BIOL 350 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Soil Retrogression And Degradation, Crop Yield, Crop
15 Dec 2017
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Document Summary
The current state of civilization- problems of input: Have plants and animals that die and return nutrients to the soil for new plants to grow. Harvesting has resulted in nutrient loss but we have found ways to input more nutrients using fossil fuels (fertilizers with nitrogen that plants can take up) Pesticides (made of fossil fuels) are used to get rid of bugs. Problems that have arisen include volume loos, nutrient loss, polluted water systems, loss of biodiversity and salination. Soil degradation is very high in dry lands, due to salination in irrigation. Africa, middle east and asia are most at risk for soil degradation. Pesticide use has mainly been used in europe and north america because it is expensive and we can afford it. Food crop production has more than doubled and price has been halved since 1960. If you double the number of people you haven"t made much progress.
