KSKL chapter 8 PPT
- 1. Chapter 8 Soils and Society
- 2. “Civilization itself rests upon the soil.” Thomas Jefferson • For thousands of years, societies have been using natural resources and changing their environments to provide food, water, housing, and many other products. • Soils are essential to agriculture, feed the world’s population, and sustain all life on Earth. • As human populations grow and require more natural resources, there are more pressures on soil and caring for it becomes even more important. • We also recognize the beauty of soils in human culture! soils4teachers.org/KSKL Image Credit: Smithsonianmag.com
- 3. ● What is the role of soil in human culture? ● Humans have come to rely on soils for spiritual, artistic, and literary inspiration. Fig. 8-3. The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch is an early example of people living off the bounties of the soil, as they did in the Garden of Eden. Soils and Human Culture soils4teachers.org/KSKL Image Credit: https://www.museodelprado.es/
- 4. Soils and Art Soil has color . . . Soil particles can show stark contrasts in colors, layers, and textures making for beautiful art. soils4teachers.org/KSKL Image Credit: Soil! Get the Inside Scoop, 2008, Soil Science Society of America
- 5. • Early pigments (and some used today) have come from soil – like red and yellow ochres and magnesium oxides – used for pottery, houses, and body paint. • Mud clothes, from the Bamana people of Mali, uses different colors of mud and a natural plant chemical to make it colorfast. • Even today, paintings are done with soil pigments! Soils and Art soils4teachers.org/KSKL Painting by Jan Lang, USDA-NRCS Image Credit: Tagulmoust Image Credit: Lascaux Cave, French Ministry of Culture
- 6. For generations people have used soil to build their houses, for example (from left to right), by making soil into adobe bricks by Native Americans in the American Southwest, settlers on the Midwestern prairies, and people of the Navajo Nation. Soils and Art soils4teachers.org/KSKL Image Credit: Soil! Get the Inside Scoop, 2008, Soil Science Society of America
- 7. • Many of the permanent writings from ancient civilizations were written on clay tablets (from soil). • Poets Walt Whitman (Song of Myself) and Robert Frost (In Time of Cloudburst) have written about soil. Soils and Literature soils4teachers.org/KSKL Fig. 8-7. The Code of Hammurabi (1750), which was written on clay tablets, held all of the important laws in ancient Babylon. The tablets relay 282 rules about how people should behave in Ancient Babylon. Image Credit: Prologue of the Code of Hammurabi, The Louvre, Paris.
- 8. • Of course, soil plays a starring role in Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) as Dracula needed soil from his Transylvanian home in order to rest properly! • Soil is prominent in John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath (American life during the Dust Bowl) and East of Eden (living on infertile land). Soils and Literature soils4teachers.org/KSKL Fig. 8-9. The Dust Bowl in the 1930’s caused many farmers to lose their land. These “Okies” packed up all of their belongings and headed west to find new opportunity. (Image Credit: National Archives) Fig. 8-8.
