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6.1: Introduction

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    25134
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    Hard ground makes too great resistance, as air makes too little resistance, to the surfaces of roots.

    —Jethro Tull, 1733

    Under natural conditions, soils are generally stable and effectively store water, nutrients and carbon, which are cycled efficiently with plants, animals and the atmosphere. With the onset of agricultural development—as early as 10,000 years ago in western Asia and continuing today in countries such as Brazil—this balance was disrupted and soils became degraded. On sloping lands tillage generated erosion and the topsoil was washed or blown away. In many irrigated areas salts would build up and make the land unsuitable for crops. Further stress was put onto soils with increasing mechanization, heavier equipment, more intensive tillage, the export of grains and contamination from industrial products.

    Soil organic matter levels are directly impacted by tilling the soil and subsequent water runoff, and by erosion. As soils are disturbed and aggregates are broken down, more soil organic matter is lost by way of making particles of organic matter more available to soil organisms. This loss of organic matter then makes the soil more susceptible to erosion. Thus a downward spiral of soil degradation commonly occurs, with the end result being lower crop yields (Figure 6.1).

    Now, with increasing awareness and understanding of the causes and consequences of soil degradation, there is a need to adopt practices that reverse these trends.

    spiral of soil degradation
    Figure 6.1. The downward spiral of soil degradation. Modified from Topp et al. (1995).

    This page titled 6.1: Introduction is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Fred Magdoff & Harold van Es (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.