Chapter 9

Question 1

agriculture

Answer 1

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

Question 2

bedrock

Answer 2

the continuous mass of soil rock that makes up the earth’s crust

Question 3

conservation districts

Answer 3

are within each county and promote soil-conservation practices

Question 4

Conservation Reserve Program

Answer 4

established in the 1985 farm bill, pays farmers to stop cultivating highly erodible cropland and instead place it in conservation reserves planted with grasses and trees.

Question 5

Crop rotation

Answer 5

the practice of alternating the kind of crop grown in a particular field from one season or year to the next.

Question 6

Contour farming

Answer 6

consists of plowing furrows sideways across a hillside, perpendicular to its slope and following the natural contours of the land, to help prevent formation of rills and gullies.

Question 7

Terracing

Answer 7

transforms slopes into series of steps like a staircase, enabling farmers to cultivate hilly land without losing huge amounts of soil to water erosion.

Question 8

intercropping.

Answer 8

The planting of different types of crops in alternating bands or other spatially mixed arrangements

Question 9

Shelterbelts

Answer 9

rows of trees or other tall plants that are planted along the edges of fields to break the wind.

Question 10

Conservation tillage

Answer 10

an array of approaches that reduce the amount of tilling relative to conventional farming.

Question 11

irrigation

Answer 11

artificial provision of water

Question 12

waterlogging

Answer 12

Soils too saturated with water,which damages both soil and roots.

Question 13

salinization

Answer 13

the buildup of salts in surface soil layers.

Question 14

Inorganic fertilizers

Answer 14

are mined or synthetically manufactured mineral

supplements.

Question 15

Organic fertilizers

Answer 15

consist of the remains or wastes of organisms and include animal manure, crop residues, fresh vegetation (green manure), and compost, a mixture produced when decomposers break down organic matter, including food and crop waste, in a controlled environment.

Question 16

overgrazing.

Answer 16

When too many livestock eat too much of the plant cover, impeding plant regrowth and preventing the replacement of biomass

Question 17

Natural Resources Conservation Service

Answer 17

In 1994, the SCS was renamed the, and its responsibilities were expanded to include water quality protection and pollution control.

Question 18

Desertification

Answer 18

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

Question 19

Erosion

Answer 19

the removal of material from one place and its transport toward another via wind or water.

Question 20

what is the cause of erosion?

Answer 20

Erosion can occur in several ways, including wind erosion and four principal kinds of water erosion (splash, sheet, rill, and gully).

Question 21

Land degradation

Answer 21

a general deterioration of land that diminishes its productivity and biodiversity, impairs the functioning of its ecosystems, and reduces the ecosystem services that the land offers.

Question 22

Soil with an even mixture of the three particle sizes is known as…

Answer 22

loam

Question 23

Clay

Answer 23

particles less than 0.002 mm in diameter

Question 24

silt

Answer 24

particles 0.002–0.05 mm

Question 25

sand

Answer 25

particles 0.05–2 mm.

Question 26

horizon

Answer 26

each layer of soil is termed a horizon

Question 27

soil profile.

Answer 27

the cross-section as a whole,

from surface to bedrock

Question 28

leaching,

Answer 28

the process whereby solid particles suspended or dissolved in liquid are transported to another location

Question 29

topsoil.

Answer 29

A crucial horizon for agriculture and ecosystems, the A horizon

Question 30

weathering

Answer 30

This is the physical, chemical, and/or biological process that converts large rock particles into smaller particles, the first step in the formation of soil

Question 31

Parent material

Answer 31

is the base geological material in a location. It may be composed of lava or volcanic ash, rock or sediment deposited by glaciers, wind-blown dunes, or sediments deposited by rivers, in lakes, or in the ocean.

Question 32

industrial agriculture

Answer 32

enabled farmers to replace horses and oxen with faster and more powerful means of cultivating, harvesting, transporting, and processing crops

Question 33

monoculture.

Answer 33

the uniform planting of a single crop

Question 34

The green revolution

Answer 34

applied technology to boost crop yields in developing nations.

Question 35

Traditional agriculture

Answer 35

needed human and animal muscle power, hand tools, and simple machines

Question 36

cropland

Answer 36

land used to raise plants for human use.

Question 37

Rangeland, or pasture

Answer 37

is the land used for grazing livestock.

Question 38

Soil

Answer 38

a complex system of disintegrated rock, organic matter, water,
gases, nutrients, and microorganisms.

Question 39

no- till farming

Answer 39

rather than plowing after each harvest, crop residues were left atop their fields, keeping the soil covered with plant material at all times