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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.
Intensive agriculture, deforestation, roads, acid rains, anthropogenic climate change and urban sprawl are amongst the most significant human activities in regard to their effect on stimulating erosion. [5] However, there are many prevention and remediation practices that can curtail or limit erosion of vulnerable soils.
Erosion of mountains massifs can create a pattern of equally high summits called summit accordance. [73] It has been argued that extension during post-orogenic collapse is a more effective mechanism of lowering the height of orogenic mountains than erosion. [74] Examples of heavily eroded mountain ranges include the Timanides of
Although the terms erosion and denudation are used interchangeably, erosion is the transport of soil and rocks from one location to another, [1] and denudation is the sum of processes, including erosion, that result in the lowering of Earth's surface. [2]
The definition of erosion is grinding and wearing away of rock surfaces through the mechanical action of other rock or sand particles. According to the IPCC, sea level rise caused by climate change will increase coastal erosion worldwide, significantly changing the coasts and low-lying coastal areas. [5]
Political and economic action is further required to solve the erosion problem. A simple governance hurdle concerns how we value the land and this can be changed by cultural adaptation. [2] Soil carbon is a carbon sink, playing a role in climate change mitigation. [3]
For example, while some studies have found that reductions in the abundance and presence of soil organisms results in the decline of multiple ecosystem functions, [28] others concluded that above-ground plant diversity alone is a better predictor of ecosystem multi-functionality than soil biodiversity. [29]
Physical weathering, also called mechanical weathering or disaggregation, is the class of processes that causes the disintegration of rocks without chemical change. Physical weathering involves the breakdown of rocks into smaller fragments through processes such as expansion and contraction, mainly due to temperature changes.