Earth has lost a third of arable land in past 40 years, scientists say

Lyco 8/12/2015

Earth has lost a third of arable land in past 40 years, scientists say
▻http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/02/arable-land-soil-food-security-shortage

The continual ploughing of fields, combined with heavy use of fertilizers, has degraded soils across the world, the research found, with erosion occurring at a pace of up to 100 times greater than the rate of soil formation. It takes around 500 years for just 2.5cm of topsoil to be created amid unimpeded ecological changes.
[...]
The erosion of soil has largely occurred due to the loss of structure by continual disturbance for crop planting and harvesting. If soil is repeatedly turned over, it is exposed to oxygen and its carbon is released into the atmosphere, causing it to fail to bind as effectively. This loss of integrity impacts soil’s ability to store water, which neutralizes its role as a buffer to floods and a fruitful base for plants.
Degraded soils are also vulnerable to being washed away by weather events fueled by global warming. Deforestation, which removes trees that help knit landscapes together, is also detrimental to soil health.

#sols #érosion

Lyco

koldobika @koldobika CC BY-NC-SA 8/12/2015

lien avec ►https://biointensive.net/en/topics/190 ▻https://biointensive.net/uploads/pub/media/163/Food_Growing_Areas_for_One_Person_s_Diet_Using_Different_Agricultural_

koldobika @koldobika CC BY-NC-SA
koldobika @koldobika CC BY-NC-SA 17/12/2015

So why do soils remain sorely overlooked in the public consciousness? Part of the answer must come down to simple aesthetics: it’s much easier to appreciate the beauty of a rare flower or endangered eagle than it is to consider the health of a mysterious damp brown material that sticks to your shoes and leaves messy marks on the carpet. “Soils are out of view for much of the year, covered by grasses and foliage” says Willie Towers, a prominent soil scientist at the James Hutton Institute in Scotland. “Awareness of soil degradation is still pretty low and people generally don’t appreciate the link between soils and the food they eat.”
It’s a basic but significant PR problem in need of redress by scientists, farmers and educators, and better storytelling would go a long way to solving it.
►http://www.resilience.org/stories/2015-12-16/soil-s-deep-rooted-pr-problem

koldobika @koldobika CC BY-NC-SA

Écrire un commentaire

Earth has lost a third of arable land in past 40 years, scientists say | Environment

/arable-land-soil-food-security-shortage