Conservation Implications of Climate Change: Soil Erosion and Runoff from Cropland
The Soil and Water Conservation Society reviewed the literature and with an expert panel produced a report that connects climate change as a possible cause for set backs in progress, affecting water quality and preservation of soil resources. The report also gives suggestions of what needs to happen to circumvent these setbacks. Suggestions include a new way for conservation planning and highlights areas that more information is needed.
To view the Executive Summary, click here.
To view the full report, click here.
Press Release (January 2003)
A changing climate appears to be producing more frequent rainstorms and more intense rainstorms in many parts of the United States. If those precipitation patterns continue, more soil erosion on the nation’s agricultural cropland and increased water pollution is likely to result, according to a report released today by an international conservation organization.
In a study of projected climate change using mathematical models and examination of precipitation patterns in the United States over the past century, the Soil and Water Conservation Society (SWCS) suggests that conservationists, farmers, and the public should be concerned.
“Unless additional protective measures are taken soon,” said Craig Cox, executive director of SWCS, “increases in soil erosion and runoff from cropland could reverse much of the progress that we’ve made in reducing soil degradation and water pollution in recent decades.”
“This likely will require a rethinking of agricultural conservation policies and programs,” Cox added.
The report, “Conservation Implications of Climate Change: Soil Erosion and Runoff from Cropland,” identifies three promising approaches to begin adapting conservation policy and programs to changing climate and precipitation patterns.
First, climatic parameters in conservation planning tools need to be updated immediately. Efforts are already underway in this area, Cox said.
Second, targeted investigations need to be undertaken to estimate better just what damage might occur to cropland under different precipitation patterns.
Third, conservationists need to evaluate the benefits of building the risk of damage from severe rainstorms into conservation planning through new risk-based assessments tied to particular conservation systems and the environmental outcomes of those systems.
The report notes that mathematical models predict large changes in future precipitation patterns. More importantly, the report says, the climate record for the past century shows that changes in precipitation patterns already are occurring. These changes have been particularly evident in precipitation records since 1970, according to the report.
The greatest changes have occurred in the Southwest and in a broad region of the country from the central Great Plains, across the Mississippi River, and into the southern Great Lakes Basin. According to the report, increases in soil erosion ranging from 4 percent to 95 percent and increases in stormwater runoff from cropland ranging from 6 percent to 100 percent could already be evident in some locations.
The report also notes that the risk posed to cropland by the changing precipitation patterns increases at a greater rate than the increases in precipitation amount or intensity. Just how much this added risk translates into greater soil degradation and water pollution, the report acknowledges, depends on a host of factors, including landscape features and how the land is used and managed.
