© SCHEUFLER COLLECTION/CORBIS
© JOHN KIMBLE/USDA
UNITED STATES CENTRAL & EASTERN EUROPE
erosion compaction
Decades of water erosion on tilled fields has Soviet-era intensive tillage has left 11% of
degraded soil across the Midwest and Great topsoil across Central and Eastern Europe too
Plains, although no-till agriculture has recently densely packed to allow sufficient water and
stemmed losses. nutrients to reach plant roots.
WESTERN EUROPE
sealing
Covering of soils with buildings and roads has
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put beyond use large swaths of prime soil
in European cities.
© MARTIN JONES; ECOSCENE/CORBIS
Soil and Trouble
WHEN PEOPLE INTENSIVELY TILL FIELDS
and clear-cut forests, they can damage or de-
stroy topsoil that took centuries to accumu-
late. Just how vulnerable soils are depends on
underlying conditions. Mismanaged soils in
windswept lands can easily turn into desert,
for example, and saline soils can become
salt-encrusted wastelands.
This map shows the main barriers to pro-
ductive farming, along with erosion risk, de-
AMAZON Slash-and-burn
rived from climatic and soil conditions. Over- erosion agriculture in the
Amazon exposes
laid as cross-hatching are regions reported to poor tropical soils
be highly or very highly degraded according to that can sustain
crops for only a
a global survey of soil experts published in few years before
nutrients wash
1990. The hot spots illustrate examples of the
© GETTY IMAGES
away.
worst soil degradation, from the most com-
mon physical type—water erosion—to chemi- PHYSICAL DEGRADATION
cal forms, such as that caused by pollution
CHEMICAL DEGRADATION
from industrial chemicals and war.
An interactive version of this map appears Climate Constraints
High and very high levels of
High temperatures
online at www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/ soil degradation per Global
Assessment of Soil Seasonal cold
summary/304/5677/1614.
Degradation (GLASOD) Seasonally excess water
SOURCES: Adapted from Major Land Resource Constraints map created April Seasonal dryness
2004 by P. Reich and H. Eswaran of USDA/NRCS Soil Survey Division, World Soil Highly erodable by wind or water
Resources, Washington, D.C., from WSR Soil Climate Map and FAO Soil Map of Continuous cold
the World, 1995. GLASOD data (L. R. Oldeman et al., 1991) provided by
K. Sebastian, IFPRI. Data on compaction in Europe from SOVEUR/ISRIC (2000).
Few constraints Continuous dryness
© MUTSUMI Y. STONE
© AFP/GETTY IMAGES
KAZAKHSTAN & UZBEKISTAN
IRAQ pollution pollution, desertification CHINA
During the first Gulf War, 40 million tons of Shrinkage of the Aral Sea, due to diversion of desertification
Kuwaiti soil were drenched with oil. Experts water from its tributaries, has exposed a sea- The expansion of
© RICKY WONG
fear that soils in Iraq are being damaged by bed laced with fertilizers and pesticides. The deserts due to farm-
fuel and other chemicals spilled during the tainted dust is picked up by the wind and ing and grazing stokes
current conflict. poisons farmland. the country’s famous
dust storms.
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© CHI-HUA HUANG
CHINA erosion
1.6 billion tons of soil per year wash into
the Yellow River from China’s Loess Plateau,
which has the highest rates of water erosion
in the world.
HIMALAYAS erosion
Overgrazing and
© WILDCOUNTRY/CORBIS
deforestation have
spurred widespread soil
erosion in the lower
Himalaya Mountains,
where natural rates
are already high because
of monsoonal rains.
AUSTRALIA
SUB-SAHARAN
AFRICA salinization
© VINCE STREANO/CORBIS
Removal of vegetation
© CSIRO LAND & WATER
nutrient depletion has allowed the water
Fields rarely left fallow table to lift underlying
and the scavenging of salts, leading to barren
vegetation and dung landscapes such as this
have conspired to mine one in Western Australia’s
the soil of nutrients. wheat belt.
Physical Constraints Chemical Constraints
High shrink/swell potential Low organic matter High phosphorus, nitrogen, and organic retention
Minor root restricting layer High anion exchange capacity High organic matter
Low structural stability High aluminum Salinity/alkalinity
Impeded drainage Calcareous, gypseous condition
NOTE: Acid sulfate condition (0.09% of total map area)
Low water holding capacity Low nutrient holding capacity and steep lands (obscured by erosion risk) are not shown.
Shallow soils Low moisture and nutrient status
Soil and Trouble
Science 304 (5677), . DOI: 10.1126/science.304.5677.1614
View the article online
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.304.5677.1614
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© 2004 American Association for the Advancement of Science
