If I grow grass then the soil will erode less than if there is only soil or if there is soil and wood chips or soil and rocks because the roots help hold the soil together. That is why vegetation is recommended to stop soil erosion. If I plant soil then it will erode the most because there is nothing holding all the soil particles together. Once it rains most of the soil will get displaced because there are no heavy items on top such as rocks or wood chips, nor are there roots holding the soil together. Wood chips and rocks will not erode a lot nor will they erode very less.

Research Questions:

1. What is soil erosion?
2. What causes soil erosion?
3. Why is soil erosion damaging?
4. What are the major issues related to soil erosion?
5. Is there anything people can do to prevent soil erosion?
6. Why is it important to prevent soil erosion?
7. What is the difference between soil erosion and wind erosion?
8. Which organizations are trying to prevent soil erosion?
9. What does Weaselhead do to prevent soil erosion?

 

What is Soil Erosion:  

Soil erosion is a gradual process of wearing away a surface’s topsoil. It occurs when rocks and soil are worn away over time with water. Water causes erosion because it removes the soil particles, although more soil will wash away if there is a sloped surface.

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1. https://crops.extension.iastate.edu/encyclopedia/soil-erosion-agricultural-production-challenge#:~:text=Soil%20erosion%20is%20a%20gradual,have%20become%20severe%20problems%20worldwide

What causes Soil Erosion:

Soil erosion mostly occurs when dirt gets exposed to strong winds, rainfalls, and even flowing water. It can also be because there is less vegetation or mining, farming, or construction nearby. The most surprising cause is that even just human activities can remove soil particles by cutting down the vegetation when clearcutting. Soil erosion is hard to prevent as it mainly matters on the weather which is something we cannot always control.

2. https://www.nrdc.org/stories/soil-erosion-101#causes

 

Why is Soil Erosion Damaging:    

Soil erosion is damaging because land cannot be used as much for agriculture as we lose some of our agricultural land, it also pollutes waterways, the way water flows will change, and flooding can become more of an often natural disaster because of the way water flows during soil erosion. These four damages can end up being really terrible, although soil erosion sometimes has smaller effects than other times.

3. https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/soil-erosion-and-degradation#:~:text=The%20loss%20of%20fertile%20soilpotentially%20making%20flooding%20more%20common.

What are the major issues related to soil erosion:

Soil erosion is a process that takes a while to occur, but once it occurs there are many issues such as loss of agricultural land, water flows changing, flooding becomes more common, loss of topsoil, and soil particles get removed. Once the soil particles get removed when it rains the next time it will erode even more. We should all try to prevent soil erosion so that none of these issues occur as they can be very dangerous sometimes.

4. https://www.ontario.ca/page/soil-erosion-causes-and-effects#:~:text=Soil%20compaction%2C%20low%20organic%20matter,accelerate%20the%20soil%20erosion%20process.

 

Is there anything people can do to prevent Soil Erosion:    

We can prevent soil erosion by making sure that there is perennial vegetation planted all over our land. We can help doing this by mulching or even just by placing something such as crushed stone or wood chips in places where it is hard to grow vegetation or if there is a shortage of water and they cannot water all of their plants. For something to cover the land in the winter you could also plant a cover crop.

5. https://web.uri.edu/safewater/protecting-water-quality-at-home/sustainable-landscaping/reduce-soil-erosion/#:~:text=You%20can%20reduce%20soil%20erosion,provide%20a%20temporary%20vegetative%20cover.

Why is it important to prevent Soil Erosion:    

It is super important that we try to prevent soil erosion because flooding will become a lot more common. Heavy layers of sediment will cause the streams and rivers to stop running smoothly. Nothing will be there to make sure the river does not get out of control because then we will not be safe where we live. It will also ruin the land that we use for agriculture.

6. https://www.wri.org/insights/causes-and-effects-soil-erosion-and-how-prevent-it#:~:text=Soil%20erosion%20decreases%20soil%20fertility,more%20likely%20to%20happen%20again.

