And something else was happening in that denuded, pine-seedling-only soil. When the raindrops hit it, the water ran off the surface, carrying tiny particles of soil with it. Silt, clay, and humus grains got transported away in rivulets because there were no living leaves or roots to stop them. As the alder-dense plots began gaining water from late August and over the next few months, the bare earth started losing it.
