5.4

• Monocropping: growing a single species of crop

  • highly efficient harvest, pesticide, and fertilizer application
  • greatly decreases biodiversity
  • increases soil erosion
  • decreases habitat diversity
• tilling: mixing and breaking up the soil to make planting easier

  • also loosens soil for roots
  • soil erosion by loosening top soil
  • loss of organic matter and topsoil nutrients overtime
  • increased PM in air and sediments in nearby water
• Slash & Burn: cutting down vegatation and burning it to clear land for agriculture and return nutrients in plants to soil

  • deforestation --> loss of habitat, biodiversity, CO2 sequestration, loss of air pollution filtration
  • Release of GHGs
  • increase in PM
  • lowers albedo making area warmer
• Synthetic fertilizers:

  • don't return organic matter to soil; no increased H2O holding capacity and no soil decomposers
  • leaching: water carries excess nutrients into groundwater or into surface water
  • contaminates groundwater, which leads to eutrophication