Environmental Science Part 2 10/20/15 2:15 PMSoil & Agriculture

Conserving soil is important to sustainability of Agriculture in the future

What is soil? Not dirt Soil is often darker in top layer

o Organic matter on top Comes from plants and other stuff/ life that’s growing on

top

Soil starts with rock, weather and breaks it down Weathering

o Chemical Mechanical Perosity 25% water, 25 % air, Organic matter 5%

o Organisms 10%, o Roots 10%

Layers Horizon

o Input of organic matter from the top and works it way down

A Horizon B Horizon C Horizon Eluviation vs illuviation Layer Top Soil vs. Sub Soil

Texture of Soil Soil texture is determined by particle size Mixture triangle Percentage of silt clay sand Sandy Soil

o Big particle high porosityo Looseo Water move through fast

Clayo Particle size of a given sizeo Type of mineral, group of minerals, familyo Slippery wet Wyoming

Clay Sand Silt LOOK UP MINIMUM SIZES Permeability

o How easy water moves through Porosity

o Measure of how much pore space Soil Life

o One teaspoon of soil contains more microorganisms than there are people in the earth

o Bacteria fix nitrogen-turn it into forms of nitrogen (ammonium) that plants can use

o Two types of bacteria Special smell

o Fungi include molds Mushrooms

Elaborate root system below Occasionally sprout top part

o Legumes are special plants that host nitrogen-fixing bacteria Soy beans, nuts, clover, alfalfa,

o Coating soil with fungi to give it what it needs to growLandform regions of Iowa

Northeast Iowa/ Paleozoic plainso Sedimentary rock, limestone

North East-Flato Glacial movement

Glaciers maximum Glacial extent in North America

o Des moines loesî

Prairie and wetlandsTile lines

o do not recharge aquifersWater full of ground up stuffLoess all over the world

Played major part all around the world Loess-

Angular shap Shatter shape, rock

After glaciers left What grew on the landscape Tall grass-mixed prarie- shortgrass prarie

Prairie plants Blue grass-small roots

Erosion Gully erosion Erosion is a major part of Rills –channel forms turns into a gully

Prairie Diverse

King Corn 10/20/15 2:15 PMMovie-King Corn

Shorter life span than parents Steve Maco

o Diet will find it’s way into your hairo Influence of corn and high fructose corn syrup

Greene Iowa-1,015 population Melvin W. Elis

o Made tractors Ricardo Iowa State

o Iowa ideal place to grow corno Corn=giant grass

Migrated from south Mexico found home in Iowao Different kinds eventually turned to one kind-o Yellow o Dominated whole region

Government programo More corn you grow the more you geto $28/acreso Ammonia Fertilizer

Farm houseso Familys going down in numbers

o 5 tons of food from one acre of corn Corn has replaced grass for principle feed for cattle

o 90% graino livestocks intakes 70% of antibiotics in USo same waste as 1.7 million peopleo “it’s Economic”o 65% of ground beef calories by fat

Octobero Subsidize happy meals but not healthy ones

Dr. Butzo Paid to not produceo He stopped that programo We have cheap food spend money on something elseo Less income on food than any other generation in historyo Abundance brings too much---fato

Food 10/20/15 2:15 PM

Air pollution Nitrogen Oxides Evaporation Phosphates, ammonia, ammonium nitrates Infiltration Contamination of groundwater

Fertilizers Herbicides / pesticides 10.1 liberty link

o type of corno kills everything except what’s programed to resist it

Problems to pesticides Monocultures reduce biodiversity and increase susceptibility to

outbreak Pollinators crucial to farming process

o Bee’so Butterflieso Flieso Beatleso Mammals can pollinate

Reading: ecological services Colony collapse disorder Not native 2 species of American bumblebee verge of extinction

Genetically Modified Foods Recombination of DNA biotechnology…

o Is used to produce GMOo No imminent health risk

With this approval comes millions of more pounds of toxic herbicides dumped onto our land.

Andrew Kimbrell Meat production increase

9.4 table

10/20/15 2:15 PMcarcinogens-cancer causingmutagens-cause mutations of DNAteratogens- affect development of human embryos

Endocrine disruptors mimic the structure

Food webs can be plagued by the process of biaccumlation and biomagnification

Example pcb’s, ddt, mercury

10/20/15 2:15 PMReading Back

Extincto Strong word

Captive breading programo Final attempt at restorationo Black footed ferret

Breeding 30 years later fate had been wavering

The diet of black footed ferrets is composed primarily of… The major threat to manatees is… This species of wolf was reintroduced to North Carolina The eggshells of bald eagles suffered greatly from this chemical

pollutant…

Rigorous production factoryBuilding human world losing a wild one Cambridge Massachusetts

Manatee

2400 remain threat is boats

1949 trout no longer extinct

Red WolvesChemical Processing in wild

Hidden value to natureEagles weakened eggs by DDT