Chapter 9 #1-22

Question 0

Crop land

Answer 0

Land used to raise plants for human use.

Question 1

Agriculture

Answer 1

The practice of raising crops and livestock for human use and consumption.

Question 2

Industrialized agriculture

Answer 2

Boosts yields by intensifying irrigation and introducing synthetic fertilizers. While the advent of chemical pesticides reduced competition from weeds and herbivore by crop pests.

Question 3

Bedrock

Answer 3

The continuous mass of solid rock that makes up earths crust.

Question 4

Erosion

Answer 4

The dislodging and movement of soil from one area to another.

Question 5

Horizon

Answer 5

Each layer of soil.

Question 6

O horizon

Answer 6

Litter layer. Consists mostly of organic matter deposited by organisms.

Question 7

A horizon

Answer 7

Top soil. Consists of some organic material mixed with mineral components

Question 8

E horizon

Answer 8

Minerals and organic matter tend to leach out

Question 9

B horizon

Answer 9

Subsoil. Where minerals and organic matter accumulate

Question 10

C horizon

Answer 10

Consists largely of weathered parent material unaltered or only slightly altered by the process of soil formation.

Question 11

R horizon

Answer 11

Pure parent material

Question 12

Clay

Answer 12

Consists of particles less than 0.002 mm in diameter

Question 13

Desertification

Answer 13

A loss of more than 10% productivity due to erosion, soil compaction, forest removal, overgrazing, drought, salinization, climate change, depletion of water sources, and other factors.

Question 14

Dust bowl

Answer 14

The most affected region in the southern Great Plains

Question 15

Conservation districts

Answer 15

Operate with federal direction, authorization, and funding, but they are organized by states.

Question 16

Crop rotation

Answer 16

Farmers alternate the type of crop grown in a given field from one season or year to the next.

Question 17

Contour farming

Answer 17

Consists of plowing furrows sideways across hillside, perpendicular to its slope, to help prevent formation of rills and gullies

Question 18

Fertilizer

Answer 18

Any various substances that contain essential nutrients

Question 19

Cation exchange

Answer 19

Process by which plants roots donate hydrogen ions to the soul in exchange for cations. The soul particles then replenish these cations by exchange with soil water

Question 20

Green revolution

Answer 20

During half the 20th century it has dramatically increased cell yields produced per unit area of farmland.

Question 21

Humus

Answer 21

A dark, spongy, crumbly mass of material made up of complex organic compounds, resulting from the partial decomposition of organic matter