The International Year of Soils2015 has been declared the International Year of Soils (IYS) by the U

The International Year of Soils2015 has been declared the International Year of Soils (IYS) by the United Nations General Assembly. Governments and organizations around the world will join together to increase global awareness about the importance of soils, and the need to protect them from degradation.We tend to associate soils with agriculture, but we also depend on them to cycle nutrients, sequester carbon, provide habitat for a quarter of Earth’s biodiversity, and supply clean water. They can even be used as a building material, such as mud homes and clay bricks.Unfortunately, soils are a finite resource, meaning we don’t have an endless supply. They are considered nonrenewable on a human timescale; requiring more than a lifetime to form. Soil scientists say that it takes an average of 100 years to get 1 millimeter of new topsoil, although the actual rate depends on parent material (rock, ash, peat, etc.), topography, climate, and the organisms present. Bottom line, it takes longer for new soils to form than it does for humans to destroy them using common agricultural and construction practices. Estimates state that we are losing soils 10 to 40 times faster than they are created, even as human populations, and the corresponding demand for land and crops, are increasing. Most of the losses come from accelerated erosion due to disruption of the protective vegetative cover. We are also polluting our soils, covering them with concrete, and reducing the productivity of croplands through overuse. Only a fraction of all soils are suitable to meet human needs, and civilizations have reportedly fallen because their land became too degraded to grow food. IYS aims to raise awareness about the way we depend on soils, and about how we are using, or even abusing, them, so we’ll do more to protect the soils we depend on.- REPhoto Credit: “Dead Sea Coastal Erosion March 2012” by Wilson44691http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erosion#mediaviewer/File:Dead_Sea_Coastal_Erosion_March_2012.JPGRead More: http://www.fao.org/soils-2015/en/https://www.soils.org/iyshttp://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/site/national/home/http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/lectures/land_deg/land_deg.html -- source link

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