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Forest: Jump To Navigation Jump To Search

The document provides information about forests, including: 1) Forests are large areas dominated by trees, and definitions can vary based on factors like tree density and land use. 2) Forests cover approximately 30% of the world's land and play an important role in the planet's ecosystem by producing a significant portion of biomass. 3) Different types of forests are found at different latitudes and elevations, such as boreal forests near the poles and tropical forests near the equator.

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35 views4 pages

Forest: Jump To Navigation Jump To Search

The document provides information about forests, including: 1) Forests are large areas dominated by trees, and definitions can vary based on factors like tree density and land use. 2) Forests cover approximately 30% of the world's land and play an important role in the planet's ecosystem by producing a significant portion of biomass. 3) Different types of forests are found at different latitudes and elevations, such as boreal forests near the poles and tropical forests near the equator.

Uploaded by

Zoe Fallurin
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Forest
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigationJump to search
This article is about a community of trees. For other uses, see Forest (disambiguation).
For broader coverage of this topic, see Plant community.

A conifer forest in the Swiss Alps (National Park)

The Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York form the southernmost part of the Eastern forest-boreal


transition ecoregion.
Forest on Mount Dajt, Albania

A forest is a large area of land dominated by trees.[1] Hundreds of more precise


definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree
density, tree height, land use, legal standing and ecological function. [2][3][4] According to
the widely used[5][6] Food and Agriculture Organization definition, forests covered 4 billion
hectares (9.9×109 acres) (15 million square miles) or approximately 30 percent of the
world's land area in 2006.[4]
Forests are the dominant terrestrial ecosystem of Earth, and are distributed around the
globe.[7] Forests account for 75% of the gross primary production of the
Earth's biosphere, and contain 80% of the Earth's plant biomass. Net primary
production is estimated at 21.9 gigatonnes carbon per year for tropical forests, 8.1
for temperate forests, and 2.6 for boreal forests.[7]
Forests at different latitudes and elevations form distinctly different ecozones: boreal
forests around the poles, tropical forests around the Equator, and temperate forests at
the middle latitudes. Higher elevation areas tend to support forests similar to those at
higher latitudes, and amount of precipitation also affects forest composition.
Human society and forests influence each other in both positive and negative ways.
[8]
 Forests provide ecosystem services to humans and serve as tourist attractions.
Forests can also affect people's health. Human activities, including harvesting forest
resources, can negatively affect forest ecosystems.

Contents

 1Definition
 2Etymology
 3Evolutionary history
 4Ecology
o 4.1Components
o 4.2Layers
o 4.3Types
 4.3.1Temperate needleleaf
 4.3.2Temperate broadleaf and mixed
 4.3.3Tropical moist
 4.3.4Tropical dry
 4.3.5Sparse trees and parkland
 4.3.6Forest plantations
 5Societal significance
o 5.1Canada
o 5.2Latvia
o 5.3United States
 6See also
 7References
 8External links
Definition[edit]

Forest in the Scottish Highlands

Forest in Kuopio, Finland

Although the word forest is commonly used, there is no universally recognised precise


definition, with more than 800 definitions of forest used around the world. [4] Although a
forest is usually defined by the presence of trees, under many definitions an area
completely lacking trees may still be considered a forest if it grew trees in the past, will
grow trees in the future,[9] or was legally designated as a forest regardless of vegetation
type.[10][11]
There are three broad categories of forest definitions in use: administrative, land use,
and land cover.[10] Administrative definitions are based primarily upon the legal
designations of land, and commonly bear little relationship to the vegetation growing on
the land: land that is legally designated as a forest is defined as a forest even if no trees
are growing on it.[10] Land use definitions are based upon the primary purpose that the
land serves. For example, a forest may be defined as any land that is used primarily for
production of timber. Under such a land use definition, cleared roads or infrastructure
within an area used for forestry, or areas within the region that have been cleared by
harvesting, disease or fire are still considered forests even if they contain no trees. Land
cover definitions define forests based upon the type and density of vegetation growing
on the land. Such definitions typically define a forest as an area growing trees above
some threshold. These thresholds are typically the number of trees per area (density),
the area of ground under the tree canopy (canopy cover) or the section of land that is
occupied by the cross-section of tree trunks (basal area). [10] Under such land cover
definitions, an area of land can only be known as forest if it is growing trees. Areas that
fail to meet the land cover definition may be still included under while immature trees
are establishing if they are expected to meet the definition at maturity. [10]
Under land use definitions,

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