Question

Create a community education flyer on soil. Your flyer should include:
1. What is soil (include composition and how it forms).
2. What processes cause soil erosion (give at least two examples).
3. What can be done to prevent soil erosion (give at least two examples).

Answer 1

This is not exactly a flyer, but I think there is enough info to make one... Here goes:

1. Soil is the uppermost layer of (continental) crust. It contains the final weathered product of rocks. The weathering can be in-situ (on the spot) or ex-situ (transported after weathering).
   Soil is composed of mostly minerals (the exact mineral composition depends on what the parent rock is), organic matter and moisture. Air is also part of the soil, but some schools of thought do not agree on this point.

Soil is formed when rocks weather either physically, chemically or biologically to give fine particles which are either deposited on spot, or are transported by water, air or other biological means. These are then acted upon by biotic aspects of an ecosystem, such as decomposition to add the organic matter.

2. Soil erosion is the process of displacement of the upper layer of soil. Soil erosion is a natural process which can be amplified by human interference or can be completely human-induced.
   Soil is naturally eroded by water flow, such as rivers, streams or rainwater runoff. The wind can also erode soil where winds are strong and prominent. Agricultural process or construction processes are human processes that actively displace soil, which is technically erosion of soil.

3. Soil erosion is a natural process and it can’t be completely prevented as such, and it is probably a bad idea to prevent it from happening at all. But we can control how much erosion happens, so as to avoid landslides or losing the nutrition from the soil.
   

• Afforestation is a great way to reduce soil erosion. Plants, trees and grass roots actually hold the soil together and slow down the flow of water, reducing erosion.
• Reducing the amount of earth moving activity near erosion prone areas will help a lot.
• Road cuts should be reinforced with meshing to avoid erosion of soil. And at the same time providing ample place for runoff will be helpful too.