How Does Erosion Affect the Environment?
Soil Erosion
Erosion affects the environment in a number of ways, such as the falling of trees, the flooding of forests, destruction from wind erosion, and a number of others. The one I'm focusing on in this section though is soil erosion.
There are two different types of soil erosion; Wind and Water. Soil erosion from water comes in the form of rain and runoff. When the rain falls, it can break up the particles of the soil, (especially fine sand and silt) and disperse them. This destruction of soil increases with thunderstorms, or heavy rain. Runoff can carry these particles to rivers, oceans, streams or lakes. Runoff occurs when water drifts down a slope, or surface, and is not absorbed into the soil. Runoff increases when soil is crusty, compacted, or is over hydrated, as in it can't absorb any more water. This runoff can carry off more rich topsoil.
Soil can also resist erosion. This depends on a variety of factors. Things such as high amounts of animal and plant matter decomposed in the soil, the ability for water to pass through the soil, and good soil structure creates good resistance to erosion. Fine sand, silty and loamy soil has good resistance, other soils have a poor resistance to erosion. A slope can increase the affects of erosion, obviously, because it increases speed, and destruction of the runoff and sediment. There are farming techniques that can help this, but your best bet is to farm on flatter land.
The compaction of soil can decrease soil erosion, but it also increases runoff, as we covered earlier. This increase can actually cause more damage then originally. Some farming techniques lower the amount of animal and plant matter in the soil. This can increase soil erosion. Farming seems to be more complicated then I thought. Soil that's eroded one year, is weaker the next, creating a chain reaction, where every year the soil gets worse.
Sheet erosion is what you call it when water erosion from rain drops collects
and travels slowly down a small slope. When this water concentrates into one
spot it creates channels. A similar process can be seen in this pictures of
Kitsolino Beach in Vancouver BC.
Ditches, gully's and slopes can result when the
concentrated water
doesn't channel, and this can create even more damage.
Wind erosion is affected by more then a few factors. The soil weight greatly affects the effect of the erosion. Lighter particles can be carried away by the wind. As the soil particles get heavier, they can just coast along the soil. This heavy soil can break down because of this, and be carried away, as well as break down other soil particles. Soil that is rough has a greater resistance to this type of erosion, but that resistance can reduce as the erosion wears away the roughness into smooth, vulnerable soil.
You can reduce these affects by cultivating your land, making windbreaks, covering your plants, or by simply making sure that you have good strong trees to break the wind. This is important, as wind erosion can do as little as damage your crop or as much as destroy the soil completely.