October Geology and GSA Today media ...(Science Article Is agriculture erod...)
Science Article
Is agriculture eroding civilization's foundation?
David R. Montgomery, Quaternary Research Center and Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195-1310, USA
Making mole hills out of mountains: Ever since humans disturbed Earths surface in the name of agriculture, we have witnessed increased erosion and soil loss. In the October 2007 GSA Today science article, geomorphologist David Montgomery quantifies the rate at which soil is lost due to erosion of agricultural land and compares that to geologically established rates of soil formation and rates of erosion on undisturbed land. The results paint a clear picture that the human race is "mining" the soil for agriculture because the rate of soil loss and, hence, fertility, is several times to several orders of magnitude greater than the rate of soil production. While this is clearly unsustainable and should be concern for a humanity seeking to feed an expanding population, its slow and inexorable pace make it less sensational than climate change and associated dramatic meteorological events. Montgomery shows that erosion rates from conservation tillage techniques, if widely adopted, may be enough to stem the loss of soil from farmland and bring it closer to a steady-state with respect to rates of soil formation.
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| Contact: Ann Cairns acairns@geosociety.org 303-357-1056 Geological Society of America Source:Eurekalert |
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