An Introduction Towards One Of

The Massive Soil Issues…

 BROUGHT TO YOU BY…
{HS 1- ST. AGNES 08-09}
•John Allan Yayen
--- research
•Reynold Christian
Zuniga
--- evaluation
•Maria Angelika
Villegas
--- output
•Karen See
--- PowerPoint &
images
“We know more about
the
movement of the
celestial bodies than
about the soil
underfoot.”

---Leonardo Da
Vinci
TABLE OF • The Soil Itself
--- 6 - 9
CONTENTS • Land Degradation
--- 10 - 28
• Trends Of Land
Degradation
--- 29 - 35
• Vital Statistics
--- 36 - 49
• Opinions On The Matter
--- 50 - 52
• The Summary
--- 53 - 55
 THE SOIL
ITSELF
Things You Are Just Ought To
Know…
^_^
And before we proceed to the topic itself,
let’s first go over some guidelines on soil…

If there is anything on Earth that

seems simple and ordinary, it is the
soil beneath our feet. Other than
farmers, people hardly think of it
except when tending to their lawns,
and even when we do turn our
attention to the soil, we tend to view
it as little more than a place where
grass grows and earthworms crawl.

Yet the soil is a

complex mixture of minerals and
organic material, built up over
billions of years, and without it, life
on this planet would be impossible.
And there in the picture can you see
the different soil regions spread across
the world.

• And not only that,

soil is home to a vast array of
species that continually process it,
enriching it as they do.

• Nor are all soils

the same; in fact, there are a great
variety of soil environments and a
great deal of difference between
the soil at the surface and that
which lies further down, closer to
the bedrock.
Well, now that you had an idea on
what soil is, it is now time we
move on with…

LAND
DEGRADATION
And like any other, there are what we call
“soil issues”. And it just so happens that
“land degradation” is sadly one of them.
Land degradation
---means reduction, or loss of the
biological or
economic productivity and
complexity of
rainfed cropland, irrigated
cropland, or.
range, pasture, forest and
woodlands

And it is resulting from land

uses, or from a process or combination of
processes, including processes arising from
human activities and habitation patterns,
such as…
Soil erosion

Deterioration of the
properties
of soil

Long-term loss of natural

vegetation.
How does the soil get affected by this?

Based from the graph, it shows that

certain processes happen especially when
land degradation takes place. And these
processes are…
 Process # 1 –-- “Erosion”

Erosion is the term

given to soil loss due to the
mobilization of topsoil by the
forces of water and wind. Wind
and water move the eroded
particles to some other location,
where it is deposited as
sediment. In other words, soil
erosion is a natural process that
Could either be caused
removes soil frombytheone of the
land.
following:
{Farming} {Building}
{Logging}
{Overgrazing} {Off-road
Vehicles}
{Fire}
 Process # 2 –-- “Desertification”

Desertification occurs
whenever a non-desert area starts to
exhibit the characteristics of a true desert.
Take this for example…
Over the past 50 years, at
the southern edge of the
Sahara, an area the size
of Somalia has become
desert. The same fate
now threatens more than
one-third of the African
continent.
 Process # 3
–-- “Salinization & Nutrient Loss”

Soil salinization is the concentration

of salts in the surface or near surface of
soils. Human induced salinization is a major
problem in dry lands and is often
associated with large-scale irrigation.
What happens is that…
When dry lands are irrigated, the water
evaporates quickly, leaving behind
previously dissolved salts. These salts can
collect, since there is little rain to flush the
system. The salt in the soil inhibits the
uptake of water by plant roots and the soil
can no longer sustain a vegetative cover.
Any idea on what causes it?
 Physical Processes:
Erosion
Desertification
Crusting
Compaction
Anaerobism
Environmental Pollution
_______________________________________
Chemical Processes:
Acidification
Leaching
Salinization
Decrease In Cation Retention
Capacity
Fertility Depletion
Biological Processes:
Eutrophication Of Surface Water
Contamination Of Groundwater
Eemissions of trace gases
(CO2, CH4, N2O, NOx)
from terrestrial/aquatic
ecosystems to the
atmosphere
_______________________________________
Land Quality
_______________________________________
Land Use
_______________________________________
Soil Structure
Its Effects On Soil…
We often
assume that land
degradation only
affects soil fertility.
However, the effects of Therefore…
land degradation often -----
more significantly Land
affect receiving water degradation
courses (rivers, has potentially
wetlands and lakes) disastrous
since soil, along with effects on lakes
nutrients and and reservoirs
contaminants that are
designed to
associated with soil, alleviate
are delivered in large flooding,
quantities to provide
environments that irrigation, and
respond detrimentally generate
to their input. hydroelectricity
 Accelerated soil erosion
by wind and water
Soil acidification or
alkalinisation
Salination
Destruction of soil
structure including loss of organic
matter
Derelict Soil

In other words…
The main outcome of land degradation is a
substantial reduction in the productivity
of the land.
On the other hand, land degradation
results to a big problem towards
productivity…

Especially the
Croplands…

According To Statistics…
The worldwide amount of cropland per
capita has declined due to population
growth. North America and the former
USSR have substantially more cropland
per capita than the rest of the world.
 Meanwhile…

Severe land degradation affects a

significant portion of the earth's arable
lands, decreasing the wealth and
economic development of nations. Land
degradation cancels out gains advanced
by improved crop yields and reduced
population growth.
• Unless land rehabilitation
measures are effective a downward eco-
social spiral is created when marginal
lands are nutrient depleted by
unsustainable land management practices
resulting in lost soil resilience leading to
soil degradation and permanent damage.
TRENDS OF LAND
DEGRADATION

This is all nothing but just a

short view on land degradation
as well as how it affected the
countries even from the past
until now…
 During the last half-century the global
extent of agriculture has increased
vastly at the expense of natural
forests, rangelands, wetlands, and even
deserts.

