UK SOIL DEGRADATION Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology July 2006 Number 265

Figure 1 – UK Areas potentially at risk of soil erosion 3

Soil degradation involves both the physical loss (erosion) and the reduction in quality of topsoil associated with nutrient decline and contamination. It affects soil quality for agriculture and has implications for the urban environment, pollution and flooding.

Currently, 2.2 million tonnes of topsoil is eroded annually in the UK and over 17% of arable land shows signs of erosion1. This POSTnote examines the nature and extent of soil degradation in the UK and the

challenges and opportunities for soils in a changing climate.

Eroded soil can be deposited on roads and other infrastructure leading to significant clean-up costs. It can also silt up reservoirs and harbours, reducing the lifetime and adding to the maintenance costs of these structures and put pressure on aquatic life. The costs of damage to agricultural soil in England and Wales have been estimated as £264 million a year and the costs of treating water contaminated with agricultural pollutants as £203 million a year7. As illustrated in Box 2, changes in local land management practices can greatly influence soil erosion by water.

Soil organic matter Organic matter is vital for the physical, chemical and biological functioning of soils. Around 18% of the organic matter present in arable topsoils in 1980 had been lost by 1995. One of the reasons for this was that grasslands were ploughed for arable use. Some experts consider that the amount of organic matter in some soils may now be reaching such low levels that crop production may not be sustainable in the long term. As organic matter declines, so does the soil structure, so that the soil becomes more susceptible to physical erosion. Steps being taken to address loss of organic matter from soils include recycling farm manures, sewage sludge, and composted green wastes in soils. However, injudicious application of these organic materials may lead to diffuse water (nitrate and phosphate) pollution, and air pollution (odour and ammonia). The challenges in future are to maintain and where possible enhance soil organic matter while minimising the polluting effects of applying organic materials.

It has been estimated that 44% of arable land in the UK is at risk of water erosion4. Around 20% of upland peat, shallow, and rocky soils (shown as ‘upland’ on Figure 1) are currently eroding5. An equivalent area of lowland peat is affected by commercial extraction, with impacts for the amount of carbon stored in it (see Box 1). Soil erosion by water in the UK results in loss of productive soil and nutrients in the immediate vicinity (‘on-site’). Further away (‘off-site’), eroded soil can block water courses and drains, affect fisheries, and increase the risk of flooding. http://www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/POST-PN-265.pdf

Operation OASIS Climate Change Solution

Indigenous waste water can be used to support a pilot project, sufficiently large enough to demonstrate both micro and macro climate change resulting from established vegetation and irrigation. Dubai has effluent backed up in road tankers waiting to be emptied. A single skinned redundant tanker could be converted to treat this effluent anaerobically and supply methane gas to the national grid. Thames water is already converting waste water into methane which it feeds directly into the gas mains of London. The effluent that comes from anaerobic treatment is rich in the very nutrients required to terraform desert into tropical rainforest and support agroforestry based practices. After all, desert sand is soil with all of the organic material stripped out by wind and rain erosion. Furthermore the biosolids from anaerobic treatment is 100% safe, containing zero pathogens that pose risk and is exactly what the soils of the Middle East and Africa are lacking.  Egypt believe it or not is currently selling timber products from forest grown by using indigenous waste water in what was once an arid desert. Had they have had the foresight to have planted their forest directly on the coastline. Operation OASIS would be a global project by now. The West is thinking to itself that deserts pose no risk to us and they are so wrong. The dryer these vast regions become ultimately means that more water will fall in other regions and we are already seeing devastating flash floods and massive storm damage. We need to bring the global climate back into stability. Of course nature will do this all by itself once we have unleashed it's full wrath upon the Earth. The dinosaurs managed it and I am sure we will surpass those.

Plant a Coastal Forest on an Arid Coastline to induce rainfall in some of the driest regions on Earth!

Plant a Coastal Forest on an Arid Coastline to induce rainfall in some of the driest regions on Earth!

Andrew FletcherOriginator of Operation OASIS "I Welcome all invitations"

Yes this is achievable using treated waste water, delivered free of charge using the return ballast capacity of super tankers. Does anyone know of a contact who could initiate the planting of a new coastal forest ion an arid coastline? The potential of developing fertile land from sand is enormous. More profit will be generated from the land than from oil! Clouds will not stop at the forest, they will migrate across the land and in doing so lower temperatures. Mankind has excelled in removing vegetation from coastlines. It is time that we excelled in replacing it if we are to address climate change.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHhXqzk7LhE

