What are the causes of reduction in soil fertility?

What are the causes of reduction in soil fertility?

For all the fertility losses there are various causes in the different regions of the country, in totality the major causes to soil fertility decline is a land degradation which is caused through the different agents such as soil erosion, deforestation, overgrazing, sedimentation, continuous farming and pollution.

What are the factors that affect the soil fertility?

Factors Affecting Soil Fertility

• Mineral Composition. The mineral composition of the soil helps to predict the ability of the soil to retain plant nutrients.
• Soil pH. Soil pH helps in maintaining the nutrient availability of the soil.
• Soil Texture.
• Organic Matter.
• Adding Manures and Fertilizers.
• Leguminous Crops.

What are the factors that affect soil?

Soils are formed through the interaction of five major factors: time, climate, parent material, topography and relief, and organisms. The relative influence of each factor varies from place to place, but the combination of all five factors normally determines the kind of soil developing in any given place.

How does soil structure affect soil fertility?

Structure is the amount of aggregation and pores in soil and texture is the proportion of clay and sand particles in soil. Both affect soil fertility by affecting water movement through soil, root penetration and water logging. Erosion is an important physical process that decreases soil fertility.

How is soil formed describe any three factors?

How does soil permeability affect soil fertility?

Permeability refers to the movement of air and water through the soil, which is important because it affects the supply of root-zone air, moisture, and nutrients available for plant uptake. Organic matter percentage also influences water-holding capacity.

What are the factors that affect aggregation in soil structure?

Aggregation is influenced by soil organic carbon (SOC), soil biology/microbiology, chemical reactivity and the presence of clay.

How can soil permeability be reduced?

It is common practice to alter the soil structure to reduce permeability, for example, in irrigated agriculture through the puddling of rice fields and in civil engineering through the mechanical compaction* of earthen dams. Similar practices may be applied to fish-ponds to reduce water seepage.

Which type of soil permeability would be less?

Clay soils are known to have low permeability, which results in low infiltration rates and poor drainage. As more water fills the pore space, the air is pushed out. When all pore spaces in the soil are filled with water, the soil becomes saturated.

What are three factors that affect soil structure?

Climate and topography influence soil structure through factors such as temperature, precipitation, elevation, slope gradient and directional aspect. Soil properties such as texture, mineralogy, SOC and organisms interact and moderate the influence of the climate.

What causes soil aggregation?

Soil aggregates are formed through physical, chemical and biological activity below ground. They are even influenced by human factors, like tilling, walking on the surface, or even how you fertilize your garden.

What is compressibility of soil?

Soil compressibility is the ease with which a soil decreases in volume when subjected to a mechanical load. The process that describes the decrease in soil volume (soil densification) under an externally applied load is defined as compression.