Journal
INTERNATIONAL SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION RESEARCH
Volume 6, Issue 1, Pages 63-78Publisher
KEAI PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.iswcr.2017.12.004
Keywords
Soil erosion; Watershed runoff; Soil potential; Soil security; Externality
Categories
Funding
- South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station at South Dakota State University
- College of Agriculture and Biological Sciences at South Dakota State University
- College of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Human Sciences at Texas A&M University-Kingsville
- National Cattlemen's Foundation
- Nature Conservancy
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Despite recent improvements in overall soil health gained through conservation agriculture, which has become a global priority in agricultural systems, soil and water-related externalities (e.g., wind and water erosion) continue to persist or worsen. Using an inductive, systems approach, we tested the hypothesis that such externalities persist due to expansion of cultivation onto areas unsuitable for sustained production. To test this hypothesis, a variety of data sources and analyses were used to uncover the land and water resource dynamics underlying noteworthy cases of soil erosion (either wind or water) and hydrological effects (e.g., flooding, shifting hydrographs) throughout the central United States. Given the evidence, we failed to reject the hypothesis that cultivation expansion is contributing to increased soil and water externalities, since significant increases in cultivation on soils with severe erosion limitations were observed everywhere the externalities were documented. We discuss the case study results in terms of land use incentives (e.g., policy, economic, and biophysical), developing concepts of soil security, and ways to utilize case studies such as those presented to better communicate the value of soil and water resource conservation. Incorporating the tenets of soil potential and soil risk into soil health evaluations and cultivation decision-making is needed to better match the soil resource with land use and help avoid more extreme soil and water-related externalities. (C) 2017 International Research and Training Center on Erosion and Sedimentation and China Water and Power Press.
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