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Goats will often overgraze areas, removing all vegetation and leaving bare earth.

Soil Erosion and Degradation

Healthy soil is easily damaged. This GCSE Geography quiz explores how soil erosion and degradation happen, and how careful management can protect land for the future.

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Fascinating Fact:

Management strategies include contour ploughing, terracing, planting shelter belts, maintaining ground cover, and using crop rotation to protect and rebuild soil.

In GCSE Geography, soil erosion and degradation are studied as major environmental issues. You learn how natural processes and human activities strip soil from slopes, reduce fertility, and increase flood risk, and how careful management can slow or reverse this damage.

Key Terms

Soil erosion: The removal of topsoil by wind, water, or gravity, often leaving land less fertile and more unstable.
Soil degradation: The decline in soil quality through erosion, compaction, pollution, or loss of organic matter.
Conservation farming: Farming methods, such as contour ploughing and maintaining ground cover, that help protect and improve the soil.

Frequently Asked Questions (Click to see answers)

What is soil erosion in GCSE Geography?

In GCSE Geography, soil erosion is the wearing away and removal of topsoil by wind, water, or gravity. It often happens faster when vegetation is removed or land is poorly managed.

What are the main causes of soil degradation?

Main causes of soil degradation include overgrazing, deforestation, overcultivation, pollution, and poor irrigation. These processes reduce soil structure, fertility, and its ability to hold water.

How can soil erosion be reduced in Geography case studies?

Soil erosion can be reduced by planting trees and shelter belts, contour ploughing, terracing slopes, maintaining vegetation cover, and using crop rotation to keep soil protected and healthy.

Try These Related Quizzes

1 .

What happens to the soil when salinisation occurs?

During storms, sea water washes in and contaminates plants

Salts and other minerals are washed out of the soil during heavy rains

Water evaporates in high temperatures drawing salts from the soil to the surface

Flood water removes all the other soil particles except salt

Salt is toxic to many plants, so the soil ends up being bare and therefore more easily subjected to erosion. Irrigation can lead to salinisation. As water is brought in, it evaporates, drawing the salt up to the surface and leaving a layer that is dense in salt

2 .

Which of the following is not a method of soil conservation?

Planting hedges

Terraces

Contour ploughing

Slash and burn agriculture

Slash and burn agriculture removes all of the plant life from the surface exposing the soil to erosion

3 .

What is the danger of soil being left bare in hot, dry zones?

Desertification as the soil blows away, leaving only the heavier sand grains

Weeds will grow rampant, preventing crops from growing

Build up of dry soils as the bare patch spreads

The nutrients will be leached away by the Sun

Bare soils can be caused by overgrazing or extreme droughts

4 .

Nomadic tribespeople are becoming more sedentary, leading to over cultivation. How is over cultivation defined?

Not planting enough crops to allow the soil to be protected from the rain

Planting more crops than can be watered, leading to death of some of the crops

The excessive use of farmland to the point where productivity falls due to soil exhaustion or land degradation

Adding too much fertiliser, leading to eutrophication of the streams and waterways.

Nomadic populations are being encouraged to settle down in fixed areas by the increase in land ownership and facilities such as stand pipes

5 .

When a field is ploughed, why is it best to plough at right angles to the slope?

Ploughing parallel can lead to machines toppling over

Ploughing at right angles to the slope improves plants' chances at getting equal sunlight

Ploughing parallel to the slope draws the soil downhill

Ploughing parallel to the slope can increase gully erosion

Ploughing leaves behind ridges and furrows. If these are across the slope they trap water and runoff, but if they are down slope they encourage the water to run downhill and carry soil away with it

6 .

Where do most nutrients in soils come from?

Broken down rocks

Decaying organic matter

Rain fall

Volcanic eruptions

Since the nutrients come from decaying organic matter, they tend to be concentrated in the top layer of the soil

7 .

What form of erosion occurs when intense rainfall cuts small streams into slopes in areas with little or no vegetation cover?

Sheet Erosion

Gully Erosion

Wind Erosion

Salinisation

Tropical storms can cut gullies into slopes. These can become deep channels that flood in the wet seasons

8 .

On many islands and in some nature reserves, goats are being removed and banned. How does removing goats and similar grazing animals reduce soil erosion?

Goats tend to move around a lot, stirring up soil and leaving it open to erosion

Goats will often overgraze areas and remove all vegetation, leaving bare earth

The excess organic matter from the goats' droppings leads to pockets of rapid plant growth

Goats discourage other animals that may help the plants to grow

The roots of plants bind soil together, so, without vegetation, soil is more susceptible to erosion. Goats will even climb trees and strip leaves, thus reducing leaf litter

9 .

Heavy machinery often leads to soil compaction. How does soil compaction lead to soil erosion?

The solid soil is removed in blocks rather than in small amounts

The solid soil prevents water from percolating into the soil and increases surface runoff

The compacted soils will be lower and encourage water to pool and soil to be washed away

The machines remove large amounts of soil on their tyre treads

Surface runoff causes soil erosion. Soil structure is a delicate balance and can be destroyed by compaction. Protecting the soil structure is a key method of reducing soil erosion

10 .

What type of erosion occurs when moderate rainfall on bare soil removes the topsoil down-slope?

Sheet Erosion

Gully Erosion

Wind Erosion

Salinisation

Sheet erosion is worse in areas with steep slopes, often removing the soil down to bare rock

Author: Ruth M