▶ Rainwater Collection System / Rain Water Harvesting in Spain - YouTube

▶ Rainwater Collection System / Rain Water Harvesting in Spain - YouTube

▶ Rainwater Collection System / Rain Water Harvesting in Spain - YouTube

▶ Rainwater Collection System / Rain Water Harvesting in Spain - YouTube

How can we quench everyone's thirst? The answer to this question is complex but never unsolvable! It falls from the sky and tastes divine compared to mains water which is contaminated with chemicals including fluoride and chlorine. Take the drinks test, place a filter jug out in the rain and compare it's taste with the water from your tap. This is how we now harvest rainwater: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEzhdUhPFn4
What can be done to improve the lives of people affected by water scarcity and contaminated drinking water?  When rain does occur in these regions it rapidly vanishes from the soil due to run off. Water quickly becomes contaminated and rendered dangerous to drink. Unless we encourage peoples to take control of water and mange it responsibly by harvesting this precious life giving requirement for life to sustain people during the dry season, business as usual will continue to cause untold deaths and unimaginable suffering. We have a surplus of used IBC plastic storage tanks that could be put to good use for capturing rainwater and keeping the water safe. These can be buried safely in the soil to keep the water stored clean. Plastic drinking bottles filled with water and left in strong sunlight can kill all pathogens in the water, rendering it safe to drink. Polythene / plastic sheets can be used to channel water into storage containers from roof's and the ground and could suffice to gather and store sufficient water to keep a family alive through the dry season. The cost for this system is negligible.
Harvesting rainwater would help to afford aquifers to replenish.
According to WHO, Water scarcity affects one in three people on every continent of the globe. The situation is getting worse as needs for water rise along with population growth, urbanization and increases in household and industrial uses.

Almost one fifth of the world's population (about 1.2 billion people) live in areas where the water is physically scarce. One quarter of the global population also live in developing countries that face water shortages due to a lack of infrastructure to fetch water from rivers and aquifers.
Water scarcity forces people to rely on unsafe sources of drinking water. It also means they cannot bathe or clean their clothes or homes properly.
Poor water quality can increase the risk of such diarrhoeal diseases as cholera, typhoid fever and dysentery, and other water-borne infections. Water scarcity can lead to diseases such as trachoma (an eye infection that can lead to blindness), plague and typhus.

 http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/water/water_facts/en/index2.html
More about what we can do to restore rainfall in arid coastal regions by delivering treated waste water as ballast in returning bulk shipping to restore coastal forests in some of the driest coastal regions: http://operationoasis.com
Please help others by sharing this video.
Andrew K Fletcher

Poo to combat climate change (ScienceAlert)

Poo to combat climate change (ScienceAlert)

Poo to combat climate change

SciNews  

Wednesday, 18 September 2013

Human waste could be the next weapon in the fight against climate change.
Australia produces almost a third of a million tonnes of ‘biosolids’ – the solid waste left over after sewage treatment – per year. Large heaps are stockpiled round Australia’s cities when they could be helping to lock up our carbon emissions as well as building more fertile soils, Professor Nanthi Bolan of CRC for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment and University of South Australia announced in CleanUp 2013 in Melbourne today.
“Our research shows that if applied to agricultural soils or revegetation projects, biosolids – as well as increasing soil fertility and boosting plant growth – can lock up carbon,” Prof. Bolan says.
“Biosolids contain nitrogen and other nutrients for crop growth, organic matter to improve soil structure, and non-degradable forms of carbon that will stay in the soil for a long time.
“Currently Australia stockpiles about 70,000 tonnes of biosolids a year from its major urban sewage works. This is a huge and valuable resource that is presently largely unused. America, for example, produces 7.5 million tonnes of biosolids a year.”
Prof. Bolan says that because Australian biosolids are generally low in toxic heavy metals – compared with some other countries round the world – they are particularly suitable to be incorporated into agricultural soils.
“The big issue with biosolids is the cost of transporting them to where they will be used and spreading them on the soil. Our research indicates this can be offset not only by the boost to fertility and soil organic structure – but also by its ability to increase carbon retention in the soil.
“In other words you could earn carbon credits by using treated human waste as a soil improver – which would pay for part of the cost of transporting and distributing it.”
Biosolids contain the major nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus, but also micronutrients and trace minerals which are increasingly lacking in the modern Australian diet, and whose lack is now linked to a number of important lifestyle diseases: “By recycling our waste through agriculture, we could in fact be helping to improve the nutritional quality of Australian food, conserving scarce nutrients and improving public health.”
Prof Bolan says that the amount of carbon that can be locked up depends on several variables – how the biosolids were stabilised at the sewage works, the type of crop they fertilise, and the levels of iron and aluminium in the soils, which combine with, and consequently lock up, the carbon in biosolids.
“Up to 30% of biosolids can consist of non-degradable carbon – and we need to encourage the use of the right sorts of processes in our sewage works to maximise this.
“If you used biosolids for tree crops or for landscape revegetation it would then lock up more of the mobile carbon for a much longer time than an annual crop like wheat or canola.
“Some people may not like the idea of using human waste in the food system, but in reality we have done this for thousands of years – and modern biosolids are far cleaner and safer than untreated waste.
“At a time when fertilisers are becoming ever more costly and soils degraded, biosolids offer a major source of low-cost nutrients and a source of better soil quality. However the major barrier till now has been cost associated with transport and spreading.
“The big benefit they offer may be carbon lock-up – and with any form of carbon trading scheme in Australia we could use carbon credits to subsidise this form of soil improvement from an underutilised resource, and use our poo as another way to combat global warming.”
Prof Bolan says that with many resources – including some plant nutrients – expected to peak in the 21st century owing to demand from a growing world population, it makes sense to recycle everything of value – including our own waste.

