Reforestation can only partially restore tropical soils

Research team from Göttingen and the USA investigates subsoil in deforested forest areas. Tropical forest soils play a crucial role in providing vital ecosystem functions. They provide nutrients for plants, store carbon and regulate greenhouse gases, as well as storing and filtering water, and protection against erosion. Scientists at the University of Göttingen and the University of Minnesota in the USA have investigated how the properties and ecosystem functions of tropical soils change when forests are cut down, and whether reforestation can reverse such soil degradation. The results of the study are published Reviews Earth & Environment. For the analysis, the team collected data from 130 different studies from 35 tropical countries. Based on this huge amount of data with more than 10,000 individual observations, they compiled the most comprehensive study to date on how soils are affected by deforestation in the tropics and how they recovered after reforestation.