How can deforestation cause soil erosion?
Roots protect the soil from wind and water erosion and help hold it together. Edit: I’m not in the mood to elaborate, I’ll let oldhag have this one. Bah, I found a source for you. It has some good information and good pics of soil in an estuary in Madegascar. “The loss of trees, which anchor the soil with their roots, causes widespread erosion throughout the tropics. Only a minority of areas have good soils, which after clearing are quickly washed away by the heavy rains. Thus crop yields decline and the people must spend income to import foreign fertilizers or clear additional forest. Costa Rica loses about 860 million tons of valuable topsoil every year, while the Great Red Island, Madagascar, loses so much soil to erosion (400 tons/ha) that its rivers run blood-red, staining the surrounding Indian Ocean. Astronauts have remarked that it looks like Madagascar is bleeding to death, an apt description of a country with grave environmental degradation and an ever-declining agricultural
