Questions: What happened to the soil in the Dust Bowl as a result of over-farming?
It was replenished with more nutrients.
It lost many of its nutrients.
It grew an abundance of food.
Transcript text: What happened to the soil in the Dust Bowl as a result of over-farming?
It was replenished with more nutrients.
It lost many of its nutrients.
It grew an abundance of food.
Solution
The answer is the second one: It lost many of its nutrients.
Explanation for each option:
It was replenished with more nutrients. This option is incorrect. Over-farming, especially without proper crop rotation and soil management practices, typically depletes the soil of nutrients rather than replenishing them. The Dust Bowl was characterized by poor agricultural practices that led to soil degradation.
It lost many of its nutrients. This option is correct. The Dust Bowl was a period during the 1930s when severe dust storms greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the US and Canadian prairies. Over-farming, combined with drought, led to the loss of topsoil and nutrients, making the land less fertile.
It grew an abundance of food. This option is incorrect. The Dust Bowl was marked by a significant decline in agricultural productivity due to the loss of fertile soil. The land was unable to support abundant crop growth during this period.
In summary, the over-farming practices during the Dust Bowl led to the soil losing many of its nutrients, contributing to the agricultural and ecological disaster of that era.