From growing food to filtering our water, soil does it all. In order to counter the often harmful impact of such human activities as deforestation and pollution, we need to step up and protect this important resource.
Watch this animation to find out more about soil conservation. Then answer the questions in the Take Notes box, below.
You might want to check the definitions of specific vocabulary terms. In addition to the the terms you’ve already learned, the glossary word pedosphere will be introduced. You may pause the animation, rewatch it as many times as you like, and read the transcript.
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The Earth’s crust sustains us. This little slice of our planet where living (plant/animal/fungus) meets non-living (mineral, air, water) is called the pedosphere also known as the soil layer.
As land animals, humans depend on the pedosphere. It is where we grow our food, where we get our water, where we breathe our air, and where we build our homes.
And because we love to do these things, human activity can fundamentally change the soil layer. We deforest, we plow, we build, we dump our waste. This can lead to loss of topsoil through erosion, contamination, and nutrient loss.
But we can also conserve and improve our soil using best management practices (aka BMP) - we can compost, we can add native plants, rotate our crops, slow down water flow and erosion, and use farming practices that rebuild our soil (regenerative agriculture).
It’s important for us to monitor, protect, and preserve this natural resource. Because in this critical human/soil relationship, healthy humans really do depend on a healthy pedosphere.
Type the answers to the following questions in the Notes Box, below.