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Corn belt has lost a 3rd of its topsoil + Only 3% of land surface ecologically intact

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(terra firma fashions) Just 3 percent of Earth’s land surface is still ecologically intact
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidbressa...e749f27304

INTRO: Most of Earth’s terrestrial habitats have lost their ecological integrity, including areas previously categorised as being intact, a study published in the journal Frontiers in Forests and Global Change shows.

The study analyzed three factors to assess the integrity and intactness of Earth's ecosystems. The extent to which people have made changes to the land, the number of animal species lost from a habitat, and the number of individuals of a key species - a species needed in an functioning ecosystem - still present. Previous surveys often overlooked the last two factors.

"We know intact habitat is increasingly being lost, and the values of intact habitat have been demonstrated for both biodiversity and people," lead study author Andrew Plumptre, biodiversity expert at the University of Cambridge's Conservation Research Institute, said in a news release. "But this study found that much of what we consider as intact habitat is missing species that have been hunted by people, or lost because of invasive species or disease."

Previous efforts to quantify and map ecosystem integrity have focused exclusively on the influence of human activity — including the incursion of human settlements, roads and light and noise pollution — on ecosystems all over the world. Estimates suggest between 20 and 40 percent of terrestrial habitat is free from human influence... (MORE)


(depleted life styles) The nation’s corn belt has lost a third of its topsoil
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-n...180977485/

EXCERPT: . . . But centuries of farming those hills have taken their toll on the soil. Now, farmers like Watkins are facing widespread soil degradation that can lower their crop yields and incomes. “In 150 years or so, we’ve lost over half of that rich topsoil—if not all in some places.”

Crops hunger for the carbon-packed composition of rich topsoil. They need the nutrients and water that it stores, unlike the compacted, infertile soils that decades of conventional farming create.

The baseline for soil in Iowa is visible on land owned by Jon Judson, a sustainable farmer and conservation advocate. His farm hosts a rare plot of original prairie grasses and wildflowers. Under the prairie, the soil is thick and dark, with feet of organic matter built up and plenty of moisture. The next field over is a recovering conventional field like Watkins’ farm, and the effect of years of conventional practices is obvious. The soil is pale and compacted, with only a few inches of organic carbon, much less soil moisture, and a lot more clay.

Scientists and farmers know that agricultural soil erosion has been a problem for decades, but quantifying soil loss from a hundred years of farming and across multiple states has proven difficult. Now a study led by geomorphologist Evan Thaler and published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in February attempts to answer the elusive question of how much topsoil has been eroded in the Corn Belt, which stretches roughly from Ohio to Nebraska and produces 75 percent of the nation’s corn. The study estimated that about 35 percent of the region has lost its topsoil completely, leaving carbon-poor lower soil layers to do the work of supporting crops. Having thick, healthy topsoil means plants can grow faster and healthier, increasing crop yields and keeping the field’s ecosystem running smoothly. Topsoil loss creates environmental problems, such as when eroded, nutrient-laden dirt degrades streams and rivers, and is estimated to cost the Midwest’s agricultural industry almost $3 billion annually.

“I think it’s probably an underestimate,” says Thaler, a graduate student at the University of Massachusetts–Amherst. “There are areas where there’s probably a centimeter of topsoil left.” (MORE - details)
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