Forests do more than store carbon; their root systems and canopy structure regulate how rainfall infiltrates soil, recharges groundwater and feeds the smaller rivers that larger ones depend on. Where large-scale deforestation has occurred, downstream communities have reported both flashier floods after rain and drier dry seasons, evidence of a hydrological cycle that forest cover once smoothed out.

Which one of the following is the most critical inference that can be made from the passage given above?