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[35] [36] There is growing evidence that tillage erosion is a major soil erosion process in agricultural lands, surpassing water and wind erosion in many fields all around the world, especially on sloping and hilly lands [37] [38] [39] A signature spatial pattern of soil erosion shown in many water erosion handbooks and pamphlets, the eroded ...
Soil erosion in a wheat field near Pullman, US. High population density is not always related to land degradation. Rather, it is the practices of the human population that can cause a landscape to become degraded. Severe land degradation affects a significant portion of the Earth's arable lands, decreasing the wealth and economic development of ...
Soil erosion is the main factor for soil degradation and is due to several mechanisms: water erosion, wind erosion, chemical degradation and physical degradation. Erosion can be influenced by human activity. For example, roads which increase impermeable surfaces lead to streaming and ground loss.
Desertification is a gradual process of increased soil aridity.Desertification has been defined in the text of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) as "land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid regions resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities."
If the erosion rate exceeds soil formation, erosion destroys the soil. [76] Lower rates of erosion can prevent the formation of soil features that take time to develop. Inceptisols develop on eroded landscapes that, if stable, would have supported the formation of more developed Alfisols. [77] While erosion of soils is a natural process, human ...
Deforestation in China's Loess Plateau many years ago has led to soil erosion; this erosion has led to valleys opening up. The increase of soil in the runoff causes the Yellow River to flood and makes it yellow-colored. [207] Greater erosion is not always a consequence of deforestation, as observed in the southwestern regions of the US.
The effects of denudation have been written about since antiquity, although the terms "denudation" and "erosion" have been used interchangeably throughout most of history. [3] In the Age of Enlightenment , scholars began trying to understand how denudation and erosion occurred without mythical or biblical explanations.
There are two primary mechanisms of stream bank erosion: fluvial erosion and mass failure. Fluvial erosion is the direct removal of soil particles by flowing water. The rate of fluvial erosion is determined both by the force of the flowing water (e.g. faster flow equals more force) and the resistance of the bank material to erosion (e.g. clay is generally more resistant to erosion than sand).