How does deforestation result in soil infertility?

How does deforestation result in soil infertility?
Monday, July 09, 2007
Discover-It Blogspot

rizwan: does cutting of trees and deforestation result in soil infertility? How?

This needs a bit of longish answer. If you are having some natural sciences background, it would be easy to understand. But the following stuff that I found on the Net is very easy to comprehend. Take a look:

Rainforest microbes are extremely efficient at breaking down and recycling
waste organic matter - the leaf litter and layers of detritus on the ground. When there is deforestation, almost no nutrients reach the forest soil and it is consequently poor. Removal of the trees allows the soil to dry out and the little humus that exists to deteriorate. This causes the rainforest microbes to die and the soil becomes largely inert, biologically. The degraded soil is also prone to erosion by wind and when land floods, it can be washed away.

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