What is the difference between soil erosion and wind erosion:

Soil erosion is a process that happens gradually when topsoil wears away. It happens because soil particles get removed from the rest of the soil that did not erode. Soil erosion happens when there is rainfall or if the land is on a slope. Wind erosion is also a negative effect because it rolls away soil particles, although it is caused by wind instead of rainfall. Wind erosion is also very dangerous since it can also cause natural disasters such as a dust storm.

1. https://crops.extension.iastate.edu/encyclopedia/soil-erosion-agricultural-production-challenge#:~:text=Soil%20erosion%20is%20a%20gradual,have%20become%20severe%20problems%20worldwide.

7. https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/topics/land-and-soil/soil-degradation/wind-erosion#:~:text=It%20can%20cause%20significant%20economic,air%20to%20create%20dust%20storms.

Which organizations are trying to prevent soil erosion:

There are many places in Calgary where soil erosion is evident and organizations such as Erosion control central, Landloc environmental products, Acre prime, and Calgary lawn solutions are trying to prevent soil erosion. These organizations are trying to find different ways to stop soil erosion and seeing if those ways are effective

 

Variables:

Controlled Variables:

• Amount of soil (4 cups)
• Amount of water I pour(3 cups)
• Same brand of soil (Schultz)
• Speed I pour the water (Medium speed)

 

Independent (Manipulated) Variable:

• How much vegetation there is

 

Dependent (Responding) Variable:

• How much soil is displaced

 

Getting materials ready:

2 litre pop bottle:

1. Cut the side of the pop bottle with scissors
2. Do  step 1 to all 16 pop bottles

500 ml bottle:

1. Cut half of the bottle of with scissors - Use the bottom half
2. Cut two holes with the scissors on each side of the bottle
3. Put string through the holes
4. Do step 1 through 3 to all 16 of the 500 ml bottles

 

Planting:    

Pour 4 cups of soil in all 16 pop bottles

1. Plant ½ cup of grass seeds in four of 16 pop bottles
2. Pour 2 cups of wood chips in four of 16 pop bottles
3. Pour 1 ½ cups of rocks in four of 16 pop bottles
4. Pour 2 cups of water at first in all the pop bottles
5. Pour 2 tablespoons of water in all of the pop bottles every other day
6. Continue step 6 for 16 days

Experiment:

1. Gather materials
2. Pour 4 cups of room temperature water with a watering can
3. Start 2 minute timer
4. Pour water and soil into the coffee filter 
5. Measure how much soil poured into the coffee filter with measuring spoons
6. Weigh the soil that came out
7. Record data
8. Repeat steps 2 through 7 for all the pop bottles doing four trials

Observations: 

Today I planted rocks, wood chips, grass, and soil. I also poured 2 cups of water in them with a measuring cup. These pictures are from before I watered them. I planted everything and I observed that the levels and weight of the bottle was different according to what I planted. 

 

 

Observations: 

These are pictures of wood chips, grass, rocks, and soil on day 3 after I watered them. I observed that the grass started to have minimal growth and all the other things l looked the same as the day I planted them.

 

 

Observations: 

These are pictures of wood chips, grass, rocks, and soil on day 5 after I watered them. I observed that the grass started growing quite a bit as well as the wood chips started to get a little moldy because of all the moisture coming from the water.

 

 

Observations: 

These are pictures of wood chips, grass, rocks, and soil on day 7 after I watered them. I observed that more and more grass was growing as well as mold on the wood chips. There was a severe change in growth for the grass except for one bottle.

 

 

Observations: 

These are pictures of wood chips, grass, rocks, and soil on day 9 after I watered them. I observed that some of the rocks looked wet and others didn’t as much. My third bottle caught up on growth so now they are all equally growing at the same pace.

 

 

Observations:

These are pictures of wood chips, grass, rocks, and soil on day 11 after I watered them. I observed that the roots on the grass started to grow lots so I knew that 16 days of growing would be perfect.

