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6.7: Summary

  • Page ID
    25025
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    Soil degradation is one of the world’s great environmental problems. At the same time as rivers are contaminated with sediments eroded from soils, severe erosion in many parts of the world results in a significant decrease in soil productivity. Although the immediate cause for water erosion may be intense rainfall, there are a number of reasons soil loss is especially severe in some situations. Compaction, another form of soil degradation, can go unnoticed unless one looks for the symptoms, but it can have a damaging effect on plant growth. Chemical contamination, whether from salts, metals or organics can also affect plant and human health. Many of these concerns can be addressed through good management practices. For a discussion of tried and true ways of reducing erosion and compaction, see chapters 14 and 15. For how to reclaim saline, sodic and saline-sodic soils, see Chapter 20.


    This page titled 6.7: Summary 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.