Compare and contrast the state of soil development at the ...

[AEWBW]

Compare and contrast the state of soil development at the following three locations: mountaintops, foothills, bottomlands.
 
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

The Dust Bowl disaster of the 1930s was one of the greatest ecological and agricultural disasters in American history, resulting in thousands of deaths and a historic mass migration.
 
  The causes of the Dust Bowl, however, were both natural and man-made. Discuss the causes of the Dust Bowl and rate their severity. In your opinion, which do you think were the most powerful and did the most damage to the soil?
  What will be an ideal response?

[juliaf]

Answer to Question 1

Answer: Soil development in the mountaintops would be thin to nonexistent because of the steepness of the slope. Not only is it difficult for water to soak in for chemical weathering, but erosion rates are high. Bottomlands develop thick, dark soils because of the high amount of vegetation and the fact that they are poorly drained. The waterlogged conditions retard the decay of vegetation. Foothills have slopes that are gentler, allowing for the percolation of water and collection of sediment from the slopes above. Soil development will be thicker than the mountaintops and the better drainage and reduced erosion will result in a better-developed soil.

Answer to Question 2

Answer: Answers will vary. Established causes include severe drought; turning under prairie grasses; poor agricultural practices (like extensive plowing, no cover crops, and no crop rotation) that are better suited to more humid climates; windstorms; and few trees planted as windbreaks.

[AEWBW]

Thank you

[juliaf]

Happy to help you