 

 

Observations: 

These are pictures of wood chips, grass, rocks, and soil on day 13 after I watered them.

I observed that the grass was really tall, although the wood chips were getting really moldy.

 

 

Observations: 

These are pictures of wood chips, grass, rocks, and soil on day 15 after I watered them. I observed that all four pop bottles were ready for the experiment as the grass was tall and the wood chips stopped molding.

 

 

 

 

Experiment: 

Today I did trial 1 and recorded my data onto a google spreadsheet.In trial 1 I observed that the water in the wood chips was a lot dirtier than I was expecting. The grass water was really clean other than a little bit of soil. I think the wood chips and the rocks weighed so much because there were some rocks and wood in the coffee filter.

 

 

Experiment: 

Today I did trial 2 and recorded my data onto a google spreadsheet. I observed that the soil weighed lots and the wood chip and rocks weight varied very much because no wood chips or rocks eroded during my experiment.

 

Experiment: 

Today I did trial 3 and recorded my data onto a google spreadsheet. I observed that the soil would rise to the top for most of them, although it rose more for the wood chips. This was surprising because it was only happening to the one with wood chips planted in it.

 

Experiment: 

Today I did trial 4 and recorded my data onto a google spreadsheet. I observed that when I looked underneath the pop bottle of the grass, I could see lots of roots which is what holds the soil together, meanwhile the others just had soil with something placed on top. Two small pieces of wood chips also eroded.

 

Data: 

This graph shows the amount of soil that eroded in weight. I measured it by grams. I was really surprised about how the wood chips and rocks both weighed so much, but I am guessing this is because some wood chips and rocks eroded along with the soil.

This graph shows the amount of soil that eroded in weight without any wood chips or rocks. Once again I measured it in grams. The results without rocks or wood chips changed the results a lot and they are now more of what I had expected to see.

 

 

This graph shows how much soil eroded, although this time I measured it in teaspoons. I could not believe that the wood chip results in trial 1 were the same as the soil results in trial 2 and trial 3. The grass for all the trials was really low just like I had expected.

This graph is showing how much soil eroded in teaspoons without wood chips or rocks. The wood chips amount in trial 1 and 4 changed a lot. So did the rocks, but only in trial 1.

This is the average weight of soil that eroded without wood chips or rocks. This is how I thought the average weight graph would look like because the soil one eroded lots and the grass one barely eroded at all. The wood chips and rocks were in between with wood chips preventing soil erosion a little bit more.

This is the average amount of soil erosion that eroded when I measured it with teaspoons. I wanted a second way to measure soil erosion so that I could see it differently. In this graph the grass and wood chips are very similar, although the rocks and soil still have a big difference.

This graph is showing the average measured in teaspoons. In this graph the soil eroded the most, wood chips were third, rocks second, and grass was the best as it barely eroded at all. The thong that made the wood chips eroded more is because in trial 1 it was one teaspoon, so that made a big difference in average which is why I decided to make more graphs without wood chips and rocks.

This is the average amount of soil that eroded and I measured it in grams. The grass was the lowest as it was 1.75 grams and the soil eroded the most with 6.25 grams. Rocks and wood chips had very similar results as the rocks weighed 4 grams and the wood chips weighed 3.5 grams.

 

In conclusion when I planted grass it eroded the least by weight and teaspoons. I also thought that the water looked the cleanest when it had eroded. My bottle with only soil eroded the most for weight, teaspoons, and for a visual aspect because I could see lots of soil chunks. The results of wood chips and rocks did vary according to how I measured them. Wood chips had less weight, although when I measured it in teaspoons it had a little bit more soil eroded then rocks. Rocks had more weight, but for measuring in teaspoons it had less soil than wood chips. My hypothesis was correct because I thought that grass would erode the least and soil would erode the most. Rocks and wood chips were very similar as there were small differences in weight and teaspoons.