- 9. The good and the bad • Soil provides the nutrients we need to thrive – by providing them to plants. • Soil also plays roles in medicine and disease. It contains between 50 billion to 1 trillion microorganisms in every tablespoon and these microorganisms produce many chemicals. • Soil also contains pathogens that can make some ill. Millions of people are made ill by soil-borne pathogens such as, • Parasites – toxoplasma, hookworms & roundworms • Fungus & bacteria causing anthrax, botulism, tetanus and other diseases Soils and Human Health soils4teachers.org/KSKL Image Credit: Soil Science Society of America, https://www.soils4teachers.org/biology-life-soil
- 10. The soil has the potential to function as a major pharmaceutical supplier. As a result of the soil’s biochemical versatility, it also provides antidotes to many maladies. Examples: • Streptomycin • Cyclosporine • Kaolin and pectin for antacids • Mud therapies Soils and Human Health - Pharmaceuticals soils4teachers.org/KSKL Image Image Credit:National Center for Biotechnology Information. "PubChem Compound Summary for CID 5284622, Streptomycin B" PubChem, https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Streptomy
- 11. Deforestation Is the permanent removal of trees. Each year, an area the size of Greece is deforested. It exposes the soil to erosion which in turn causes reduced soil fertility and agricultural productivity. Without enough food to meet growing populations, societies suffer hunger, and some have vanished. Desertification Is the rapid loss of topsoil and loss of plant life on productive land In arid and semi-arid regions. Most is caused by human activities such as over-cultivation, poor irrigation practices, over-grazing, and vegetation removal. Salinization Means the build up of salts. In arid to semi-arid regions, salts can come up with underground water as water table rises. Salts reduces the soil’s productivity by destroying the soil structure which affects flow through the soil, and interferes with the ability of the plant to absorb both nutrients and water. Challenges to the Soil soils4teachers.org/KSKL
- 12. Deforestation is the permanent removal of trees until there is less than 10% remaining • Easter Island • Haiti • Brazil Challenges to the Soil Fig. 8-12. Moais, Isla de Pascua. When first settled, East Island colonists had plentiful resources. However, being so isolated and without trade, they eventually depleted their resources, resulting in a failed civilization. (Image credit: Horacio_Fernandez) Fig. 8-13. Haiti shares the island of San Salvador with the Dominican Republic, which is covered in trees (right) in comparison with the Haitian side (left). (Image credit: NASA) soils4teachers.org/KSKL
- 13. The effect of removing vegetation and exposing the soil to erosion is seen in the muddy Verde River flowing to join the blue waters of the Parana River in Brazil Amazon forest. soils4teachers.org/KSKL (Image credit: NASA) Deforestation Leads to Soil Loss from Erosion
- 14. Desertification is the rapid loss of topsoil and loss of plant life on productive land in arid and semi-arid regions. • 1/3 of Earth’s land area in more than 100 countries is at risk of desertification • Sahara Desert – land degradation, caused by wind erosion as decades of extensive tree cutting/overgrazing/drought of reduced vegetation. The Great Green Wall Project of the African Union aims to replant a reforest this region by planting a wall of trees at least 15 kilometers wide across 11 countries. Challenges to the Soil soils4teachers.org/KSKL Image credit: Morguefile.com
- 15. The High Plains of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado faced a 10-year drought in the 1920s-30s, followed by overgrazing and excessive tillage. Crops failed in the drought and winds picked up the soil creating towering dust storms called black blizzards. Many farms failed and the US government stepped in to create programs to protect soils from erosion. Desertification: The Dust Bowl soils4teachers.org/KSKL Image credit: USDA
- 16. Salinization is the build-up of salts in soil and often occurs in arid (desert) environments. • Irrigation systems cause salts to rise from the ground, creating salty soils. Salts do not allow plants to grow or absorb moisture, it destroys the soil structure, causing plants to die. Each year more than 3.7 million acres of once-arable land becomes unproductive from salinization, leading to an $11 billion loss in the world food market. • Australia • Jordanian Desert Challenges to the Soil In this saline seep salts accumulate on the surface (white areas) making soil unsuitable for growing and maintaining crops. soils4teachers.org/KSKL Image credit: Clay Robinson. Montana Salinity Control Association and Montana Bureau of Mines & Geology.
- 17. Across the world, people in cities and developed areas, once so disconnected from soil, are discovering how important healthy soils are to their lives and how it is important for the planet’s health! Even small projects help: • Green roofs – rooftop gardens • Urban gardens • Sustainable organic farming • Tree plantings • Water management. • Reclaiming brownfields (urban sites that used to be industrial and polluted) • Using technologies to produce crops while sustaining the environment The hope is that despite the challenges our world now faces, we will continue working to ensure healthy soils. Learning from the past soils4teachers.org/KSKL Image credit: City of Chicago Fig. 8-26. The green roof on Chicago’s City Hall helps filter the air, reduce the urban heat island effect, and decrease the runoff from urban spaces.
- 18. Some ongoing initiatives include: • Tree plantings • Water management • Sustainable organic farming • Green roof • Urban community garden • Reclaiming brownfields Societies that care for soils, care for themselves soils4teachers.org/KSKL