Planting forests may help overheated reefs › News in Science (ABC Science)

Planting forests may help overheated reefs › News in Science (ABC Science)

News in Science

Planting forests may help overheated reefs

Wednesday, 5 June 2013 Rachel Sullivan
ABC

River run-off: Sediment on Madagascar's reefs is expected to increase by a further 54 to 64 per cent if 10 to 50 per cent of remaining natural forest cover is removed(Source: robas/iStockphoto)

Related Stories

• Local action key to saving reefs, Science Online, 20 May 2013
• Coral cores tell different warming stories, Science Online, 02 Apr 2013
• Study finds weed stunts Caribbean reefs, Science Online, 08 Jun 2012

Any benefit tropical reefs gain from reduced sediment loads caused by a drier climate will be offset by increased sedimentation due to deforestation, Australian scientists have found.

In research published in today's Nature Communications they argue that reafforestation schemes in developing countries would be more effective at protecting reefs from sedimentation damage than other climate change mitigation programs.
The team, led by Joseph Maina from Macquarie University, looked at how a warmer climate would impact sedimentation levels on Madagascar's coral reefs.
They simulated river flow and sediment supply in four river systems adjacent to Madagascar's major coral reef systems under a range of climate change and land use change scenarios.
Sedimentation and poor water quality reduce corals' ability to recover from bleaching events and other temperature related stress, and result in a deterioration in reef structure and reduction in the complexity of the ecological communities that depend on the reef.
Sedimentation levels are affected by the amount of soil removed from the hinterland then transported in rivers.
"Madadascar was used because it covers a wide range of climates from the wet north of the island to the dry south, representing a range of environments, soil types and topographies found in the global tropics," explains Dr Jens Zinke from the University of Western Australia's Oceans Institute.
"The findings are applicable to other regions such as East Africa, the Pacific and Australia."
Their research found that by 2090 all four river systems in Madagascar are likely to experience increased temperatures and rainfall declines due to climate change, resulting in decreased river flows and sediment loads impacting the reefs.

Natural erosion control

Since human settlement, removal of the natural forest cover has increased sediment supply by up to five times pre-settlement levels, so the researchers also looked at the impact reafforestation would have on reducing sediment loads being carried to the reef.
They found that sediment supply is expected to increase by a further 54 to 64 per cent if 10 to 50 per cent of remaining natural forest cover is removed, but could be reduced by up to 68 per cent if the same amount of natural forest is restored.
"Of course, there is no one-size-fits-all solution," says Zinke.
"In the drier south-west of the island where large-scale clearing has already occurred, a much larger effort is needed to create an impact.
"In the wet, mountainous north-east where the steep terrain has resulted in less land clearing, increasing cover by only 10 per cent will have a huge benefit."
But reducing land cover in the same area by only 10 ti 20 per cent will have a disproportionately large impact, he adds.
"While this study didn't take into account the impacts of rising sea surface temperatures on coral reefs, it is clear that focusing on regional land management practices will certainly help mitigate against the impacts of climate change in this region."

Extreme impacts

How applicable the model outcomes from Madagascar will be to other reefs such as the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is uncertain, says marine ecologist Dr Britta Schaffelke, from the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS).
"To my knowledge there are no quantified climate predictions regarding rainfall along the GBR apart from general predictions that climate change will make weather patterns more extreme," she comments.
"If additional land was cleared there is a high likelihood that sediment loads would increase on top of this, which would increase turbidity in the marine environment. But there is no information on what is a more important driver of future sediment runoff, extreme weather or changes in land use and ground cover.
"It would be very interesting to do a similar study for the GBR catchment," she says.