 

Erosion is something that can happen everywhere and people need to be aware that there is soil erosion and if we don't try to prevent it we could lose a lot of our soil and flooding will become really common, so we won't be safe where we live. We can prevent soil erosion by planting perrenial vegetation all over our land and if it is hard to grow vegetation due to a water shortage or drout we can mulch with wood chips or rocks as well.

Sources of Error: 

Instrumental:

My instrumental error is that my scale could have been reading incorrectly, such as if it was actually 3 grams, it might have glitched and said 4 grams. I would have recorded 4 grams because I don’t know if the machine is glitching or not. This could have been changing lots of my data as it could have happened multiple times, very few times, or it might have not happened at all.

Environmental:

I only had one environmental error which was having to weigh the wood chips and rocks that would erode in some of my trials, because this was not the same substance as soil it could have changed how the scale was weighing the wood chips and rocks. This is why I thought it would be important to record more data without all of the wood chips and rocks so that it would weigh the same substance and we would be able to see what that graph would look like.

Human:

I had two human errors. The first one was that when there were really small amounts of soil that eroded I might have measured it incorrectly. This could have happened because I didn't have that small of a teaspoon to measure it. Somebody else might think that there was more soil that eroded or less soil that eroded than what I measured. This is why I also measured it by weight and looked at how dirty the water was. The second human error was that I could have been pouring the water at a different pace or in a different spot in the bottle every time. This could affect the erosion because I am pouring it really fast or at the complete front of the bottle, although I tried to keep the pace the same and spread out the water when I poured it.

 

Citations:

1. https://crops.extension.iastate.edu/encyclopedia/soil-erosion-agricultural-production-challenge#:~:text=Soil%20erosion%20is%20a%20gradual,have%20become%20severe%20problems%20worldwide.
2. https://www.nrdc.org/stories/soil-erosion-101#causes
3. https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/soil-erosion-and-degradation#:~:text=The%20loss%20of%20fertile%20soil,potentially%20making%20flooding%20more%20common.
4. https://www.ontario.ca/page/soil-erosion-causes-and-effects#:~:text=Soil%20compaction%2C%20low%20organic%20matter,accelerate%20the%20soil%20erosion%20process.
5. https://web.uri.edu/safewater/protecting-water-quality-at-home/sustainable-landscaping/reduce-soil-erosion/#:~:text=You%20can%20reduce%20soil%20erosion,provide%20a%20temporary%20vegetative%20cover.
6. https://www.wri.org/insights/causes-and-effects-soil-erosion-and-how-prevent-it#:~:text=Soil%20erosion%20decreases%20soil%20fertility,more%20likely%20to%20happen%20again.
7. https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/topics/land-and-soil/soil-degradation/wind-erosion#:~:text=It%20can%20cause%20significant%20economic,air%20to%20create%20dust%20storms.
8. Weasel head:Lisa Dahlseide and Georgia Blum

 

1. Mrs Van den Eynden (My teacher and sceince fair coordinator) - Mrs. Van den Eynden helped me find different ways to measure the soil that was coming out of the 2 litre bottle. She also made sure that my variables, hypothesis, and conclusion were correct and formatted in the correct way. 

2. Mannat (My sister) - Mannat prepared me with question and helped me cut and glue down papers onto my trifold. She also remineded me to right my hypothesis in an if then statement. She made sure that what I answered in my research questions was related enough to my project. She also helped me with making graphs.

3. Karamjot (My Mom) - My Mom took me to the stores I needed to go to and bought me some of the supplies. My Mom also prepared me with question and helped me cut and glue down papers onto my trifold. She also made sure that I answered everything that I needed to.

4. Manpreet (My Dad) - My Dad took me to the stores I needed to go to and bought all the supplies that I needed.

5. Ramneek (My friend) - Ramneek helped me cut the papers I needed for my trifold and prepared me with questions.

6.  Karmin (My cousin) - Karmin asked me questions about my science fair project to help prepare me.

All of these people helped me during this project and this project was an even better success with all of these people helping me throughout it.