The hydrological role of tropical forests as compared
with deforested landscapes has been a source of considerable
controversy during the past century because forests, although
they are recognized to have many benefits, such as carbon
storage, biodiversity, and landscape aesthetics, almost universally consume more water than deforested landscapes (Bruijnzeel, 2004; Jackson and others, 2005). In seasonal-climate
regions, this excess consumption of water can be mitigated if
pedogenic processes characteristic of forests promote sufficient infiltration such that groundwater reserves under forests
exceed those under deforested landscapes—the “sponge
effect” of Bruijnzeel (2004).