Biological soil crusts:
How well do they really protect soil?
by Wilma Keppel
Widely regarded as natural protectors of exposed soil, biological soil crusts are fragile and provide little protection against erosion. Soil crusts usually indicate environmental damage, and can interfere with ecosystem recovery.

Wilma Keppel

Soil crust dry just 1 hour after a rain (light areas). Grass-covered soils in [...] Read more »

Background
Tillage practices greatly affect carbon (C) stocks in agricultural soils. Quantification of the impacts of tillage on C stocks at a regional scale has been challenging because of the spatial heterogeneity of soil, climate, and management conditions. We evaluated the effects of tillage management on the dynamics of soil organic carbon (SOC) in croplands of [...] Read more »

SOIL CONSERVATION
Because soil degradation is often caused by human activity, soil conservation usually requires changes in those activities. Soil conservation is very important to agriculture, so various conservation methods have been devised to halt or minimize soil degradation during farming. These methods include: construction of windbreaks, no-till farming, contour farming, terracing, strip cropping and agroforestry.
Creating [...] Read more »