MISC SOIL
This type of tillage reduces erosion, improves OM content, increases soil biodiversity, and leaves crop residues on the soil surface.
What is conservation tillage?
This % of waste generated worldwide is organic in nature.
What is 70%?
Farmers must practice organic farming for this long before applying for organic certification.
What is 3 years?
Most toxic chemicals in soil come from these 2 sources.
What is industrial waste and pesticide use?
Soil erosion is the movement of soil particles by these 3 factors.
What is wind, water, or tillage?
All organic / living or once living organisms contain this element.
What is carbon?
These 2 common practices help reduce the amount of waste that reaches landfills.
What is recycling and composting?
This is how weeds are managed in certified organic farming.
What is mulch and cover crops?
These are 2 examples of plants that do not take up contaminants, but their roots excrete compounds that stimulate beneficial bacteria growth.
What are prairie grasses, wildflowers, poplar trees?
This type of soil erosion is human-induced. Soil is washed, blown, or scraped away faster than new soil can be formed.
What is accelerated erosion?
These types of crops are grown during "off-seasons" and are primarily used to protect and enhance soils.
What are cover crops?
This type of landfill relies on soil to filter water that infiltrates it.
What are natural attenuation or unsecured landfills?
This is the key to soil conservation in certified organic farming.
What is keeping the ground vegetated / covered for as much of the year as possible?
This is why toxic metals accumulate in soil over time.
What is because microbes do not break them down?
In the U.S., most of the soil erosion takes place in these areas.
What is crop land, construction sites, desert regions, and cleared forests?
This is how soil microbes influence nutrient availability in soils.
What is eating OM and pooping it out?
This type of landfill does not rely on the soil to filter water, but instead uses a system of pipes and pumps to remove water.
What are contained / secured landfills?
Animal manures must be applied to food crops this many days before harvest.
What is 90 - 120 days?
This is 1 of the 7 pathways a contaminant may follow when it reaches soil.
What is
1. vaporize into the atmosphere
2. bond tightly to clay or OM
3. infiltrate and become part of soil solution
4. chemical reactions within soil
5. surface runoff
6. uptake by plants
7. decomposed by microbes
Wind erosion is most serious in these types of climates.
What is dry / desert / arid?
This is the zone where soil meets the groundwater.
What is the water table?
This is 1 environmental concern associated with landfills.
What is water pollution,
unstable land due to "settling" of compostable materials,
or contribution to greenhouse gases?
This is 1 way to maintain plant diversity in livestock grazing pastores.
What is planting legume + grass mixes
planting cool-season + warm-season mixes
grazing animal diversity?
This is what happens to organic contaminants as they "age" within soil.
What is microbial activity slows and contaminant concentrations level out because remaining contaminants are trapped in nanopores.
These are the 3 steps in soil erosion by wind or water.
What is
1. Detachment of soil particles.
2. Transportation of detached soil particles.
3. Deposit of transported soil particles.