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Soil erosion occurs naturally, but human activities can greatly increase its severity. [28] Soil that is healthy is fertile and productive. [29] But soil erosion leads to a loss of topsoil, organic matter, and nutrients; it breaks down soil structure and decreases water storage capacity, reducing fertility and water availability to plant roots.
Historical factors, such as climate and soil parent materials, shape landscapes above and below ground, but the regional/local abiotic conditions constraint biological activities. These operate at different spatial and temporal scales and can switch on and off different organisms at different microsites resulting in a hot moment in a particular ...
Abiotic stress is a naturally occurring factor that cannot be controlled by humans. One example of two stressors that are complementary to each other is wind and drought. Drought dries out the soil and kills the plants that are growing in the soil. After this occurs, the soil is left barren and dry. Wind can pick up the soil and carry for miles.
The abiotic factors that environmental gradients consist of can have a direct ramifications on organismal survival. Generally, organismal distribution is tied to those abiotic factors, but even an environmental gradient of one abiotic factor yields insight into how a species distribution might look.
The Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) is a widely used mathematical model that describes soil erosion processes. [1]Erosion models play critical roles in soil and water resource conservation and nonpoint source pollution assessments, including: sediment load assessment and inventory, conservation planning and design for sediment control, and for the advancement of scientific understanding.
The main type of soil in the taiga is Spodosol. These soils contain a Spodic horizon, a sandy layer of soil that has high accumulations of iron and aluminum oxides, which lays underneath a leached A horizon. The color contrast between the Spodic horizon and the overlying horizon is very easy to identify.
Soil biology is the study of microbial and faunal activity and ecology in soil. Soil life, soil biota, soil fauna, or edaphon is a collective term that encompasses all organisms that spend a significant portion of their life cycle within a soil profile, or at the soil-litter interface.
[34] [35] 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 [36] [37] [38] A signature spatial pattern of soil erosion shown in many water erosion handbooks and pamphlets, the eroded ...