The end of this cycle

This blog was a very interesting tool that made me understand better the importance of soils and how I could explain people about it. As I was looking for content, I could learn more about the many characteristics of soils and how it relates to all environments. The importance of soils to agriculture and other sectors of the society, being industrial or environmental, is huge. Lands are support to plants, to building, roads, environment of microorganisms, animals, humans and plants. Basically the cycles of nutrients have part in the soil, which is necessary to the maintenance of our lives. A bad sorted and unhealthy soil cannot serve to plant growth. A sandy soil can make difficult the civil construction.

As we can see, there are many functions and characteristics in the soil, which should be learned for everyone. I will not be keeping up with the information in this blog anymore, but there are many other websites that provide interesting content not just to professionals but also to people that want to learn more about it and have no previous experience. For example, one of my favorite sites is the Soil Science Society of America. Their website is full of information for professionals, teachers, students, curious people and even for kids. In their website Soil 4 Kids there are games that entertain kids while teach them about characteristics of soil.

I believe the better understanding about how soils work and its importance for agriculture will make people understand how the consequences of contamination can interfere in their lives. Soils took a huge amount of time to be formed, it is a human duty to prevent contamination and to improve conservation so it can keep providing place for agriculture, industry and the ecosystem in general.

Save Our Soils Campaign

The first look at the website that contains information about the campaign Save Our Soils (SOS) is very impactful. That is a board counting how many m2 of fertile soil industrial farming has destroyed by the time we click in a web link that goes to the page I Love Organic. To clarify, the intention of this blog is not being against industrial agriculture, but considering the increase of population and our concerns about natural resources, it is necessary to provide information about alternatives of production.

The SOS initiative in partnership with IFOAM - Organics International, FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), Earth Charter, Nature & More, and other partners is a campaign that works in order to reduce the lost of soils. As it says in their website, they seek to aware the public about soil catastrophe and encourage engagement for solutions. One of the most given advice in this campaign is to start eating organic products or to people to initiate their own garden. Also, they encourage people to start composting from their own food, so they can keep the cycle of nutrients. 

Working with farmers, consumers and students, their intention is to “reinforce academic, informal and consumer education, increasing awareness and education highlighting the relationships between sustainable soil management, food security, soil carbon sequestration and climate change”. Their idea of involving all the segments of society is by educating soil science majors about the problems, volunteer work with young people and providing research and data about soil conditions in agricultural areas.

References:

http://saveoursoils.com/userfiles/20150629-save-our-soils-declaration.pdf

Oil spill: consequences in the soil and environment

There are many activities that can contribute to the contamination and pollution of soils. One of the most commented issues nowadays is the extraction of fossil fuels and its consequences to the land and water, in case of disasters.

Oil spill disasters are dangerous in many ways. As the Semper Parata blog explains, some of the consequences of that in the soil are its toxicity that can kill a large amount of plants and organisms, the decrease of oxygen, and it can make the soil an inhospitable environment, which means the disability of soil to provide the necessary characteristics to plants to grow.

It is true that pipelines are usually localized in outlying areas, but a disaster can spread in the environment and cause problems in different levels. For example, the InForum website informs that the U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has investigated the leak of oil a pipeline that runs through North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska. This contamination can affect the soil directly, causing the land to be infertile immediately, but also, many organisms can eat other organisms and plants around the area that are contaminated and bioacumulate the contamination.. In this cycle, other organisms will be affected indirectly.

Therefore, it is necessary that companies work with the utmost care and respect for the environment. In order to achieve a safe way to practice activities such as oil extraction, regulations should be more strict and research agencies should work with remediation. There is not an easy way to deal with those situations, but information to companies and population about the problem must be the first step.

References:

http://www.inforum.com/news/4004074-investigation-continues-keystone-pipeline-oil-spill-south-dakota

http://semperparata.blogspot.com/2010/07/dez-consequencias-do-derramamento-de.html

The Soil Society of America Website: a review

One of the most important scientific societies about natural resources is the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA). They provide information about different aspects of agriculture and the use of soil, such as crop production, waste management, environmental quality, ecosystem sustainability and remediation of contaminated soils. Today it will be discussed the characteristics of their Website and Facebook page in question of structure and ability to provide information, as it is a way to communicate with people about the SSSA discoveries and studies.

The SSSA website main page is well-structured and makes visible the important contents of the society. They have listed sections divided for teachers, students, members and media, which can facilitate the access to specific topics. Also, they have sections for publications, science policies and basic information about soil for the general public and information about meetings and news about recent issues can be found in the main page. The colors utilized in the website reminds the color of soils, which is interesting and easy to read.

The SSSA have a mobile-friendly website that seems a compressed version of the principal website. It works well, but it could be better designed. For example, you need to scroll to the right to see the complete post. This is not a big problem, but it could be worked.

Their Facebook page is also informative, it is possible to see works and publications made in different countries and universities. It is less formal than the website to connect with young people or to match with the Facebook environment, it could be said. For example, they use hashtags and fun facts. They direct links to other websites, not just their own, which is a good service from an international scientific society that has a commitment with people and to inform society.

