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It's very hard for scientists to find the effect agriculture has had on land because of the time spand. Recently students form the University of Missouri have found a way to see the changes agriculture has had on land. Using a detailed computer model they have entered data for every year through a time spand of a 100 years to see the changes and effects. By doing this project and using this regularly farmers and scientists can see what is happening to the quality of land and water as they use the land. The students first took measurments of soil from 80 acres of Misouri farmland that had been used for ag
riculture over a centuary long, and then land that had
never been cultivated on. These would serve as before and after snapshots in their later testing. They also used silite pictures that had been taken between 1930 and 1990. When they incorperated the data into the program they were able to calculate runn off's,
erosion and flow of sediment. After the 100 year simulation the model showed that there was and 82 percent increase in herbicide atrizine in runoff. This showed that the land would be benifical to enlarge yeild crop use but also reduce non point source of pollution. All the different testes and findings can help farmers, policymakers nad conservation agents make better desicions about the land. Conservation agents can't replace soil that has been lost over time, but they can return properties such as the soil's water infiltration capacity to something closer to the original state. Through studies like this one at MU, new tools are being made to help control erosion, maintain soil productivity, protect watersheds and enhance wildlife habitat.
Reaction: I thought this was really interesting how they used this program to see how land has changed over a hundred years. Obviously it will not be perfectly acurate because they used to different places that might not be fully the same but their information still could be accurate. I believe farmers and the people who decide what is aloud to be done to the land need to make sure the land use will be good in the future. Even though over time we might have used land badly and did not the use the soil as well as we should have but we can fix that. By returning properties back to the soil after we use it we will be able to keep cultivating land for a long time and not wasting the land we use.
Questions:
1. Where did this project take place at?
2. What did they use as a before and after shot for their project?
3. Who are the three types of people that this data coud help?
4. What can conservation agents do to the soil instead of replacing it?