Though sad to say that no developing

country has installed a system for monitoring
soil quality at a national scale.
Existing assessments are based on
consultation with experts, extrapolation from
case studies,
field experiments and other micro studies, or
inferences from land use pattern.
• GLASOD STUDY…

It is the most influential assessment of

aggregate land degradation, in which
250 experts contributed
assessments of land degradation in
their countries since the mid1940’s .

The results suggest that about 560 million

ha of farmland had been degraded – or 38%
of the total.
Within specific agro-ecological
environments, experimental data from plot
and field scale allow
soil degradation processes to be observed
with greater precision.
The data underlying these results
are, however, limited to a few
experimental plots, and the basis
for extrapolation to farmers’ fields
is weak.

A review of 16 studies to assess the

global extent, rate, and effects of
soil degradation concluded that soil
quality on three quarters of the
world’s agricultural lands has been
fairly stable over the last fifty
years, but that on the remaining
share land degradation is
widespread and has accelerated.
Soil Monitoring Equipment…

To be used for research on land

degradation.
Temperate lands, for example, are generally
more resilient to degradation, but are also
associated with societies that have more
resources for investing in maintaining and
rehabilitating land quality – and for
developing alternative sources of livelihood
for their citizens.

Thus, the areas for prime concern are the

tropical and subtropical marginal lands,
which have low physical resilience to land
degradation, and are also associated with
societies in which property rights are weakly
defined, information systems are weak, and
managerial capacity is low.
World agriculture is likely to expand in area
to cater
for population growth and increased demand
for food
and industrial crops.
_______________________________________
Continued degradation of existing lands
will also raise
the land clearing rate. Under current
technologies
and practices this will have high local
costs, but is less
likely to lead to large agricultural
commodity price
increases – or to threaten global food
supplies within
the next couple of decades.
 VITAL
STATISTICS
The following are some of the
research works done on land
degradation…
Table 1 :

Estimates of all degraded

lands (in million km2) in dry areas
(Dregne and Chou, 1994)
Table 2 :

Estimates of the global extent

(in million km2) of land degradation
(Oldeman, 1994)
Table 3 :

Vulnerability to
desertification and wind and water
erosion (Eswaran and Reich, 1998).
Only arid, semi-arid, and sub-
humid areas (in million km2) are
considered according to the definition
of UNEP. Estimates of water erosion
include humid areas.
Table 4 :

Vegetation degradation in
pastoral areas of Australia (Woods,
1983; Mabbutt, 1992)
Table 5 :

Land degradation on cropland

in Australia (Woods, 1983; Mabbutt,
1992)
Table 6 :

Cumulative soil loss and runoff

in relation to crop yield in three
ASIALAND Sloping Lands Network
countries (Sajjapongse, 1998)
Table 7 :

Relationship between yield

of sisal and soil fertility (0–20 cm
depth) decline in Tanga region of
Tanzania (Hartemink, 1995)
Table 8 :

Estimates of vulnerability to
desertification in some Asian countries
Table 9 :

Matrix for risk assessment

of human-induced desertification. 1 =
low risk; 2, 3 = moderate risk; 4, 5, 6 =
high risk; 7, 8, 9 = very high risk.
(After Reich et al., 1999.)
Table 10:

Land area (1,000 km2) of

Africa in risk classes. (After Reich et
al., 1999.)
Table 11 :

Rates of return on activities

to reduce land degradation
Table 12 :

Benefit Cost Ratios of

approaches to reducing land degradation
OPINIONS ON
THE MATTER
Come on! Read it. I know you
want to…
 WAYS OF
PREVENTION
It is like what they say:
“Prevention is better than a
cure.”
So, in order to prevent land degradation,
let us keep in mind the following:
Lake shores with homes on
them featuring large grass lawns are a huge
source of land degradation as well. Allowing
for a natural riparian area (native plants in a
protective barrier) can slow degradation
from tides or wake and save the property.

Impermeable surfaces (urban

settings) allow for an increase of surface
runoff from rain and other water sources as
well. This increases the velocity and
quantity of water which might have
previously infiltrated into the ground. The
result is a reduction of soils and a scarred
landscape. Planting natural vegetation or
creating ground water infiltration caches
helps.
 Off road travel does not
help when tracks are not
followed. Hence
vegetation needs
protection...

--- Ex: plants and trees.

Just to sum things up so your mind
won’t get out of control 0_o,
here’s…

THE SUMMARY
Concept Map
Key points to remember are:
Degradation of land
includes soil erosion, salinization, nutrient
depletion, and desertification. The rate of
degradation has increased dramatically
with growth in human populations and
technology. 

Severe land damage

accompanies large scale agriculture.
Restoration is very problematical. 

Continued loss of arable

land will jeopardize our ability to feed the
world population. 

Land degradation is
worldwide - both developed and
developing countries. 
 http://en.wikipedia.org
REFERENCES /wiki/Land_degradatio
n
http://www.globalchan
ge.umich.edu/globalch
ange2/current/lectures
/land_deg/land_deg.ht
ml
http://soils.usda.gov/u
se/worldsoils/papers/la
nd-degradation-
overview.html
http://www.aae.wisc.e
du/coxhead/papers/CC
C-April7.pdf
http://images.search.y
ahoo.com/images
“I saw all the people
hustling early in the
morning to go into the
factories and the stores
and the office buildings,
to do their job, to get their
check. But ultimately it’s
not office buildings or jobs
that give us our checks.
It’s the soil.
The soil is what gives us
the real income that
supports us all…”

--- Ed Begley, Jr.