Please please someone grade this. Full human impact on soils.

estebancambias

This is very long. please just grade my answer, it would be much appreciated.

It is estimated that Humans cause 10 times more soil erosion than any other process.

Point 1 : In the Mezzogiorno soils are thin and exhausted, this is mainly down to Human activity. For centuries Humans have damaged the soil of the region.
Due to the high population pressures that have existed over the centuries, much of the region has expierenced deforestation. This led to soils being washed from the uplands during winter rain accumulating in river beds, thus blocking waterways
The Mezziogiorno was and remains heavily dependant on agriculture. Because of this overgrazing has had an impact on soil fertility. Increased amount of animal numblers namely goats and sheep have caused vegetation to be lost on the hillsides, due to the grazing itself and these animals trampling it. As a result soil is depleted of it's nutrients. Increased amounts of moisture is evaporated on soil which results in soil being exposed to wind, example the sirocco which blows in from the Sahara and rain during the winter months. These factors have combined to lead to soil erosion. So it is evident that in the Mezzogiorno human impact has had an adverse effect on soils.

Point 2: In the Sahel human activity has been detrimnetal to the soil. Human impact on the soils began to have a negative impact on the soils when the population of the Sahel began to increase greatly. Because of this drastic increase in population farmers were forced to change their farming methods as land became more sparse. Farmers were forced to grow crops on more marginal lands. As a result of this increase in population, more food had to be produced and so the ''fallow year'' was abandoned. This led to overcropping, and eventually the soils became sapped of it's nutrients. Due to this human activity of overgrazing the land became very sterile.

In the sahel owning cattle was a sign of prestige, this led to the large ownership of cattle. Boreholes were created to water their animals. Eventually these boreholes led to soil salinisation.

So it is evident that in the Sahel, that human activity has sped up soil erosion. This is because vegetation cover has been removed by human activities meaning the less humus was added to the soil. The long term effect has been desertification.

Point 3: In the Amazonia Rainforest in Brazil, they are expierencing the same problem as the Sahel. Rapid population growth over the last 40 years meant that the rainforests were felled for settlement. Deforestation and overcropping have led to large scale losses of soil in the amazonia basin.
The damage of the soil is mainly caused due to the human removal of the canapy of vegetatiob. This means theres is no replacement humus to keep soil fertile. Existing nutrients are quicky leached of their soils, leaving it infertile and exposed to terrential downpours in the basin. This is all a result of human activity.

In the basin, substince farming is persued. Farmers adopt the ''slash and burn method'' cutting down trees. The ash does make the soil fertile for a short time but eventually rainfall washes away topsoil.


The extent of soil erosion by human activity can be seen in the fact that 400 million tonnes of soil is eroded in Africa every year alone. If something is not done, and soil conservation is not put in place then then human safety is at risk.

Nehpets

d2

because I'm a mean bastard

sternn

Why is this based on 3 different biomes?? Dont questions only relate to 1 biome?

Dean-16

sternn wrote:

Why is this based on 3 different biomes?? Dont questions only relate to 1 biome?

naw man, u can use various examplesin questions like this!
and on topic,id give it a c1

tolosenc

A2. 34 SRPs and 6/8 for cohesion. Try to make your sentences less fact packed. Only 1 SRP per sentence, remember?