pests (and not harmful to predator insects) using pesticides only when absolutely necessary economically beneficial for farmers and helps the environment as well
planted new strains of insect resistant rice since many of their serious insect pests had developed resistance to pesticides, pesticide use was dramatically reduced those pesticides still used killed pests without harming helpful natural predators (such as spiders)
Indonesia continued
success of this program depended on extensive farmer education and implementation of methods that were suited to the environmental and social conditions of the country
(Note: the people working in the fields will give you an idea of the size of the fields)
Rice fields
Sustainable agriculture
organic farming
uses no synthetic fertilizers or pesticides healthier for you and the environment
a grain that comes from the Andes Mountains of South America origins are truly ancient was one of the three staple foods, along with corn and potatoes, of the Inca civilization contains more protein than any other grain - an average of 16 % compared with 7.5 % for rice and 14 % for wheat some varieties of quinoa are more than 20 percent protein
Quinoa grain