References: 

Soil Science Society of America

https://www.soils.org/

The importance of soil

Today it will be presented a video that explains the importance of soil in a very clarifying way. The Soil Science Program of the Chicago Botanic Garden bring out the functions of soil as an essential part of agriculture, holding plants and providing nutrients. At the beginning it is possible to visualize the difference between the three major textures of soils: sandy, loam and clay. As it is possible to see, the best type of texture must hold water and nutrients and have a good quantity of organic matter, so it can grow plants. This video helps to understand some of the characteristics of soils that were pointed out in this blog.

Furthermore, the video not just talks about the physical characteristics of soils, but also about the presence of micro and macro organisms that contribute to the maintenance and cycling of nutrients into soils. Specially in the upper part of the soil there are great amount of organisms such as bugs and earthworm that breakdown components from animals and plants in decomposition into nutrients. Microorganisms such as fungi and bacteria also help to continue the process.

The video also illustrates the behavior of water into soil, filtration contamination. However, the increase of pollutants in the environment has affected soil healthy and capacity to recovery. At the end it is explained that soil takes too long to be formed and its mismanagement could be the cause of the extinction of past civilizations. Therefore, “soil science is the key to our future”.

Working with soil: need a helper?

In order to understand better the importance of keeping the soil healthy and well-treated it is necessary to comprehend the relation between its properties and its successful usage. A soil that is poor in physical properties such as structure can not just be improper to agriculture, but also to engineering and construction. Many people that works with lands sometimes do not understand this fact, that is when experts in soil must be contacted to clarify the situation and guide them into a sustainable way to use the land.

A simple soil test can help farmers to reach a successful production, showing the quantity of nutrients present in the soil and also the aspects of its properties. It can prevent the lack of nutrition of plants and demonstrate the need of corrections in the soil. A professional that works with soil and agriculture can give advice about soil health and the need of conservation. They must be prepared to communicate to farmers about alternatives of management in case of impacts caused by agriculture. Jan Beglinger, an agriculture outreach coordinator for Cornell Cooperative Extension, explains the importance a soil testing to determinate the levels of the nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus and the soil pH to upgrade plant growth. Many laboratories and companies have qualified professionals that can help indicating the results and guiding to the best treatment.

In a case not related to agriculture, but still about soil and expertise people, the building of a police station was vetted after all planning because of the poor quality of soil. The Daily Herald website explains that the plan considered location, cost, availability, but not soil aspects. After testing samples they realized the soil was not proper to the construction.

As we can see, it is important to ask for help from an expertise in soil before starting production of food and even before a construction, in order to use the best of the soil to enable the best usage.

References:

Master Gardener: Soil test results dictate needed action. March 1, 2016

http://www.thedailynewsonline.com/bdn05/master-gardener-soil-test-results-dictate-needed-action-20160301

Glen Ellyn expects to fix soil issues before building new police station. 3/1/2016

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20160301/news/160309863/

Soil contamination

Farming is a challenging activity that requires management and knowledge to deal with specific situations. Each kind of crop requires certain types of soil, nutrients, water and light exposure, these are natural factors that are essential to assure the success of production. However, not just the treatment of the land is the key to having good results, it is also necessary to care about external impacts such as weeds and insects. These organisms can change the behavior of plants and decrease quality of production. For example, weeds can compete for space with crops. Some insects can attack plants causing problems such as chlorosis, wilting of leaves, reduction of root growth, and can also introduce parasites that can cause plant diseases.

In order to solve these problems, producers resort to the application of pesticides and herbicides. The problem is that every chemical put in the soil will have some kind of impact. The formula of these products are generally composed of elements that can be pollutants and cause contamination not just to the area of application, but also to the surrounding cities and land. The pollutants contained within the products can be carried by water and air, an example of this is a case in Washington.

The Innovation Trail website reports a case that happened in Washington. Since the 1950’s, apple producers were spraying pesticides that contain arsenic and lead in its content (Schick, Flatt, & Earthfix, 2016). These are heavy metals that naturally occur in the soil, but when their quantity is increased they can be very hazardous and cause problems such as high risks of cancer, birth defects, and changes in the soil organisms’ behavior. What happened is that the continuous application of pesticides increased the levels of lead and arsenic on the soil and recently was related to child’s blood problems, diabetes and heart diseases in people around the apple production field. Children in this area were contaminated directly by ingestion of soil and indirectly by dust exposure. A similar case happened in the Adelaide City Council where a playground was closed because of contaminated soil and one of the complaints is that people do not really care about that, mostly because of the lack of knowledge about the risks, and producers do not try to decrease the amount of contamination they cause.

In Washington, the state’s Department of Ecology is working with the neighborhood teaching them the risks of heavy metals exposure and how they can prevent it. They are analyzing soil samples to measure the amount of contamination and also created child care centers to help children that were affected by pollutants. The treatment to this problem requires a huge effort, especially in this case, since the land was contaminated for so long. It costs money and it requires changes in the actual agricultural production, but it is necessary to keep the land likely to live and to prevent further problems.

References:

Schick, T. , Flatt, C., & Earthfix (2016, Feb. 8). Where apples once grew contaminated soil lingers.

Retrieved from http://innovationtrail.org/post/where-apples-once-grew-contaminated-soil-

Lingers

Staff writers. (Feb 8, 2016). Council confident glover east playground closed due to soil contamination will reopen soon. Retrieved from 

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/messenger/city/council-confident-glover-east-playground-closed-due-to-soil-contamination-will-reopen-soon/news-story/5380f3392d89e166f07ed80897d846ac