Table of Contents
How does removing vegetation affect erosion?
Soil erosion is partially caused by rain runoff washing away the soil. Plants also help absorb some of the water in the soil. These effects make it harder for water to wash the soil away. Plants also help reduce erosion in other ways, such as breaking the wind that might blow dry topsoil away.
What happens to the amount of erosion when vegetation is removed from land?
“The loss or removal of slope vegetation can result in either increased rates of erosion or higher frequencies of slope failure. This cause-and-effect relationship can be demonstrated convincingly as a result of many field and laboratory studies reported in the technical literature.” (Gray and Sotir, 1996).
How vegetation is affecting runoff and soil erosion?
According to the above authors, vegetation plays an important role in water and soil erosion control. Vegetation cover can reduce the kinetic energy of raindrops. Vegetation covered plots and the litter layer protect soil surfaces, increase soil surface roughness, impede overland flow and increase infiltrating time.
What is removal of vegetation?
Clearing of vegetation can lead to the spread of weeds by opening up areas of bare soil for weed seeds to germinate, and decreased competition from native species. vegetation clearing which involves the removal of or damage to a threatened plant or animal requires a permit.
What is the removal of vegetation called?
Preparing spots for planting is called scalping, plow- ing a strip is called furrowing or contouring, and complete removal of vegetation is called scarification.
What is the effect of erosion in agriculture?
1. Soil erosion inhibits our ability to grow nutritious food. By decreasing the nutrients available to plants as well as the space for them to put down roots, soil erosion can decrease crop yields by up to 50 percent. In addition, crops that do grow tend to be of a lower quality: misshapen, smaller and less nutritious.
How vegetation affect soil erosion?
Vegetation cover Plants slow down water as it flows over the land and this allows much of the rain to soak into the ground. Plant roots hold the soil in position and prevent it from being blown or washed away. Plants break the impact of a raindrop before it hits the soil, reducing the soil’s ability to erode.
How does vegetation affect runoff and soil erosion?
Over the long term, vegetation can increase soil organic matter, improve soil physical properties and soil anti-erodibility, and reduce runoff and erosion to a safe level. This study provides a theoretical basis and technical support for land reclamation and soil and water conservation in vulnerable ecological mining regions of a loess plateau.
What kind of plants prevent runoff and soil erosion?
A plot covered with 1-year-old Robinia pseudoacacia and Hippophae rhamnoides was most effective in terms of soil conservation; the plots covered with 5-year-old mixed legume plants and 5-year-old mixed grass-shrub-arbor forest were most effective overall in preventing both runoff and soil erosion.
Waste dumps constitute the land most damaged by opencast mining. Runoff causes soil erosion, a selective process that sweeps away fine materials, and nutrients, from sloped lands, strongly impacting on the long-term development of waste dumps ( Polyakov and Lal, 2004 ).
What happens when river waters empty from a mountain valley?
A(n) what forms when river waters empty from a mountain valley out onto a flat open plain Alluvial fan When people remove vegetation, they do what to the runoff and the erosion process Speed it up What determines the amount of runoff The amount of vegetation, rain and the slope of the land